Before I begin...an update on the steps I wrote about in the last blog...we decorated them even further....You can't miss them now!
Cape York Odyssey...
The meaning of the word Odyssey is ...a long wandering and eventful journey....
Hans and I both had the chance to take a week off from work so as not to waste an opportunity we packed up our simple camp and headed north in our faithful little Suzy!
Even at this 'late' stage of 'the season'...(May to October) there were still many other vehicles on the road.
Stopped in at the General store come Petrol station in Laura along the Peninsula Development Road to find some hose (to syphon petrol from the spare petrol tank on the roof rack) as we had forgotten ours...the guy who runs the place with his wife, kindly cut a piece off his garden hose and gave it to us as our 'Xmas present'...saying that his garden hose is getting shorter and shorter as we are not the only ones coming in with this request...
He took us round the back of his establishment to cut the hose when we spotted these two tree fern trunk sculptures he had standing in his yard...
He explained he used to be a pilot flying around the Melanesian Islands and had brought these back from an Island called
Abrum...apparently he had a few hassles getting customs to let him bring them into the country.
Further north we came across cattle being mustered along the road by three women on horseback...Hard work on a very hot day!
Needless to say it is very, very dry...having had no rain for months and water is precious...You need to carry enough for your own supply...if you do come across a 'river' still running at this time of the year you certainly wouldn't be wanting to try having a dip to wash the dust off, as all the rivers in Cape York are crocodile habitats. Most 'rivers' now have become waterholes ...
refugal places for birds and animals.
Pulled into
Coen for petrol. The tiny general store there is about the only place you can buy any sort of proper food before
Weipa 263
kms north (if you are of course going to
Weipa which we were not).
The pub next door.. The Exchange...had been given a slight name change by someone with a sense of humour!
The Peninsula Development Road has improved immensely (condition wise) since Hans used to take tours up to the Tip in the early 80's...Big money has been spent and is still being spent on upgrading the road so we managed to get as far as the
Wenlock River Crossing the first day.(The
Wenlock River was formerly known as The
Batavia River) on the Portland Road.
Found a beautiful place under Mango trees on a clearing well above the
Wenlock River edge.
When you see mango trees out in the countryside anywhere, but especially in Far North
Qld...it gives you a hint that someone lived there long ago...there was a whole line of mango trees along the river and we guessed this to be where the men and maybe families used to live whilst they were working the
Batavia Gold Fields. Apart from bearing beautiful fruit for a few months of the year...the also provide excellent shade...but they do take 20 - 30 years to grow...many of the people that planted them never really got to enjoy the benefit of the shade as they weren't there long enough...but for us it was a cooling respite from the heat.
Our guess was correct as the next morning we took a side track not even a km up the road and stumbled across the
Batavia Gold Field remains.It was not sign posted so it was only because we are nosey or should I say of an enquiring nature that we found this amazing place!
Recent bush fires had been through as they do every year...
The old crusher....the rotating roller crushed the rocks loaded into it and the gold was then extracted by some chemical process ...cyanide being the most popular.
An old Blitz in its final resting place...
The
Batavia Gold Fields were operational from the 1890's - 1950's.
Suzy amongst the ruins...
Further on we came to the
Pascoe River Crossing...there was water running in it so Hans took the opportunity to give Suzy a quick wash off!
Later that morning we entered Iron Range National Park...
An amazing area of
Rainforest between the dry
counrty and the coast.
This
rainforest is unique in that it is the largest pocket lowland tropical
rainforest in Australia.It has many features in common with New Guinea
rainforests...this is because about 10,000 years ago Australia was connected to New Guinea by land bridges...
Unique to this area is this species of Pitcher Plant...for the
botanists..its called
Nepenthes mirrabilis. Pitcher plants are carnivorous 'digesting' things like native bees, wasps, flies etc.
At the bottom of the pitcher is a sticky liquid into which the 'prey' falls...the sides of the inside of the pitcher are slippery and the trapped insect cannot climb out...the insect is soon dissolved and the decaying insect smell attracts more insects to the pitcher...the resulting 'soup' in the base of the pitcher is a source of nitrogen to the plant.The lid over the pitcher keeps the rain out so the 'soup' doesn't dilute.
The Green Python although not seen by us also only lives in this area....
The Palm Cockatoo (the largest of the cockatoos) lives in this area also...Hans was lucky enough to spot one.
Went to the end of Portland Road where there is a tiny settlement...no shops only a small cafe and a telephone box.
Shortly after we arrived at Chili Beach...it was sort of our goal for this trip...
What a beautiful beach...
There is limited national parks camping spots there and
because we arrived just after noon we were able to claim one...each site has it's own beach access and is sheltered from the prevailing easterly wind by Coconut Palms and
Calophyllum Trees....
There is no fresh water available here and the toilets are long drops.
Our camp site was the territory of the local scrub hen...who defended it fearlessly from neighbouring scrub hens...it was almost like they had a camp site each to reign over.
Different about the scrub hens as those in other parts of the east coast of Australia is the colour of its neck...all others we have seen have a yellow band at the base of the neck but the ones
inhabitating this area have a purple band...
Actually we made the comment that we had travelled approx 750
kms to camp on a beach with pretty much the same vegetation as where we live at
Wonga!...
Went for many walks along the beach in search of the
Nautilis Shell this coast is known for....
I was very lucky to find one...(I reckon it was the Only one on the beach that day!)
Other shells I found...
And this yukky looking sea slug...although it has a beautiful colour!
A composite picture of the top and bottom of it.
There were plenty of jelly fish..clear ones, blue bottles and this purple one.
On our
initial walk Hans spotted oysters on the rocks at low tide so went out again in quest of a 'feed' with his axe...the only suitable tool we had with us for the job...
The fully 'armed' oyster hunter!
They were huge as far as oysters go but they were naturally
occurring...
Those are
Hans's glasses on the rock for perspective...
This is what he yielded!...he reckoned he
would've died from dehydration if he'd stayed out longer!
Doesn't it look delicious? NOT...I hate the bloody sight of them and couldn't even imagine putting one anywhere near my mouth!
Whilst he cooked up his 'catch of the day' I chipped and sawed away at a whole coconut shell we found on the beach with
Hans's leatherman.Its tough stuff that coconut shell and took me
a lot of energy and perseverance to get 'it's' mouth right for a
Smilie Face.
Then plaited a hanger to surround the face from the coir of another coconut.
The end result!...Well it gave me something to do!
Hans opened a fresh coconut to eat...as dessert for his 'catch of the day'!
He served up pieces and dessicated coconut...
Sunrise over Restoration Island Chili Beach.
Chili Beach lays within
Weymouth Bay...its in this bay that Edmund Kennedy, having lead his ill fated expedition from
Cardwell to Cape York in 1848, abandoned 8 sick men to look for help.Only 2 of these men survived.
Having spent two glorious days at Chili Beach ...chilling out...we travelled back to the Peninsula road and south again...
Hanging out for a hot shower we decided to spend the night in the accommodation the
Musgrave station and road house offers...Donga's...but I must say that we have stayed in a few on our trip round Oz...these were by far the cleanest and the nicest....although the outside furniture left
a bit to be desired...It was great to have a shower and wash the hair ...get all the dust out of the pores!
Inside..
Fried Chucken for dinner that night, which we had with pasta and cherry tomatoes...the tomatoes we bought at the general store in Coen on our way back...a punnet costing me $6.50!
Tasted good though...
Musgrave Station also accommodates a lot of the truck drivers and men who work on the roads up that way...they do 12 hour days.
Decided to go home through Lakefield National Park..as the name suggests its a field of lakes (in the wet season)
Interesting countryside and the road is a shocker most of the way.
Camped that night at Kalpower crossing camp ground along the Normanby river...which is again just waterholes at the moment with of course a croc or two! We didn't see any ..but then they don't want to be seen...gives them the element of surprise!...At the river crossing the "Recent Crocodile Sighting Board" was on display.
The next day we continued toward Laura and went to 6 mile waterhole...a place we had visited on out last trip in this area and where we had spotted as we drove in a 5 metre croc...he quickly submerged when he spotted us.
The road to the 6 mile waterhole is 3km of single vehicle access...We met an oncoming vehicle so Hans moved off the track to let them pass...the courteous thing to do...
As a result we staked a tyre on a tree stake hidden in the grass...the tyre went flat instantly...
Not easy changing a tyre in the sand...hard to secure the jack safely...but we did it...Had the air con up full blast for several minutes after that to cool down again...It's Hot out there!
Having now no spare tyre we decided to make for home...
Stopped in at the Laura store and gave the nice man back his piece of hose...for the next traveller that asks for a piece!
Hans's spotted a male Bower Birds nest along the road just before Mt Molloy...
The male Bower Bird goes to great effort collecting shells,bits of glass, and plastic to create a path that entices the female to and through the nest...they mate...she then goes and builds her own nest to lay her eggs...he then uses the nest over and over to lure further females in for mating...bit of a casinova you reckon?
Quote for the Blog...
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Pretty awesome colour!
