Quick note: we are having issues getting reliable internet so are struggling to get the photos up to the internet however there should be loads in about a week all going to plan.
On with the story.......
Thursday 31 July 2014
Today we enjoyed a trip to Thursday and Horn Islands. Thursday Island (or TI as the locals call it) is the centre for business admin for the Torres Strait Islands with around 3,500 people living there. The Torres Strait people are of Polynesian/Melanesian decent rather than of indigenous Australian decent. There is however a group of TI people who are recognised, and recognise themselves, as Australian indigenous and as you can imagine this has caused problems over the years.
Thursday Island replaced Somerset (on the mainland) as the business centre because of its deep harbour, closeness to the shipping lanes and the fact it is sheltered from much of the weather which happens in these areas. The harbour is tricky to negotiate and still requires pilotage where a pilot is put onto any vessel coming into port.
The majority of the people living on TI are government employees, Defence and Quarantine being the main departments. House pricing is almost as bad as Sydney house prices as an average three bedroom house is around $700,000 so the government have had to build many housing estates to accommodate the folk who are unable to afford the average home.
TI has a rich history in defence and played a major role in the second world war. We did a tour and visited the Fort where the 3 guns commissioned remain and a maritime and war museum have been set up. The guns have been fired once during the war when a boat didn’t advise who they were so the gun fired warning shots. The boat identified itself as a “friendly” and all was well.
In the 19th and 20th centuries there was also a very large pearl harvesting industry as well harvesting of beche de mer (sea cucumber) and trochus shells. Pearl harvesting is still done on a small scale but since the invention of plastic buttons the demand decreased. There were many Japanese men working in the pearl industry here and as time went by there were many deaths as the pearls had to be found at deeper and deeper depths .
TI as several primary schools, one high school and a tafe (polytechnic). There are three pubs and 13 churches on the island!
Horn Island is larger than TI and has a small village with small resort and shop. A ferry goes between TI and Horn fairly regularly and takes about 20min to get across. Horn also supplies water to TI from several large dams and also receives all of TIs rubbish which is used as land fill.
We did a tour here with Heritage Tours and were bussed around and looked at many different areas of WWII significance. Horn Is played a large part in WWII as an airfield which was home to many bombers and fighters and was also the 3rd most bombed town or city in Australia. TI strangely did not receive as any bombing raids as there was a rumour that a Japanese princess was on TI but this is only a rumour and has never been confirmed.
It was a big day out and we were all happy to get back to Loyalty Beach.
We did have a stop in at the wreckers to borrow some wire to “fix” the LPG tank guard. While there, the guy mentioned they had pulled out 45 cars from the OTT to date.
Friday 1 Aug
This morning we returned the wire to Bamaga Wreckers, filled up with fuel and headed south having ticked off one of the “must-dos” of our trip in visiting the tip. On the way back to the Eliot Falls camping area, we stopped into one of the more notorious OTT crossings which is called Nolans Creek. We arrived in there to find about 5 other cars camped in there, one of which had been pulled out and was just drying out before they carried on. They had set up some camp chairs down near the water to watch people go through. The main problem with Nolans Creek is that it is quite deep, over most bonnets as you drive through which is why the local wrecker in Bamaga has his phone number on a tree nearby. Rumour has it he charges $2,000 to recover your car! The water is very clear and the young kids there were swimming in the shallow part. As we were talking to some of the people there, four young blokes pulled up in their Hilux and Landcruiser. They were very dirty and had obviously been camping up and down the track so they did the walk through the creek to check depth and line etc (after jumping in from a bank a couple of times) then promptly drove through without any drama at all.
We wussed out of doing the crossing (still a long way to go you know!) and back tracked the way we’d come in and headed to Fruitbat Falls for a swim which was lovely. We then continued onto Eliot Falls where we set up camp once again then jumped into the water which was fantastic. Our vote was Eliot Falls over Fruitbat Falls because of the big rocks to jump off.
Dinner that night was sausages and “squeaky cheese” (haloumi) cooked on the fire.
Saturday 2 Aug
After packing up we headed back down part of the OTT and came upon a tricky looking river crossing across Cockatoo Creek. We stopped and had a bite to eat for lunch and Richard walked across and wasn’t really too sure how to attack it. After 10min or so, some folk turned up on the other side and after the obligatory walk through, drove through it no problem. A few minutes later, another car turned up and also had no problem so we headed on down to the creek. The river did have some big holes but in the end it wasn’t too bad and less deep than some of the other rivers we’d already crossed getting to Eliot Falls. There was also a quite steep bank to get out once you’d left the river but with the guidance of another driver on the other side it wasn’t too bad either. While talking to this driver, he mentioned of all the tracks he’d been on so far, this was the only crossing to have a croc warning sign on. So, all four of us had been walking around in the river and Didge and Trish had crossed to take some GoPro footage as well!
We then drove further along the OTT to a crossing called Gunshot. This is one of the notorious crossings because the entry to the river is so steep. We think there are about 8-9 entries into the river, only one of which Richard thought we would attempt (not that we did as there is a bypass road back a bit) and even this one was fairly steep. Going South to North would mean you’d come down the bank and would have gravity on your side, however, North to South would mean you’d have to have a winch. When we parked up, I had a chat to the 4 young blokes we’d bumped into at Nolans the day before. They’d camped here the night waiting to see some action before they attempted it themselves. We found out they’d done the entire track from South to North and were now heading back down the entire track again. They both had winches and knew they had to use them but they were just deciding which bank to tackle. A couple of the banks were near vertical and unless you’ve a dedicated 4wd for that sort of thing, we couldn’t see how you could even come down most of them!
We did hear a story about a family that got stuck in one of the crossings (Palm Creek – the first crossing of the OTT) overnight. They had a camper trailer on and got stuck going across. There was no-one around to pull them out so their truck & camper had to stay there the night!
Richard thinks we may well have to visit the OTT again but CJ might have to have a bit of new gear to tackle some of the tricker crossings. Trish thinks she is busy for this holiday so some of the boys might have to go with Richard.
We drove onto Bramwell Junction to collect the trailer (which was thankfully still there!), then onto Morton Telegraph station for the night. Morton has a very nice grass camping area which was a welcome change after dust and sand.
Sunday 3 Aug
We spent some time rearranging the trailer and car, did some washing ($6 per load – most expensive so far!) and changing fridge connection as it had fallen out a few times over the rough, corrugated roads. (Note to Dave T, you know how you were talking about changing to Anderson plugs? Well, the fridge end has been done for you! Happy to sort out your car when we are back).
We found out Morton has a runway which has a plane come in once a week to deliver a mail bag which they deliver for local folk. The station also caters for many large coach tours.
We had packed up and were on the road to Musgrave Roadhouse around midday. It was a big drive and the road was the roughest of the lot so far, some of the corrugations you could really only do about 30-40kph. You need to experience how rough these roads are, we did manage to see a fairly new 200 series Landcruiser which had just speared off a corner on the corrugations and there are many, many stories of suspension failure and trailers falling apart. One couple we ran into mentioned a trailer failure which had the A frame on one side of the road, the tray part on the other and all their belongings strewn across the road between the two earlier that day.
Got into Musgrave (the last remaining telegraph station house) fairly late and had dinner there at the restaurant, once again, nice hamburger however not as nice as the Archer River one.
Monday 4 Aug
We had parked up beside a young family who were travelling for 12 months (3 kids are all under 5!) and decided to have a mini convoy to Normanton. We got an hour or so into the drive and found them parked on the side of the road with what looks like a bent chassis as the tray was bent up although it wasn’t obvious where the bend was so weren’t sure that was where the problem was. We travelled together crossing the Mitchell River which used to cause all sorts of problems to cross as it is very sandy and wide and the local station landowner would charge $1,500 to pull you out. Thankfully there is now a causeway so it wasn’t a problem. We stopped on the other side of the river and had a sandwich for lunch and this was the first time on the entire trip we’d actually felt it was hot.
Thankfully the road wasn’t as rough as the previous day but there were still some rough and corrugated patches and was a fairly long day arriving into the Normanton camp ground around 6.30pm.
Tuesday 5th Aug
We had tried to figure out what the problem was with the other car which meant there were a lot of other folk coming around and offering advice/help also. Great thing about this travelling thing, generally there are many other folk offering to lend a hand if they can. There wasn’t much we could do so we’re not sure how they got on but when we have some phone reception we’ll give them a call as it would be good to meet up again.
We had a look around Normanton, checked out the statue of the largest official crocodile shot (Krys is his name and he’s just over 8m long!), did a big grocery shop, bought some oil to do an oil and filter change and then hit the road to Burke and Wills Roadhouse. While we don’t know that much about Burke and Wills, we believe they were the first two to go overland from Adelaide to Darwin (or there abouts). The road to the roadhouse was sealed all the way which was excellent for a change. After a quick fill up and an ice cream we headed out for Adels Grove campground right next door to the Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park. We arrived in the dark so found it a bit tricky to find a spot but did manage to find a lovely shady spot in the aptly named Grove.
Wednesday 6th August
Today we explored the park to find a great swimming spot in the river. There are freshwater crocodiles in the river but these are timid and will stay out of your way (unless provoked). The swimming spot has a pontoon and swing rope so was a great place to spend the afternoon. We were a bit nervous about the crocodiles for a start but there were lots of people coming and going in the river and none of them got eaten so we figured it was ok!
Thursday 7th August
Today we went into Boodjamulla National Park to canoe up Lawn Hill Gorge. The gorge is amazing – steep red walls and amazing views. Along this first section we found our first freshie (Freshwater croc) in the wild. The freshie is not as big nor aggressive as the salty and is much more timid however it’s not unheard if he gets annoyed to have a go at people so it’s not a clever thing to get too close. The canoe trip goes up the first gorge then you have to drag the canoes over the pass to reach the top of the gorge. This takes you up to the source of the river (spring and run-off fed) which is where there are many fish waiting for tasty morsels to come in from the springs and run-offs. It looks like the fish might also be fed from the canoes the way they were following us. On the way back we stopped at the pass and had a swim where the falls are. It was nice for a swim however in the back of your mind is the fact just a few hundred metres away there is a croc sunbaking on the bank, at least there was when we paddled up! When dropping the canoes off we were told the croc had actually disappeared for around an hour, just about the time we were swimming but he was back there when we came back again so must have found some food elsewhere thankfully. Emily did say she didn’t think he was very big but we figured at around 3m if that was hanging onto your leg it’s plenty big enough.
We then travelled down the road a bit further to visit the Riversleigh fossil site which is open to the public. At the bottom of the small hill, there is a large manmade rock which doubles as an info centre and a toilet. It fits really well into the whole view as it’s not obviously out of place. The walk takes about half an hour and it was very hot (mid 30s) so with hats and sunscreen on we took a wander looking at fossils of large fresh water crocs, large flightless birds, carnivorous kangaroos (who knew!) and turtles.
Back at camp we jumped into the water and had a swim and the kids met 2 girls almost exactly the same age as our two so they had a ball and it was fairly dark when we managed to extract them from the water. Dinner was a “stove top Pizza” cooked on a fire on the cast iron fry pan which Emily stated was “the best meat lovers pizza” she had ever had.
Friday 8th August
Today we had planned to head off however the kids had found a couple of friends, we had to at least write the blog (if not upload!) as well as change the oil in CJ so we figure it would be a while before we can do all of those things so we’d do it today.
The Kids had arranged to meet up at the river at 9.30 so Trish sat in the shade beside the river and updated the blog while Richard went in search of firewood. With both morning tasks accomplished we had to drag the children out of the water at 12.30 to have lunch but shortly after lunch they were quickly back in the water while Richard changed the oil and filter and Trish added more to the blog.
After coming back from the oil change, Richard thought it was time for a swim so wandered down to where the kids were. They weren’t there however as there was a freshie about 5m away from where they had been swimming all morning. He was well hidden in the bamboo and obviously hadn’t been bothered by all the noise and commotion. The kids had moved down to a much safer spot however it was too shallow and not in the sun so they came back to the pontoon where the croc was only to find he was no longer there. While it didn’t stop the kids jumping in for another 15min, I could tell it was on their minds.
We had enough firewood to cook a sausage stew in the camp oven so this we threw in a whole heap of vege and some sausages and viola, our first use of Cath and Pete’s camp oven completed successfully.
We had a social evening with the other family the kids had made friends with which was a wonderful change from just ourselves.
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