Hi all, I thought I would share my Cape York experience with you all. It was great fun and I’m glad I finally got to go. This is Write up Part One of our Trip (Part two as soon as I have time) as there is so much to fit in. Below is a trip report and after that I will have all the information for people to use for their own trips to the cape. I will have Fuel consumption and prices as well as camping prices and other associated info.
PART ONE TRIP REPORT:
So For our trip we had 12 vehicles in total;
My Navara D22, Ford Ranger with custom slip on unit, 200 series Landcruiser with camper, Mazda BT50, Hilux ute, V8 Troopy, Nissan Patrol and new camper, FJ Cruiser and 4 Prados.
So with 48 people we headed off to the cape Leaving from our meeting place at Cairns BCF (I had to stop in at repco as I blew a turbo hose outside of Innisfail). We left on 18th June and returned the 12th July. After final checks and fuel stops we began our journey towards the Daintree River Ferry. After paying $13 one way we originally decided to take the CREB track to get to the Lion’s Den Hotel. But after a really late wet season (Only stopped raining up there the day before we hit cairns) it was still closed so we went with plan B, which was through the Daintree NP, Cape Tribulation and Wujal Wujal to get to our first camp at Lion’s Den Hotel. This Pub was my all-time favourite. We met some local farmers (Jack) at the pub and had a great night with the bar girls and storytelling over a few cold beers. The next morning we lined our cars up outside the hotel for our first relatively clean group shot.
From here we made our way to Cooktown. This was our last stop for fuel for a couple of days until we hit Musgrave. So everyone fueled up, most of the group had long range tanks, and only two took petrol. I have the standard tank so I took only one jerry can extra. (My dad and I had an argument about taking one more jerry for fuel. I wanted to and he didn't, dad wanted extra water.). After stopping to eat and explore Cooktown we moved on to reach Endeavour Falls. We left there and proceeded through Hope Vale (We got lost and circled the aboriginal community of Hope Vale several times, so we got to see the whole town. Even though most of the group had Hema maps…) we went the back way to reach the Starcke track. This is where the adventure really started. We aired down our tyres and began the slow crawl through the track. What made this so hard was due to the cyclone that hit end of last year all the trees came down over most of the track. So we had to take detours around them which made it super slow and a lot more fuel consumed. Also it appears that we were the first ones using this track this season, it was so overgrown and the track disappeared at times.
About a few hours in we lost the track and thought with light fading it was best to set up camp. We camped on a small clearing on the track which just fit us all in. It was a good night with fires and a few more beers. This is where my fridge started to play up, two days from any town. I had checked everything and couldn't work out why there was a warning light. I had pulled the fridge apart and with the help of one of the group we thought I would have to ship in a part to Musgrave and fix it there which is three or more days away. I put most of our frozen meat into another person’s freezer and the rest in his fridge. Good time for fridge problems. After telling a few of the others about my issues two of the guys came to take another look. Being electricians they had a lot of gear with them and they set about testing everything. We worked out the fridge was good and something must be wrong with the dual battery. So that was better news.
In the morning we found the track again and kept moving to reach Wakooka. From Wakooka it was 50-60km to reach our destination of Cape Melville. We finally hit the Cape and the view was well worth the drive.
We pulled out onto the sandy beach and explored up and down to find the perfect campsite. A word of advice, there are hundreds of massive prickles in the sand which sucked, they pierced tent floors and tarps. We used a sand mat which helped but you have to wear shoes all the time. We set up a camp which was to be home for two nights then took our rods and went fishing. Didn't catch anything but had an awesome fire that night. The next day we went to the rock pools nearby and had a swim and freshen up. Did some more fishing, there was a couple of flattys caught and a tarpon looking thing. The 200 series decided to get itself really bogged in soft wet sand.
PART ONE TRIP REPORT:
So For our trip we had 12 vehicles in total;
My Navara D22, Ford Ranger with custom slip on unit, 200 series Landcruiser with camper, Mazda BT50, Hilux ute, V8 Troopy, Nissan Patrol and new camper, FJ Cruiser and 4 Prados.
So with 48 people we headed off to the cape Leaving from our meeting place at Cairns BCF (I had to stop in at repco as I blew a turbo hose outside of Innisfail). We left on 18th June and returned the 12th July. After final checks and fuel stops we began our journey towards the Daintree River Ferry. After paying $13 one way we originally decided to take the CREB track to get to the Lion’s Den Hotel. But after a really late wet season (Only stopped raining up there the day before we hit cairns) it was still closed so we went with plan B, which was through the Daintree NP, Cape Tribulation and Wujal Wujal to get to our first camp at Lion’s Den Hotel. This Pub was my all-time favourite. We met some local farmers (Jack) at the pub and had a great night with the bar girls and storytelling over a few cold beers. The next morning we lined our cars up outside the hotel for our first relatively clean group shot.
From here we made our way to Cooktown. This was our last stop for fuel for a couple of days until we hit Musgrave. So everyone fueled up, most of the group had long range tanks, and only two took petrol. I have the standard tank so I took only one jerry can extra. (My dad and I had an argument about taking one more jerry for fuel. I wanted to and he didn't, dad wanted extra water.). After stopping to eat and explore Cooktown we moved on to reach Endeavour Falls. We left there and proceeded through Hope Vale (We got lost and circled the aboriginal community of Hope Vale several times, so we got to see the whole town. Even though most of the group had Hema maps…) we went the back way to reach the Starcke track. This is where the adventure really started. We aired down our tyres and began the slow crawl through the track. What made this so hard was due to the cyclone that hit end of last year all the trees came down over most of the track. So we had to take detours around them which made it super slow and a lot more fuel consumed. Also it appears that we were the first ones using this track this season, it was so overgrown and the track disappeared at times.
About a few hours in we lost the track and thought with light fading it was best to set up camp. We camped on a small clearing on the track which just fit us all in. It was a good night with fires and a few more beers. This is where my fridge started to play up, two days from any town. I had checked everything and couldn't work out why there was a warning light. I had pulled the fridge apart and with the help of one of the group we thought I would have to ship in a part to Musgrave and fix it there which is three or more days away. I put most of our frozen meat into another person’s freezer and the rest in his fridge. Good time for fridge problems. After telling a few of the others about my issues two of the guys came to take another look. Being electricians they had a lot of gear with them and they set about testing everything. We worked out the fridge was good and something must be wrong with the dual battery. So that was better news.
In the morning we found the track again and kept moving to reach Wakooka. From Wakooka it was 50-60km to reach our destination of Cape Melville. We finally hit the Cape and the view was well worth the drive.
We pulled out onto the sandy beach and explored up and down to find the perfect campsite. A word of advice, there are hundreds of massive prickles in the sand which sucked, they pierced tent floors and tarps. We used a sand mat which helped but you have to wear shoes all the time. We set up a camp which was to be home for two nights then took our rods and went fishing. Didn't catch anything but had an awesome fire that night. The next day we went to the rock pools nearby and had a swim and freshen up. Did some more fishing, there was a couple of flattys caught and a tarpon looking thing. The 200 series decided to get itself really bogged in soft wet sand.
