Wednesday, Mar 24, 2021 at 21:32
I very much understand the question posed & share Siringo's concerns. I also share Jim S1's sentiments.
We too will be experiencing the Cape this year, and as far as possible avoiding the crowds....... and still don't really have an idea as to how easy this will be.
Our 'plan' if you can call it that is to spend at least the full dry season, & very possibly over the next wet season too up here.
Our hope is to make what connections we can with people culture & country - a very different outlook to many guided by the glossy & often macho 4wd magazines etc.
The fallback position is that if we can't manage to see the Cape as we would like to, we may leave it earlier than planned & go elsewhere. To do that would be disappointing, but less disappointing than feeling we were at the unpaved end of the
Gold Coast.
Currently we have been caretaking at
Portland Roads since mid February & expect to be here at least until the end of April, possibly mid May. Experiencing the area, Chilli Beach in particular without anyone around, & without the wind which comes later in the year is fantastic. It's so hard to imagine the place with wall to wall tourists rushing to get the Cape 'done'.
We are also endeavouring to build what contacts we can with folk who live on the Cape with
places we can stay when we drive back up later in the year, tourist free private properties.
Places that 99.9 % of tourists would never know existed. Currently we have a station with beautiful camping by
waterholes we can visit for as long as we like , mid Cape (have already camped there for a couple of weeks last year) a possibility of a 'base' (flexible house sit) up near
Seisia, & a couple of other
places. Just today we got to speak to someone again who we met briefly once a few weeks ago & were later told, by others, of the idyllic nature of he & his family's
home & property on the mouth of the
Pascoe River. Remote by Cape standards, accessed mostly by air or by boat via the coast, but also accessible by by what sounds like a fairly tough 4wd track off the PDR. Lovely bloke. We asked about visiting to
camp for a bit - (Them that don't ask dont get!) I'm expecting a map to be emailed to me soon, apparently essential as "there are around a 100kms of tracks in & around our property & very easy to get lost". Even if we only get to spend a few days in
places like this I hope the experience will be at least enough to to provide the wilderness experience we want balanced in contrast to the crowded holiday park version of the Cape that many get. And it does look like the Cape will be extra busy this year.
So the plan is 'time' plus 'keeping our fingers crossed'. :)
FollowupID:
913418