For years we had zoomed up and down the east coast, rarely stopping to draw breath until we had arrived at our destination. This time it was going to be different, we had designated it a "tourist holiday."
We had a lot of fun, stopping at the
Gold Coast tourist parks etc with the kids. I was towing a box trailer full of camping gear and two spare jerry cans of diesel. Finally we pulled into a caravan park in
Cairns and settled down for a few days.
Now Jan should have known better, but she expressed a desire to see
Cooktown. For years I had wondered what all the fuss was about building the road through the rainforest, and looked forward to seeing what the protesters had been on about. I neglected to tell Jan that there was another way to
Cooktown.
I also neglected to
check and see how much rain they'd had on the track. "I'll just go and take a peek and if it looks hairy I'll turn around" I thought. I didn't realize that with the trailer, once you were on it you were committed. Just after
Daintree we were flagged down by a Nissan with 4 guys in it who advised us to turn back. "Our inclinometer went off the dial" advised one of them. I smiled on the inside. "Tourists" I said to myself and carried on. Yes there was a bit of water around but so what ? The HJ60 could handle it.
Until I stopped on the first
hill with a view and slowly started to slide. Nowhere to turn around, we were committed.
Apart from traction problems in a creek which I solved with some boulders under the wheels, we were doing
well. Splashing, bashing and crashing through mud holes were continued until we reached the
Daintree River. The tide was on the rise but we could see vehicles on the other side so it must be Ok right ? Wrong ! Into the river, 2nd high in 4wd. About half way across the engine stalled.
Now you never ever restart a diesel engine in a water crossing, chances are you'll destroy it. Especially without a
snorkel. But I looked at the rising tide, the sign next to me that said saltwater crocodiles, and turned the key. I think that the moment the engine fired I knew just how lucky we were.
With water streaming out of the crevices of the vehicle, we carefully stopped on dry land. To stop my knees knocking I walked across to the guys with a camera on a tripod and asked them what they were doing.
"Oh, we're filming idiots like you" said the bloke with a grin.
My knees were still knocking when we reached
Cooktown , only to find that our track had been closed to traffic for several days ! I've always wondered why that sign was on the wrong end of that track.
To make matters worse, the Jerries had leaked diesel all over everything in the trailer. And just to reinforce how silly I'd been, on the inland road out of
Cooktown the trailer spare wheel came unstuck and rolled past me into the bush. Do you think I could find it ?
For all I know it's still there somewhere.