<span class="highlight">cape</span> <span class="highlight">york</span> <span class="highlight">camping</span>

Star

From my experience, April is a bit early to do the cape. If they have a good wet season (and it looks like they might) all the creek crossings will be up. The Wenlock has a bridge but many other places require wet tyres.

The usual rule is go from June/July onwards. You need to do the telegraph track rather than just the bypass roads otherwise you will miss some spectacular country.

Trailers do get taken up there but they need to be very strong and have 360 coupling.

Alan

I have just come back from the cape and towed my camper up and back.... As far as 4x4 terrain it is not that tough on the vehicles.. I was expecting to be climbing hills and dragging the thing behind me but it was a piece of cake.. The Telegraph track is a nice drive but the bypasses are pretty much just dusty corrugated roads..

Your trailer will HAVE to have good solid suspension capable of taking a beating from the currugations as there are millions of them up there...

As for camping... we had 3 cars all with women and children on board so we stayed at the designated camp grounds each night so we had toilets etc... cost about $20 - $30 per night to camp ... added up pretty quickly!! But there was always a spot to put the camper..

If the traileris up to the corrugations then I don't think you will be terribly challenged by the driving.. take it easy and watch out for the dust holes etc..

Cheers

I got plenty of go ... got a turbo diesel 80 series cruiser.... Just makes the drive more comfortable....

I don't think the lack of power will hamper you too much at all.... As long as your car will be able to drag its butt up short sharp creek exits (and there is only 2 or 3 of them that I would even consider a worry of any type) in low gear you will be fine.

I had been led to believe that the cape had very difficult terrain and that if you went up there I would need maximum traction and power etc etc... I did Lakefield Nat park, Developmental Road, Weipa Road, Baclavia downs road, Telegraph track, Southern bypass road, Captain Billy's road and a few others thrown in for good luck with absolutely no probs at all...

I found that the actual 4x4 terrain was not difficult however the corrugations are a killer... suspension is the biggest key to having a successful trip. There will always be someone along who can assist you up a steep incline if you get stuck but if your suspension fails you are pretty much on your own until you get it fixed.

My camper is not a big brand one, it was made at Maroochydore Qld by Rod's engineering and to be honest did the trip with ease... Mind you it has Hilux suspension throughout and is built with a triple A frame etc for the heavy stuff.

I took 3 spare tyres expecting to be changing them regularly and didn't even look like getting a single flat tyre.. There were 3 cars in my group and we all had either BFG Muddies or Cooper STT's on and not a single flat between us for a total of 23000klm.

As far as camping goes... We cryovaced our meat and took something like 15 meals away with us... that was a good call as meat etc is very expensive us north but you can still get it so if space is a concern pack for 10 days as you can always top up as you go at the bigger towns.

Any more questions feel free to ask..

Cheers