Well, We went to Levuka 4×4 Park recently. I really liked it. Because it was very dry the tracks were easy, but I still had a ball. The facilities were clean, and more importantly…there was GRASS at the campsites!!! That is such a novelty in my part of the woods.

Heres quick vid of the hardest hillclimb I could find at Levuka….

Sorry this has taken so long to post up!

We left Townsville and headed south.  We ended up staying at the Seabreeze again in Mackay and then went to Bundy.

We spent a couple of nights in Bundy to catch up with family and friends.  They were all very excited about the engagement and for some reason thought that we’d already had some planning done.  Unfortunately not!!

We’re having our Cape Trip debriefing at our place this weekend and we’ll be swapping photos and stories.  Maybe I will steal the other guys stories and put them up so you can get some different points of view.

Til the next trip – toodle pip for now!!

Glen asked me today if I had blogged about the Bush Turkeys at Punsand Bay.  I can’t remember if I did, but here’s the story anyway.

When we went over to TI and Horn Island, we left out our kitchen camping stuff and chairs but locked up other stuff incase it went wandering – eg. our notebook.

One thing that didn’t packed away well enough was the Plain Flour.   I think it was just put into a plastic bag and put on the bench.

When we got back from the day trip, there was Plain Flour everywhere.   The Bush Turkeys had eaten all of the 2kgs of Plain Flour other than the white powder that had been spread all over our campsite.  Glen and I were one of the last travellers off the ferry, so the other guys had cleaned up most of the mess.  It was still pretty funny walking in to white powder everywhere!!

Here are a couple of dog photos.

Dog with the No Dogs Allowed sign

Dog with the mega stinger sign & vinegar

Are we twins??

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.

Dog at Loyalty Beach (Paradise)

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 at the DC3 Wreck

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.

Green Frogs in the shower at Loyalty Beach

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 Corn Fritters for breakfast – yum! and then we were off and racing.  I need to mention again how shocking Battle Camp Road is.  It was really really bad – slow going!!  We stopped at Musgrave Roadhouse for the guys to fuel up (again – we still didn’t need to).  Glen and I got icecreams – it feels like such a treat!

Km's from Musgrave

Garry needs to have medical attention for his toothache.  We stopped in Coen, but the nurse was on lunch.  We decide to check out The Bend Camping Site.  We got there and we were not impressed.  The toilet stank!  The campsites were not level and the site was actually on the main road.  Not so good for the light sleeper – ie me.  We decided that we would have some lunch and Garry and Ristan would go back into Coen to wait for the nurse to come back to the Medical Centre.  We had just finished lunch and were about to head into Coen to see how things were going when Garry and Ristan turned up.  The nurse had given Garry the drugs he needed without a charge.  They gave a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service instead.

Garry's Swollen Face

We decided that we would continue on to Archer River Roadhouse as they had Amenities – including a hot shower!!  We got to Archer River Roadhouse at about 2pm and we were the first campers there.  We got the pick of the campsites and got the flatest bit and all of us made camp around a campfire.   A winnebago parked next to our car and the guy got out and had a good chat with us and even gave us some crap about chewing up the roads (bloody 4wders as he said).

On the menu for dinner was Rib Eye Steak with Mushroom Sauce, Deb and Peas & Corn.  We had Apple Crumble for dessert.  I cooked my first Camp Oven Bread and it turned out fantastically.  Yum Yum fresh bread.

As the evening wore on, more and more campers were setting up camp.  Soon, we were in the middle of a huge nest of campers.  We went to bed and could still hear people pulling in.  The attendant when booking in told us that the generators would turn off at 10pm.  At midnight it was still going and we had bogans come to our fire in the middle of our camp and they made noise and yelling until 2am.  We had tried several times to ask them to be quieter, but alas, they were bogans (bevans, wankers, f*cktards, morons etc) and didn’t care who they annoyed.  WE WERE NOT HAPPY!!!

When they bogans (finally) went to bed, the locals (after drinking) went balistic.  Glen went to the men’s facilities and saw two Aboriginal males having a full on blue.  Glen said one guy was speaking english and the other was speaking a different language.  When we drove through the Archer River Crossing, we saw where the locals had made camp and there were beer cans and other mixer cans everywhere.  It was like a trash site.  I feel sorry for whoever has to clean that up.   We spoke to some other people futher up the Cape and they stayed the same night as us.  They saw a local lady that had been bashed to a pulp and she was in the middle of the bridge.  They went and found help for her.   What can we do to stop this?!?!

Advice for all future people heading up the Cape – DON’T STAY IN ROADHOUSES – IT ATTRACTS BOGANS!!

Injuries & Ouchies:

All – No sleep and cranky!!

We had Bacon & Eggs for brekky this morning.  We packed up camp and were on the road again.  We saw a wild pig and piglet on the way out from Roaring Meg Falls Camp. We came across some roadworks and the Traffic Controller had put the Stop / Slow sign in the top of a witch’s hat.  When we pulled up, he came out and said that it will be about a 15 minute wait.  So we all got out of the cars to stretch our legs.  The Traffic Controller guy walked back to his fire.  Here we are in summer clothing (me in a singlet top and shorts!) and he was freezing.  He said he couldn’t believe how cold it was.  I thought that it was pretty funny – cause I hate being cold.

Black Mountain was an awesome stop.  We read about the history and we had discussions on what we really think had happened to get this huge mountain on rock there.

Black Mountain

We stopped in Cooktown for lunch and the other guys needed fuel.  Cooktown is really pretty and the lady at the info centre was really helpful.  Cape Melville, where we were going to spend a night, was inaccessable.  All the roads to get there were closed.  We decided after the CREB track that we weren’t going to risk anymore closed roads.

Captain Cook and Dog

Continuing on, we stopped at Endeavour Falls but didn’t have a swim because they’d sighted a chomper (crocodile – otherwise referred to as crocodilly, crocogater & chomper) in May.

Endeavour Falls

We turned onto Battle Camp Road at just after Old Laura Homestead.  Battle Camp Road is a shocker!  It was so rough it almost shook out Glen’s fillings (I would’ve said mine – but I don’t have any).  We saw a dingo running down the road at the turnoff.  It was really hot during the day and we wanted to stay somewhere that had a breeze.  We stopped and camped at Kalpowar.  We had stirfry for dinner and rice pudding for dessert.

Chomper Warning

Kalpowar was a really good campsite.  Once again, I didn’t get much sleep because one of the neighbouring tents had a cough that continued throughout the night.

Injuries & Ouchies:

Hilux – Hole in air hose has been duct taped
Garry – Toothache is getting worse and the left side of his face is really swollen
Luke – Ankle -  managing the pain

Today, we slept in.  That’s a first, we didn’t get out of bed til 7am.  Glen woke up at 4ish again, but went back to sleep.  We packed up quickly and went down for the breakfast that was included in the room’s tariff at SeaBreeze.  We were the first guests down for breakfast and caught the staff during their break having coffee.  They were really friendly and showed us to where the food was and our table.   We had raisin toast, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, tea & coffee.  We checked out and were on our way to Townsville.

I really wanted to stop at That Sapphire Shop at Leap, but it didn’t open til 10am.  Glen has said that we’ll stop there if we come back the coastal road.

We stopped at Home Hill.  Glen and his olds lived in Home Hill some time ago.   We drove around looking for Glen’s old house, but it has been knocked down.

Home Hill Caravan Park

Glen has got a Tourmaline at home that he bought from Home Hill when he was a boy for $6.  So we went to the store to check it out (seeing I was disappointed about the other gem stone store).  We had a look at the tourmalines and they were now $130 for a decent  size rock.  I had a look at the Sapphires (my birth stone) and they were all chips and expensive.  Very keen to go back to That Sapphire Shop to see what they’ve got!

Dog posing in front of the Gem Store at Home Hill

On our way to Ayr, dog met his first snake!  He was not impressed!!

Dog meets Snake

We stopped at Dal Santos Gourmet Deli in Ayr for lunch.  We had to wait 20 minutes for a couple of sandwiches (read cranky Glen), but it was well worth the wait!  I had roasted capsicum, grilled eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes and jarlesburg on a pannini and Glen had pretty much the same but with meat.  The latte was perfect too!

We met a couple of kiwi ladies at the Deli and Glen was comparing stories with them.  Their husbands were in Townsville for the V8 race and they were kicking back in Ayr.  They told us that Townsville wasn’t that busy and they had enjoyed their day at Townsville the day before.  They had flown over from NZ just for the race.  Talk about keen.  They were so lovely, they even waved us off when we left.

When we originally planned our trip up to Cairns, we didn’t know or  investigate if there was anything else planned up this way.  So a couple of weeks ago when I read the Sunday Mail about the V8 Supercar Race on July 11 in Townsville, I freaked out.  After many calls, emails and rumours of rooms available, I got a room at the Dalrymple Hotel.  Glen was a bit tentative seeing it’s a hotel and we’ve heard how busy Townsville was going to be.  So far so good.  We’ve just had room service and the food was good.

After we checked in the room, we walked down the block and checked out Anaconda, Spotlight, Dick Smith and a couple of other stores.  Glen is very taken with Howard’s Storage World.

We checked out the race and here’s dog getting close to the action! Haha!

Dog getting close to the action

Next stop over Cairns (Palm Cove!).

(Fueled up at Mackay – 1120kms – 163L (14.5l / 100kms)

After 18 months of planning, Glen and I left for our Cape York Trip yesterday, Thursday 9 July 2009.  Glen and I aren’t the biggest fans of having our photos taken so a work friend (Hi Tricia) gave me the idea of taking  a mascot and letting them tell the story of your trip.  Don’t get me wrong, there will be pictures of us during the trip but already we are having heaps of fun setting up our mascot.

Our mascot is… Dog from Footrot Flats.

Now to the story so far.

Glen had taken Thursday off work to pack the final things into the car and he picked me up from work after I had sent the 170+ PAYG Summaries out!!  Glen had packed the car, was ready to go and I still had work to do, so Glen went to say “Bye” to his olds in Brisbane before he came to pick me up.

Dog says Bye to Glen's Olds

We left Upper Mount Gravatt at approx 1:30pm and we stopped at the BP northbound for lunch.  The first of many takeaway meals on the way up.  Seeing we were both starving and the fastest moving line was McDonalds, that’s what we had.  We had a pretty good run up to our first overnight stop, Bundaberg.  We stayed at my olds place.  Dinner: Glen – Pork Chop & Veges Me: Spaghetti Bog (yum yum my favourite) & Veges.  Dessert: Apple Pie & Custard.  After dinner we went to my sister’s for second desserts: Little Cakes, Chocolate Slice, Anzac Slice & Tea / Coffee.

Dog making friends with My Olds in Bundy

10th July: Glen woke up just after 4am, and we were on the road by 5am.   This is the biggest kilometre day for the trip up to Cairns, our official start for the Cape Loop.  We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast – top hint – 24 hr open Maccas will give you old crappy stuff if it’s sitting there.  We didn’t eat all our brekky – we felt crook.

We stopped at Rocky for the touristy photo ops (and a P Stop).

Dog meeting a Santa Gertrudis

Dog at the Tropic of Capricorn

Dog showing the km's to go from Rocky

Something that we’ve noticed is the amount of caravans that are heading up north with us.  We had two different episodes of where people pulled out in front of us (in a 110 zone) and Glen had to JAM on the brakes to stop from ramming into them.  I understand that the highway is busy at the moment, but hell, wait and not cause an accident!!!

We stopped at Sarina for some lunch – Bakery food.  Sarina reminded me of Bundy.  Probably something to do with the Mill and the smell.

Dog checking the ties on the Roofrack at Sarina

From Sarina, we stopped at Hays Point to check out the Coal Port.  Glen counted 32 ships waiting off the coast to come in to fill up with Coal.  The tugs bringing them in were awesome to watch.

Dog checking the Coal Port

Walking down from the car park at the Coal Port (Hays Point), I saw this sign and freaked out (wearing thongs!).

Dog making sure the snakes don't get us

Our stop for tonight is Mackay.  I booked our accommodation on Wotif and when we plugged in the address, we kept driving and driving and we ended up at Slade Point.  It’s on the beach north of Mackay.  Driving through Mackay, Glen and I  really liked it.  The CBD is really beautiful, and there seems to be a lot works happening here, so we assume that Mackay is really growing and moving ahead.

Our room at SeeBreeze is pretty good.   I saw some dodgy places in Mackay that wanted $90 per night and we paid $100 for here and that includes Breakfast. The shower is awesome!

Dog enjoys the shower at Mackay

We went down and had dinner in the Bistro.   Glen got the seafood pasta and I had a vegetarian stirfry.  Big meals and pretty reasonable cost.

Our stop tomorrow night is Townsville.  Should be interesting seeing the V8 Supercars are in town this weekend too!

Went to the Springs 4×4 Park for Easter…I must say… I had a ball!

A bunch of us left from Brisbane and drive up there on the Friday, and then left on the Sunday morning. Apart from a few ppl having cold showers the camp grounds were excellent.

Friday and Sat morning was nice and dry, with the rain starting on Sat arvo…made for some interesting driving

Anyway…heres some pics…

The rest of the pics are HERE