Conquering
Cape York
We have just returned from 3.5 weeks of touring
Cape York in our rear fold, hard floor camper trailer, which we bought specially for the trip. It was an unbranded mostly aluminium camper that was made in
Maryborough by an aluminium fabrications guy who had to close his business because of a family illness. The camper proved to be perfect for the cape and we are very happy with its performance. Our 95 series Prado Grande also proved perfect for the task. Before going I read heaps of
forum threads and read books etc, to make sure our trip was as trouble free as possible. I put new tyres all round and spent heaps of time dust proofing, strengthening areas of concern and generally cape-proofing the rig. This all paid off in the end, as we had no dust, tyre or mechanical problems. We went in convoy with 2 other couples, also in hard floor campers and being towed by a Prado 120 series and a Hilux.
While we were
well equipped and did
camp out, most of the nights were spent in
camp grounds or caravan parks. While there were no flat tyres, and no mechanical problems, a few items of equipment did come loose from the corrugations. My biggest problem was that the stones cut through some zip ties and a brake cable sagged and got further damaged by stones, but all I had to do was remove a wheel of the trailer and reconnect the brake cable and tape it back to the axle. I hear lots of people swearing by cable ties to attach things, but my experiences with cable ties were negative and I will use other methods next time.
We left
Bribie Island and stayed at: Waverley Creek (near St.
Lawrence),
Ingham, Mt Carbine,
Archer River Roadhouse,
Weipa,
Eliot Falls,
Seisia, Archer River,
Cooktown,
Cape Tribulation,
Cairns,
Chillagoe,
Bowen,
Cape Hillsborough and
Bundaberg. Just because we stayed at
Archer River Roadhouse twice does not mean it is a
great camp spot, in fact the management and staff leave a lot to be desired, as far as cleanliness and adequate amenities are concerned. Asking to have basic items renewed/fixed was a waste of time.
We did not go via the Telegraph Road, as some of the crossings were quite badly cut up because of the large amount of traffic using it. We spoke to heaps of people along the way looking for good recent information and one guy in particular (Brendan) told me to unhitch our rig at Bramwell
Junction and drive up the Telegraph Track about 5 km to Palm Creek and watch the others trying to negotiate that crossing and I would get enough excitement watching them damage their vehicles and then drive the bypass roads, which is exactly what we did. Palm Creek at the Southern end of the T.T. is now another Gunshot and there is no other crossing available.
Much of the road was good gravel and there were numerous short pieces of bitumen on the southern end, but a lot of the road was very rough and very dusty, because of the large numbers of vehicles travelling up the cape at this time of year, but it was what we were expecting. The quarantine inspection station at
Coen said he had had 700 vehicles through the previous day, so as you would expect gravel roads deteriorate quickly with that amount of traffic. There were graders on the road upgrading sections and repairing others, but with nearly a thousand kilometres of nearly all gravel from
Lakeland to the Cape via
Weipa, it is difficult for them to maintain all the roads in a good condition.
I badly wanted to visit Chilli Beach, but by the time we had travelled over so much gravel road, with dust and corrugations we could not justify driving the 140km in and back out to Chilli Beach, just to see another beach that was experiencing high strength easterly winds at the time and camping there would have been uncomfortable. We also had very positive comments about camping at Vrilya Beach on the North/Western side of the Cape, but didn’t get there. Before we left I was emailed by a recent
Cape York traveler who said: “Make sure you visit some of the areas on the way North, because as soon as you turn South you will be so sick of the corrugations and dust that you won’t bother visiting them. He was right!
Tours: We did a tour of the
Weipa Mine and also Thursday and Horn Islands and
Chillagoe Caves.
Weipa Mine tour was interesting and reasonably priced. The combination boat trip, Thursday Island, Horn Island and associated local tours, including a buffet lunch on Horn Island was good, but the price of about $230 each was over priced in our view. The
Chillagoe Caves tours were very good with fees being reasonable. Other members of our group also did the Cairns/
Kuranda rail/chairlift tour and
Green Island tour, as
well as the Undara Tunnels and
Cobbold Gorge tours. As we had done those tours previously we found other things to do, like visiting friends, relatives, shopping, washing and cleaning the rig.
People and the Environment: Throughout our travels we found fellow travelers tremendous. EVERYONE was keen to share information and be very friendly. The other thing we noticed was that all of the areas we visited were clean with no rubbish/litter problems that we read so much about.
Favourite Camps:
Cape Hillsborough,
Cape Tribulation,
Seisia Beach and
Chillagoe Creek
Homestead. Mt Carbine is also a good spot for anyone wanting to leave a caravan if they are tenting the Cape. They do not charge to leave a van there provided you stay a night on the way up and a night on the way back. The park is very dry and rustic, but comfortable and the owners are lovely people who give an interesting talk each afternoon about the local area.
Favourite Meals: The buffet dinner at Brothers Club in Manunda,
Cairns. It was only $19 each and the best value for money we have had, maybe ever!!! A pie (also best ever) at a homemade coffee
shop at the Coles shopping Centre at
Mareeba. Some of the Burgers at the roadhouses were also good.
Camper V Caravan: My wife was not impressed with folding the camper up and down each
camp, just opening the door of a caravan when camping spoils you. We are going camping on a family property next week, but surprise, surprise, the camper will be staying
home, as it is time to use the luxuries of the caravan again.
Overall Comments: We normally tour in a small Jayco freedom pop top van and was concerned about only having the Waeco in the rear of the Prado, but it proved quite sufficient for our needs. I learnt that each day while travelling I would restock the drinks section and turn the thermostat up one notch to 3 and then at evening when the sun had gone down (I have 170Watts "Suntec" solar on Prado Roof Rack and 120AH "All Rounder" battery in rear of Prado) I would reset the thermostat back to number 2 setting again and this would minimize my current draw during the hot nights of the tropics.
If we were going up the cape again, and we are not, I would keep in touch with the local authorities concerning road conditions and go as soon as the roads were graded, that is before the rush in July. We had no option because one of our group could only get annual leave at this particular time.
No matter where you go "USE COMMON SENSE AND DRIVE TO THE CONDITIONS! And you will have very few problems. Also drive defensively to cater for the small minority of D.H. drivers that also use our roads.
Brian DJ