Well.... that was an adventure!

After stocking up with food, diesel and water, on Monday morning we departed Mareeba and drove west to Chillagoe. Here we topped up the fuel tank again (at $1:79.9 cpl ) before tackling the 560km stretch along the Burke Developmental Road to Normanton. We wanted to be sure we were well prepared for this trip as there is no fuel stops, no towns and no mobile coverage at all for the length of the road. So once we left Chillagoe we were on our own...

Not far out of Chillagoe the bitumen ended and we started on the well formed gravel road. We came across a few rough patches where the road had been rutted and had dried out, as well as a few soft and muddy patches which were easily driven through. This was to be expected as the road had just been declared "open" - after the wet season - by Queensland's Main Roads Department, with the notation of "4WD only, with care". All in all the road seemed ok, and the notation from Main Roads started to seem like being a bit over cautious. The Burke Developmental Road passes through a lot of flat country, Savannah country as they call it in the tourist brochures. It is actually, for the most part, quite un-inspiring country. Being so flat and mainly covered in scrubby trees, there are only a few places where the road rises enough to see over the trees and view the landscape. Otherwise you look into the trees and flat grassy areas. So, onward we drove, over a couple of creeks, through some mud, crawled through some rough wash-away sections and swerved our way around countless piles of cattle excrement. That is one thing they fail to mention on the brochures, that the BDR passes through massive, unfenced cattle properties and the cattle have been walking all over the road when it was a mud puddle over the wet season, so some sections are now dried out and are pocketed with millions of hoof prints, making it like driving over a rocky dry creek bed. Also, the cattle are very fond of congregating on the road and using it as a communal toilet, hence the swerving to avoid completely caking the underbody of the Pajero and camper with digested grass....

A short way past Wrotham Park Station, we turned north to take another road that lead to the Mitchell River. I had read that there was a camp spot on the river and was keen to check it out. It was not what I expected, with the only suitable place to camp being on the dry creek bed beside the now subsided river. Camping in a creek bed is not a wise thing to do, so we turned around, got back on the BDR and continued west. Now, when I rang Main Roads to enquire about the road conditions, I was told that the section after Wrotham Park was the section that the "with care" was most relevant, so we proceeded with care. From here the road deteriated rapidly, and some parts were so bad that there were wash-aways that had to be crawled through in first gear, and others that were not obvious until we hit them at 60km/h and felt as if the suspension of the Pajero was torn from under us!! We picked our way through this "road" slowly and we came across a couple at one of the rivers sitting next to their car, the first people we had seen since Chillagoe. We got talking to them and they told us of a camp spot on the Lynd River, not far up the road. We crossed the causeway of the Lynd River and found the track as described. This led us to a nice little spot on the banks of the Lynd River not far from where it meets the Mitchell River. On the map, this spot is almost in the middle of the Cape York Peninsula, from east to west. We camped here for two nights, had a lazy day sitting in the shade and doing a bit of fishing, not very successful fishing though. We find it quite cruel that in places such as this, where it is blue skies, temperature in the high 30's and a nice clean river close, that you can't go for a swim... the crocs like to keep that for themselves...

On Wednesday morning we packed up and continued to do battle with the Burke Develpomental Road. Not long after leaving the Lynd River we came across a section of mud puddles. These were easy enough to get through, but were very soft on the bottom, which required a bit of momentum to keep from being held back by the camper, and momentum means mud sprayed everywhere. The first couple of puddles were a bit of entertainment, but they became more frequent, and bigger. We came across a large, natural billabong on the side of the road filled with water lillies and birds, and we stopped for a few photos. It was a nice change from trees, grassy plains, bumps, mud and cow crap. From here on the road deteriated even further. It was, at times, no more than two mud-filled ruts leading through a paddock with long grass and more mud on the sides. Sometimes the road was indistinguishable from the surrounding area, being completely covered in water and mud. Here we just pointed the car in the line between the long grass and pushed through in first gear, mud tyres churning away for traction, throwing mud and water all over the car and camper. We had not seen another car all day and were plodding along a section of road, when I had a momentary lack of concentration and made a bad decision when approaching a rough section at about 50km/h. I saw a smooth path around the wash-away, to the left. As I moved over on the road, two things happened simultaniously... I felt the left front wheel sink into the road and heard Kathy say, "Watch out for the soft edges!". I pulled the wheel back to the right, felt the road give away under the left of the car, planted the foot and then felt the camper hit the mud and stop us dead - - - - bogged.... proper bogged. Middle of nowhere, 35 degree heat, on our own bogged. No matter, we are prepared for this... right?? I picked out a tree up ahead that we could winch off, Kathy went and wrapped the trunk protector around it while I got to digging the wheels free of mud to make it easier on the winch. I had no sooner done that and rolled out the recovery straps, ready for winching, when we were greeted by the sight of a car coming down the road. This bloke stopped, Bill was his name and he was travelling the opposite direction. He was kind enough to lend a hand and we used the snatch strap to pull the Pajero and camper free, no winching required. Bill stayed for a chat and told us that the road we were heading into was terrible, mud, river crossings, corrugations. We were a bit concerned, but we had already driven through plenty of the above, and his Hilux was not fitted with mud tyres or a working winch (it packed up years ago, apparently, and he hadn't bothered to get it repaired) and he made it.... so haw bad could it be??

Bill went on his way and we continued toward Normanton, contemplating what he had told us. We passed through more muddy, sloshy, corrugated, sandy, rough, cows*** encrusted "road" and it didn't seem much worse than we had previously encountered. Then we came across THE creek. This creek was about 50 metres wide, flowing very slowly and seemed to have a soft, sandy bottom. There was no way to determine the depth of the water and, after much contemplation and discussion, we decided to camp the night nearby and have another look in the morning. The next morning we drove the 100 metres or so back to the creek, nothing had changed. The biggest problem here is that, normally, I would walk across the creek to gauge the depth and bottom conditions, but in northern Queensland there are large 'lizards' that eat people stupid enough to walk a creek crossing. This makes it difficult to judge, and requires a bit of a leap of faith into the crossing, something not easily decided with one vehicle and on your own, getting stuck halfway means getting out of the car to winch, again, the problem with the large bitey reptiles.... I had nearly convinced Kathy that we were going to make it when a vehicle approached us from the same direction. We had not seen another car since Bill left us nearly 24 hours ago, so it was a welcomed sight. The Landcruiser ute pulled up, 3 big dogs in the back and a young guy got out of the cab. He was wearing a large knife and his jeans were splattered in blood. He introduced himself as Mitchell (how funny is that) and he was out here with his dogs hunting pigs, "killed 8 this morning", he said. Mitchell looked at the creek, decided that he wouldn't attempt it without us being there, but if he got stuck then we could pull him out, so why not give it a crack?? He dove into the creek, water swallowing the Cruiser, he was slipping and sliding and pushing hard against the water but he made it through. He yelled out that the bottom was very slippery and there is a hole about halfway across, but if we "keep up it" then we should be ok. Well, time to man up. I attached the snatch strap to the Pajero and rolled it in through the driver's window, in case we got stuck I could throw the strap to Mitchell. Once everything was double-checked it was go time. I rolled the Pajero into the creek in low-range first gear for extra pushing power. The water crept up, we started loosing traction on the soft bottom, then we fell into that hole, water came over the bonnet and splashed up the windsceen and for a second I swear I could see under water..... the Pajero pushed on, we popped out of the hole and climbed onto dry land. Awesome!!! We were stoked!! What a great experience! It was a great relief to be through that creek, and I was glad to know that our concerns were not unfoundered. It was a tricky crossing and it was good to have another vehicle there for assistance if needed. As it turned out, the Pajero performed awesome, and we feel the money spent on the snorkel was money well spent!!

We travelled with Mitchell from then on, covering the last 180 k's or so to Normanton without much incident. We pushed through some stretches of track (I was over calling it a road by now) that were just mud for 400 metres or so, as far as you could see there was slush, but we made it. That's another wonderful purchase we made, the Mickey Thompson mud tyres. We'd have done a lot of digging and winching without them. We were chewing the track apart by driving through it under these conditions and could not believe that Main Roads would declare the road "open" when it obviously shouldn't be... surely one of their road engineers didn't drive this road and think it is ok for travel "with caution"?? More like "with mud tyre and a winch"!!

After nearly 500 km of crap road and punishing the Pajero more than we care to, we came out onto a well graded red dirt road that led us easily onto the bitumen and then into Normanton. We had made it!! Mitchell pulled up at the Albion Hotel and we went in for a counter lunch and a much deserved beer.

It was surely an adventure. At times we wished we had never started across on the Burke Developmental Road, but we were only acting on what we were told by the authorities, which, as it seems, was quite inaccurate information. It was a good trip, regardless. We enjoyed the experience and are now looking forward to heading across the Gulf country and into the Northern Territory. Hopefully the road conditions improve on the BDR...

For now, we are in Normanton for a few days, we'll go to Karumba for a day trip, and do some fishing to try and catch a feed of Barramundi.

'till next time....