I had a really good sleep last night.  It was our coolest (temperature) night for a long time.  We had French Toast for breakfast.  I went and took photos of all the green tree frogs that were in the shower with me last night.

The best advice that I would give people going up to the Cape would be to stay at Loyalty Beach rather than Punsand.  The drive maybe longer to get to the top, but there’s better amenities and there is actually grass campsites.  Plus it’s just that little bit cooler and there’s a breeze even at night.  There are ferries that go to TI and Horn from Seisia, so you won’t miss out on that either.

We went into Seisia to see how the Jeep was getting along.  The car has been there 3 days now, and they’ve done nothing.  NOT HAPPY JAN!  They don’t think that it will actually be ready until tomorrow!  There have been other cars that have come in after the Jeep and they are getting worked or will be finished before the Jeep.  There are other things that are broken on the Jeep, but all they’re doing is the welding.  They said that they will try to get it done by lunch time, so we went and had lunch and coffee at Bamaga Bakery and got some diesel for the GU. $1.90 per Litre. 65 litres ish… Ouch.

After lunch we went back and the Jeep still hadn’t been done. Without using names, we have met someone that works at Top End Motors.  He’s a bit of a wild one (referred to now as WO).  While we were waiting for the Jeep to be seen to, WO told us about his escapades over the weekend.  Him and his friend, Feral (hint hint), had been drinking at Bamaga all day on Saturday and they were in the car park of the Pub when Feral asked if WO was up for a game.  The game is called “Ass Slap”.  So there were two blokes in the Bamaga Pub’s Car Park slapping each other’s bare bums.  The below photo is of WO’s bum.  I ever so nicely asked if I could take a photo of his butt after he’d shown us before.  BTW, WO is pretty aesthetically pleasing.

While waiting at the Mechanics, we met an old guy with a Land Rover.  They were from Western Australia.  They were on Seisia time.  They were just sitting  in the shade just drinking coldies.  They didn’t care when they mechanics got to them.  They said that they couldn’t really do anything until the parts had come off the carrier anyway.  They had some awesome stories about the trips they’d done in the landy.

When WO looked at the Jeep, the news was not good.  More was needed than the welding.  Rear tail shaft including Cardan Joint with  unis, lower control arm bracket welded and braced, draglink, pitman arm, steering box and the rear shock absorber bracket all needs replacing and / or fixing.  WO was giving Scott a fair bit of a paddling.  WO asked Scott when the Uni Joints got grease.  Scott’s response “Erm, not exactly sure.”  WO said next time you need to do Trip Preparation on the car.

Seeing the car needs so many parts, Glen called Fester (All Four x Four Parts – Minden) to see if he had any parts for the Jeep.  Fes has the parts and is going to send them up.

Scott is now a passenger in the Challenger.  Scott’s stuff has been split between the cars.  All we could fit was the stuff out of his fridge / freezer.  Scott will have to fly back up to Bamaga when his car has been fixed.  It will actually be cheaper to do it like this than get the car shipped back down.

After the great news about the Jeep we wanted to get the hell out of the Top End.  So we bolted to the Jardine Ferry and down the Bypass Roads.  The Southern Bypass Road was pretty bad, but not as bad as Battle Camp Road.  We’ve spoken to a few locals and they reckon the rooads were fantastic up til when the Endeavour Rally went through.

We made camp at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse.  I made Spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner.  While we were eating dinner, a lady came over to ask if anyone could put in a dislocated finger.  I told her that no, you shouldn’t re-locate the finger without having medical attention (and an xray).  We asked what had happened.  A guy had had a pretty bad accident down the road.  His vehicle had gone off the road and he’d hit a tree front on.  He was okay, with some bruising on his ribs, but all he was complaining about was his finger.  His dog, Stormy, had actually gone through the windscreen.  They said that the dog was okay but a bit sore.  I’m wondering about internal injuries on both of them.  The owner of the Roadhouse was going to be taking them to Weipa for medical attention in the morning.  Our thoughts are with them.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Jeep – Dead (for the time being anyway)

We had a late start and it had been raining on and off all night.  Trust me to leave the washing out for it to get rained on!

We had Corn Fritters again for breakfast – I think they’re a favourite.  We called Loyalty Beach to see if they had any vacancies because we were over Punsand’s packedness.  There was availabity so we had a new home.

We packed up and got on our way.  I drove today.  Glen said I did really well.  We got to Loyalty at about 11ish.  We got to the office and paid for our campsite and we got an icecream.

Shed 2 where we were given to stay, someone had already set up there.  So we went back to the office to see what we could do.  We ended up where the other guys that had taken Shed 2 were supposed to be camped.

We set up camp and Garry and Ristan went into Seisia to drop in a line.  The other group set off to see the WWII plane wrecks.  Along the way, I said to Glen that something on the roof rack was flapping about, so we pulled over to check it.  Two of our floor mats had flown off, so we turned around to find them.  We didn’t have to go too far to find them and then we were off again.

Our map wasn’t the clearest; we were kinda feeling our way to get there as the info centre in Bamaga was closed.  We went to far and then we had to turn around and then we went bush and the track lead no where to see the two planes that are off the main road.

The DC3 was easier to find.  This DC3 actually took off from Archerfield Airport in the middle of the night and crashed here early in the morning.  Someone told us that what had happened was their commanding officer had told them just to follow the coast til PNG and they ran out of fuel.  Not sure if this is correct or not.  I think the plaque said that the pilot was in training – so not sure if human error came into play here.  I felt really sad for the lives that were lost in the accident.

Dog got a ride home from the wreck with Alex in the Challenger.  They guys filled up again in Bamaga.

We had Mexican Chicken and Rice for dinner.  Alex cooked Sticky Date Pudding for Luke’s Birthday for dessert.

After dinner, I went and had a shower.  I shared my shower with some friendly green guys.

Happy Birthday Luke!!

We had to get up early this morning to catch the Ferry to Thursday Island.  We just had cereal and a cuppa and went down the beach to get picked up.  Dolly, Toby and Daley from Dato’s Venture are really nice.  Dolly got Glen to help her with anything she needed.  It was pretty funny.  We were one of the last to be taken over to the main boat, so there wasn’t many seats left.  I was worried about Glen because he gets motion sickness.

After a while, they swapped seats around and we went up the top of the boat.  Glen felt a lot better up there.

Thursday Island is really pretty.  We did the Tour and were picked up by a bus.

Liberty Seekee was the Tour Guide.  Liberty is a local and his dad was Richard Seekee.  Richard was a deep see pearl diver and actually did a lot for the local community.    Liberty told us how he got his name (it’s very different), his cousin’s name is Genuine and he pointed out another relative and their name was Napoleon!

Liberty pointed out all the different things about TI.  The hairdresser, the sewerage treatment plant, the diesel power plant, the cemetery.  I didn’t know that a lot of Japanese and Chinese were on TI, they were actually a lot of the pearl divers.   There were quite a few in the cemetary.

Liberty is an awesome guy (very talkative), but I think that Horn Island has more to offer on a tour than TI.

We were also doing the tour on Horn Island.  We had lunch – a Chinese Buffett and  it was pretty good.  Then Vanessa Seekee (Liberty’s wife) picked us up for the tour.  Vanessa has actually done a lot of research about Horn Island and has a book published about it.

The below picture is of a tosser that tried to do a flyby during WWII.  He clipped the tail of another plane and in the process ruined 4 planes.  He crashed here without injury.  When he got out of the plane, he tripped over a root and broke his thumb.   What an idiot!!

I honestly really enjoyed the Horn Island experience – even though it was really really hot on the day!  The Horn Island Tour was awesome and can say that if you can afford to do TI and Horn – do it!!

We had the Seafood Buffet at the Punsand Bay Restaurant for Luke’s Birthday Dinner.  It was pretty funny with how they did portion control.  The girl giving out the food gave Scott 3 potato wedges when he asked for some.  He gave her a disapproving look and she asked if she wanted some more.  Scott said yes please, and he got another 3… haha.  For dessert, Scott didn’t want the Fruit Salad, he just wanted icecream.  She gave him only one scoop of icecream… haha.  A bit on the cheap side for $60 per person.

The Jeep is still not fixed as the guys from Top End Motors have found more wrong with it than initially thought.  We have to wait to see if they can get the parts in.  We’re not sure what we’re going to do from here other than move on from Punsand.

Luke and Scott went to drop off the Jeep early this morning and we waited for them to get back before we started breakfast.  I was catching up on blogging, so Alex and Garry cooked pancakes for breakfast.

The boys had to move the water reserve for the windscreen now that the skirt has been removed from the Challenger.  They were doing that while we were having breakfast.  Seeing that this was taking a while, I went to go do the washing.  When I got there, I met a lovely lady that had been waiting there for ages.  Another lady was using all 3 machines and she had more loads to go.  The lady that was waiting told me that they had come through Nolan’s Crossing yesterday and got stuck.  She said that the water was up to her waist in her Nissan Patrol.  I asked if the people in the Cherokee were still there when they went through and she said yes.  They were still bailing out water from their car.

I came back to camp without putting the washing on.  When I told them that the lady waiting told me that someone was using all 3 and had more to do, Glen got cranky and went up there.  The nice lady was gone by then, but in Glen’s words, a large woman was up there hanging up her sheets.  Glen asked her if she was using all the machines to which she said no.  Glen said to her, well my missus said that someone was and  I think that that is pretty rude.  He checked the machines and they were all in use.  I just decided I’d do the washing later.

When the boys had finally stopped fluffing about with the Challenger (11am – I’m not good at waiting) and we were on our way to the tip!  The road is very rough and the shrubs are close to the sides of the car.  Glen says on the way that we should celebrate that we haven’t killed each other yet!  When we got to the carpark, I asked Glen if he’d disconnected the winch.  We’d heard stories of the locals getting your winch and then putting it over the top of the car and hooking it to the back bar.  They then switch on the winch and it opens your car up like a tin opener.

We started the 15 minute walk to the Tip. Take your time during the walk as it is quite steep and rocky.  I took lots of photos – the view was fantastic.

When we got to the tip, there was already a tour bus group there and another on the way.  So I put in dog quickly for a photo and then we started with our photos of us.

When it was Glen & me, he hugged me and said “Should we do it? Should we tie the knot?” I said “Are you serious?” and I started to blubber.  Glen got on one knee and asked “Will you marry me?” and I nodded yes.  All the tour groups clapped and cheered and the guys that we were on the trip also knew that this was going to happen.

We took lots of other photos and then took the long way back to the cars.  We went to look at the Somerset ruins, the graves and the other stuff on the east coast side.  We took the beach track and it was really pretty scenery but very soft sand.

When we got back to camp, Glen and I called our parents to let them know.  They don’t have payphones here, all you can use is 1800 REVERSE.  So our olds had to pay to find out – haha.

We had Peanut Butter Sausages for dinner.

Happy birthday Shaz!

The night was cool and we slept well at Nolan’s.  The weld that Glen had done on the control arm at North Alice broke during yesterday’s trip.  Seeing we got to Nolan’s quite late in the day, Glen said that he wanted to wait until the morning so he had full daylight to see what he was doing.  The boys hooked up a couple of batteries and Glen welded it together enough to get the Jeep to Bamaga to get it properly welded.

I started cooking Corn Fritters for breakfast after Glen had said that they could take a break.  During cooking, the oil spat and burned my right leg.  I’ve got 3 nice teardrop burns and gosh did they hurt.  After a day with Rawleighs and bandaids (it looked pretty funny), I’ve now just got some purple / red teardrops on my leg.

We left camp at almost 11am and travelled to where the old crossing of the Jardine River was.  We pulled up and there was no way that we were going to attempt to get across.

We made our way to the Ferry.  The ferry costs $88 return and it is a shorter cable crossing than the Moggill Ferry.  We think it was a bit expensive, but hey, what can you do?

When we got to the Ferry, it was approx 12:20pm.  The Ferry actually stops when the staff are on lunch and resumes at 1pm.  So we stopped in the shade so that we could have our lunch too.  We’d just stopped when this older guy (Pretty Prado Man – PP Man) came and had a go at us.  He said to Glen “We were all here before you and you have to let us on the Ferry first”, Glen said “No worries mate, we’re just here for the shade.”  Some of the guys that we had met at the first crossing on the OTL were waiting at the Ferry too.  They came down and we had a chat about what we’d done and how the trip was going and what the plan was for the tip.  They had their lunch with us and when they went back to their car.  PPM was asking all the other cars to move right up to the Ferry launch so that “other queue jumpers” pointing to our direction didn’t get in before them.  The guys that we knew were just like, don’t worry mate, if you want to go and park your car in the boiling sun, go right ahead.

Before 1pm, PPM was waiting at the office door, trying to get everyone to line up in order of arrival.  We thought it was really quite amusing as none of us were in a rush.  We went over and bought our tickets and when we’d got out, the Ferry had already done to return trips.  Our group got on and away  we went.

When we pulled into Injinoo, we saw some council workers and stopped to ask if they could do the welding.  They said the best guy to do the welding was at Seisia but couldn’t tell us the name of the place.  We weren’t planning to stop at Seisia, so I had a look in our Hema Cape York Atlas & Guide book, it states that the RACQ Mechanic for up here is in Bamaga and they do welding.  So that was our first stop at Bamaga.  The Challenger went to the BP to fill up $1.95 for Unleaded and $1.90 for diesel.  Scott was pretty much ignored by the guys at the mechanics at Bamaga (probably why the locals referred us to Seisia), so we went to Seisia.

Top End Motors at Seisia was easy to find.  They guy was super helpful and he said that all he gets are Jeeps and Rovers.  He said that he’ll weld anything that has come loose and to drop the car off in the morning.

Alex and I went into the supermarket at Seisia to get some more milk and some other stuff.  $47 for 3 bags!! Wowee!  A 30 pack of Coke was $50.63!!  The guys waited out the front while us girls were shopping.  Another traveller pulled up and told the guys about his trip up and that he’d have a snorkel too if his wife hadn’t seen a pair of red stilletos and a matching bag.  Now whenever we see them, we’re like “Hi Red Stilletos”.   We’ve since found out their names are Ron and Ellen.  He’s a funny guy.

We got back on the road to get to Punsand Bay Safari & Fishing Lodge.  $12 per person per night for camping.  Seeing we had booked and we’re quite a big group, we actually got a Tour Group Site called Dugong.  Everyone else here has really been sandwiched in.  One guy came up to me and asked how we scored this.  Haha.

Garry and Ristan were already here when we got here and they came into the office when we were booking in.  They’re in a cabin (really a thing that looks like an old shipping container and dodgy 70′s caravan panelling.  I don’t think I’d like to pay $200 a night for that with rattling air conditioners.  However, seeing every time I’ve gone to use the toilet or shower here, there’s been a line up of about 5 people before me and I would pay a lot just to be able to use a toilet / shower when I wanted to.  There’s so many people up here and they just don’t have enough amenities.

We set up camp and the bush turkeys have wandered around our camp non-stop.  There are heaps of them here.

The boys noticed that the Challenger didn’t look right.  His skirt was coming off (front lower bar).  Luke pulled of the bit that was coming off.  Luke has lost his skirt.  I’ll put up some piccies when we get the photos from all the other travellers

We had Savoury Mince with Rice and Apple Crumble for dessert.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Jeep – A lot is broken
Oddie – Burnt Leg
Scott – Burnt Toe
Glen – A bit of Welder’s Flash

My big sister’s birthday – Happy Birthday Sally! Sorry we don’t have any phone coverage so I can’t call you…

We had Toad in the Hole (made by Scott) for breakfast today.  Not a great fan cause I don’t like soft runny yolks.  While packing up, Alex dropped a chair on her ankle and it looked pretty painful.

We finished off the Southern Section of the OTL and Gunshot was quite interesting.  Once again there were lots of cars waiting to go through, but no one was stuck.  We all got through fine.

We stopped at Fruit Ball Falls and had a swim.  The boys got right under the waterfall and got pummelled.

The next stop was Eliot Falls.  Eliot Falls is absolutely beautiful.  It is well worth the stop, but the campsites were pretty crappy and the toilets stank!!

We did a creek crossing and it was really weird – we’re not sure what creek it was, but it was like the surface of the moon.

We were all pretty amazed with the landscape.

The northern section of the OTL is awesome.  There isn’t as much traffic and **most** of the Poles are untouched.  We had heard some pretty bad stories about Nolan’s Brook and that was the last crossing for the day.  The boys walked the crossing thouroughly before going across.  We all got across fine and made camp there.  There were lots of flys, but other than that it was a really good campsite.  There is an old log crossing that we jumped into the creek from and floated downstream to where the crossing was.  Lots of fun.

Alex was reading and I had started dinner when Scott said he’d heard a car.  The boys went down to the creek and they thought that the other car (a Jeep Cherokee) was going to make camp on the other side of the crossing.  A little while later, I said to Alex, “Does that sound like a winch motor to you?”  We went down to the creek and the Cherokee was well and truly stuck in the creek.  The boys asked if they wanted a snatch out and then Luke went up to get the Challenger to pull them out.

These people we had run across before and let me just say that we have met nicer people on the track than these guys.  Their entire car was a swimming pool.  They were bailing water out of the car all night and they had all the stuff out of their car.

We had Shephard’s Pie and peas & corn for dinner.  Scott stepped on a hot coal that the fire had spat out and he’s got a lovely blister on his big toe.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Alex – Ankle
Jeep – Weld that Glen did for the Control Arm broke
Scott – Burnt Toe

We had French Toast and Bacon for breakfast. We had an early swim after that and the boys started boy type things. Alex and

I did our washing by hand. we read our books and fluffed around camp.

A really nice day just relaxing and swimming. I washed Alex’s hair with the soap today too. Now we’re both bogan style.

We had Rissoles and veges for dinner and the night was cooler than the night before.

We had pancakes for breakfast this morning.  The boys were still pottering around the Jeep to make sure everything was okay.  We let all the other cars go before us incase we had anymore problems.  One  thing that I’ve noticed already is that people have defaced the Poles that were used for the OTL.

It really annoys me that people can’t respect property and give all the other people doing this trip the chance to see the history of the Line.

Today was the day I got to drive the GU through the OTL.  I will admit that I can’t drive as quickly as Glen, but we were also going slow to see if the Jeep would be okay (my excuse anyways).  Alex has been driving the Challenger for a lot of the way because Luke’s ankle is still really quite bad.  Alex and I are alike with driving.  We don’t enjoy driving just for drivings sake.  We drive to get from A to B.  I’m not sure if Luke realises the sacrifice that Alex has made for him during this trip… Not giving Luke a hard time – I think any boy wouldn’t appreciate how much pressure it puts on us girls who don’t have that much experience.

Anyway, during my driving stint, Glen was crapping himself.  “You’re too close to the left”, “Slow down”, “Did you see that hole in front of you?” and “Change gear” were all said quite often.

We saw an Australian Scorpion at camp!

We made camp at Delahunty Creek and we decided to stay for two nights. The first night was pretty warm and there were lots of flys; other than that, it was an awesome campsite.

We went for several swims.  There was a small waterfall and at the top, there was a small spa like area where all of us could fit.  I went total bogan style and washed my hair with Eco Soap.  It wasn’t a good look.

Camp oven Pizza was for dinner.

We had Cereal for breakfast because we needed get up and going very quickly due to needing to be at the bridge at 9:30am (it opened for 5 mins).

We got up early and had a good run to the bridge and we had some time to kill so we went to Red Beach.  We had a look around and Garry spotted a log that didn’t really look like a log. When the log moved, we were sure that it was a chomper.

We filled up at the BP 149.43L $216.52 (1094km since filled up totally – Cairns).  We stopped at the Bauxite Terminal to get some piccies and then we were on our way.

We took the Batavia Downs turn off to get to the start of the Old Telegraph Line (OTL).  We stopped for more piccies at some huge Ant Hills.

Ristan was interested in checking out the Moreton Telegraph Station and we stopped there and got more piccies.

Next stop was Bramwell Junction.  They guys had to fill up (again) Unleaded – $1.80 per Litre and Diesel – $1.86 per Litre.

Once everyone had had amenities stops, we started on the OTL.

When we got to the first creek crossing, there was a back log of cars waiting to get across.  A car had got bogged and someone was pulling him out.  We met quite a few people while waiting for the guy to get pulled out.  The Jeep went across first for our group and Scott drove it easily.  The GU was next and Glen had his frilly skirt firmly on.  A small log that the bogged guy had tried to use to get out, flicked up and hit the GU. Luke helped another guy towing a trailer down (snatch attached to the back of the trailer and the Challenger lowered the trailer slowly – releasing the pressure on the tow ball etc) and then the Challenger went across without a problem.  Garry and Ristan decided after a while that they weren’t going to risk their son’s Hilux through the crossing.  The Hilux took  Bamaga Road to the top.

Not long into the track, Scott broke his front driver’s side control arm and then noticed the mount to the rear driver’s side shockie mount had broken off.  The guys took off the control arm and the shockie and we decided to make camp so they could attempt to fix it.

We made camp at North Alice Creek.  They guys that we had met at the first creek crossing asked if they could camp with us and if we could all share a community fire.  These group of people were awesome.  They were quiet and even set up the fire for us.

A note here for Mick and Shaz – Oddie made like a bear in the woods at North Alice Creek…

We had Wagyu Steak and Mushroom Risotto for dinner.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Jeep – Front Control Arm
Jeep – Rear Shockie
Jeep – Castor Slap

We had Scrambled Eggs with Toast made from the bread made yesterday.  We were all a bit cranky and over the bogans the night before.  When we got up, we didn’t care how much noise we made around the bogans (they camped behind our tent).  We headed for Weipa on the Penninsula Developmental Road.  Parts of the Penninsula Development Road are fabulous and we could go really fast.

We got into to Weipa at about lunch time.  Scott, Luke & Glen went to go and get and air filter for the GU.  Garry and Ristan went looking for internet access for Ristan to submit a recommendation.  Alex and I went to the shopping centre to get some more bread, milk and other stuff.  Before we started the shopping, Alex and I needed to use the amenities.  We were following an Aboriginal lady and honestly, I could’ve got drunk just standing next to her.

Total for the group $91.07 and there wasn’t that much shopping.  I got a bottle of Cab Sav to share with Garry as we are the red drinkers out of the group and I had been drinking his on the trip up so far.

We walked past a takeaway store and saw pies, wedges, chips, cake and other assorted goodies.  We decided that we were going to buy lunch.  Glen got a pie and I got wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. We got 40L on diesel at the BP $1.44 per litre.

Luke’s boss had told him about this fantastic camping spot called Pennefather.  We had to go and book and pay at the Camping Ground at Weipa.  The bridge at Weipa was getting works completed and was only open at certain times, so we had to wait until it was open before we could go make camp.

Our convoy got stuck behind some slow going vehicles so the trip was long and dusty.  We took the Pennefather turn off and unfortunately, that’s the way the other cars went too.  The road in was shocking!  It went from a bad dusty road to a very soft sand road.  The GU and the Challenger got stuckish in one spot on the road in the soft sand.  The beach sand was the worst beach we have ever driven on.  As soon as you stopped, you were up to the chassis in soft sand.  A couple of guys that were already camping there stopped to have a chat.  They told us about an inland track to the campsite that Scott and Glen had found.

If you are really into fishing and want to stay there for a week, then this is for you.  People wanting a nice campsite, Pennefather is not for you.  They had massive thorns – one went through my thong and lodged itself in my big toe – ouch!  Other turn offs were: lots of mozzies, midgies and it was hot.  Even after the beautiful sunset and the rusty shelter, we would not go back.

We had Roast Chicken & veges for dinner.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Oddie – Thorn stuck in her toe (and then another in her finger)