Cape York - this is how it was!! - Revisited!

Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 06:57

ThreadID: 36572 Views:3614 Replies:10 FollowUps:6

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Member - Ivan (ACT)

Sorry for the dramas last night guys - the web administrator thought he was under some sort of "web attack" because he got so many hits in the space of five minutes.. - so he turned it off.. !!

For those that tried, and it was down - it's back up - and by posting this before 7am, (instead of 10pm), I'm thinking it will get a trickle of hits rather than a blast ;-)

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Cheers

Ivan

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Reply By: Member - Bruce and Anne - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:19

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:19

Nice read Ivan, thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Cheers Bruce

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Reply By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:29

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:29

Good photos and trip notes.

Thanks

Brought back some memories from 15 years ago on our first trip.
That bridge at the Wenlock spoils it though.
And you can not drive the Jardine either now I believe.
But still plenty of fun in between if you are not in a hurry :o)

AnswerID: 187776

Follow Up By: Member - Ivan (ACT) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:34

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 07:34

Hi mate - I understand you can drive the Jardine.. There is the new crossing where the ferry is - which has (as I understand it) been dredged so that you can't drive through.

Then there is the old crossing, which is very wide and you'd be game to do it unless you saw someone else do it first!!

On the Hema map, it just says it (old crossing) is dangerous and not recommended.

A mate of mine told me his mate did the old crossing three years ago (at night!)

or... Have I got it mucked up - did they dredge the old crossing so that you have to use the new.. Am sure someone will clarify ;-)

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Follow Up By: Geoff (Newcastle, NSW) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 08:14

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 08:14

"That bridge at the Wenlock spoils it though."
Who put that there?

"And you can not drive the Jardine either now I believe"
What gives?

I guess it's 20 years since the mates and I did the trip, could be time to plan another one!

Thanks Ivan, you've brought back some great memories,

Geoff.

Geoff,

Grey hair is hereditary, you get it from children. Baldness is caused by watching the Wallabies.

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Follow Up By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 at 14:49

Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 at 14:49

We drove the old crossing at the Jardine about 15 years ago.
Not too bad since it was a dryish season.
This year it looks a bit wetter by the photos.
Even then the jardine was above the 31" tyres most of the way, you could put your hand out of the window at one spot and put it in the water, so I suppose about 200mm below the window sill.
Deepest bit was just before the north bank.
Was a few holes to miss too.

I think they may have dredged it even deeper to stop people from using it.
When we were there the barge was bottoming out on the sandy bed, it was that low.

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Reply By: Member - Brian H (QLD) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 09:23

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 09:23

Great read and looked like everyone had a good time apart from the diff. Some great shots I know when i did the trip 600 photos later and that was over two weeks as the laptop died so could not download till back in cooktown. A pity but lesson learnt.

Would like to do a 6 - 8 week trip there.

Brian

AnswerID: 187806

Reply By: draff - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 13:44

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 13:44

Great web site! I really enjoyed looking through your photos! We travelled the cape this year in June and it was incredible to see the difference in river heights and the amount of water around in just one months difference.

AnswerID: 187845

Reply By: Geoff (Newcastle, NSW) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 15:42

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 15:42

Thanks Ivan,
Great trip report!
Sounds like everyone had fun despite the diff, sounds like Toyota need more than one in stock for Australia!

Geoff.

Geoff,

Grey hair is hereditary, you get it from children. Baldness is caused by watching the Wallabies.

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Reply By: Member - John L G - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 18:43

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 18:43

Ivan

What a great read and well presented. Whets the thirst somewhat.

Most impressed with some of your pics and wondering what type of camera was the main player. ? lots of pixels, good lenses, digital SLR blah blah blah

Well done

AnswerID: 187905

Follow Up By: Member - Ivan (ACT) - Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 22:52

Tuesday, Aug 08, 2006 at 22:52

mate - there were five different cameras - two options - tell me the filename of the ones you like (they may be a single camera, but I'll be able to tell you)

or

download the photo's you like and look at the metadata - many photo progs, and also Windows Explorer will tell you all sorts of info about the photo, including what make and model of camera took them...

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Follow Up By: Member - John L G - Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:35

Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:35

Ivan
The second option sounds a bit technical to me but I was pretty impressed with the pics of the birds, butterfly and tree frog.

Images seemed very clean for a happy snap camera???
Thanks for the info.

FollowupID: 445329

Follow Up By: Member - Ivan (ACT) - Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:39

Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:39

Birds and butterfly were with a DMC-FZ20 – see Site Link

Tree frog was with a QV-R51 – see Site Link

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Reply By: Member - Helena B (NSW) - Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:06

Wednesday, Aug 09, 2006 at 11:06

Hi Ivan
Just finally got to look properly at your photos etc, what a great trip! It brought back some great memories of when we were there in a lot of the same places two years ago. Now I want to go again - I think we'd stay in some places for even longer, and go to more places. Somerset sounds good, and is a place we hadn't considered staying.

Cheers

Helena

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Reply By: Muddies Doe(Trippn) - Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 at 16:19

Thursday, Aug 10, 2006 at 16:19

Hi Ivan

I have had a very quick browse through your website.
I will go back to view more when time permits over the weekend.
Thank you for posting your journal and a selection of your wonderful photos.

I can't wait to go back up there and take Muddy too!
Hopefully when we sit down together and view your pics he will see what I have been saying all along......Cape York, it's an amazing place!!!
Cya
:)

AnswerID: 188371

Reply By: RippinRutman - Friday, Aug 11, 2006 at 13:14

Friday, Aug 11, 2006 at 13:14

G'day folks.

I was on the trip with Ivan.

It was a mate of my fiance's that told me he drove the Jardine at night in a Discovery TD. He said a couple of times the lights were that far underwater that he could tell where he was headed (and judging by the width of the Jardine i now believe him).

He also said the... local indigious population were responsible for the 'holes'. At first they used dynamite....

Its a shame as the river would be a real hoot. I would have loved to have walked it but i think i participate in enough extreme sports ;o)

For those of you thinking about heading up... stop thinking and GO!! It was the best 4x4 trip i have ever done.

Already teething to get back up there, this time on my motorbike .

Steve (Rutman)

AnswerID: 188528