Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007 at 16:12
Hi Greame,
There is no "conservative road", there is only one way till you get to Bramwell
Junction, from there on you have a choice of the OTL (
Overland Telegraph Line) track or the Development Rd.
Most of
Ross' photo's are of the OTL, this track changes from year to year but with your rig you won't have a problem, when I got to the gunshot there was a newly graded "highway" to the left of the steep crossings which you could have driven a commodore through, the following year it was gone so
check it out when you get there, there is an easy bypass around if you don't want to do it.
The last half of
Ross' pics are the northern half of the OTL which is a little rougher than the southern half, (Nolans Brook, the log bridges, etc.) if you don't want to do this bit you can take the Development rd from Elliot Falls to the
Jardine river ferry.
If you're worried about scratches have a look at my rig pics, the photo of the bike 'head on' on the sandy track is the OTL and is as close as the foliage gets to the track.
On a whole, the corrugations on the development rd are the only thing that could give you any major dramas, as long as you use normal common sense, if you put good quality shocks on and lower your tyre pressures to around 25-30psi (depending on how much crap you have jammed in your car :-) and take it easy at say 40-60kph give or take, according to where you feel the most comfortable, you will have an enjoyable trip with no damage whatsoever.
You would be surprised at the amount of people that run up there with 50psi in the tyres and try to do 90kph because they're on a time limit, you will find they are the ones that "blow" shocks and do countless other damage.
The Hema '
Cape York' map should be the only map you need and the book '
Cape York an adventurer's guide' by Ron and Viv Moon is an extremely good source of info for the whole area.
Remember, your vehicle was built for this sort of travel and isn't this precisely what you bought it for?
Cheers
Pezza
AnswerID:
235760
Follow Up By: bob&loz - Saturday, Apr 28, 2007 at 22:19
Saturday, Apr 28, 2007 at 22:19
Pezza "there is only one way till you get to Bramwell Junction"
which is your one way. I have been up twice and have gone different ways each time. Last trip (2 cars 1 towing trak shak camper) Bloomfield
Cooktown then up the coast through starke to
cape Melville, Lakefield, Musgrave than Etc etc. On way back down to
Laura than the old coach road to
maytown and
palmer river roadhouse.
Admittedly first trip was a good few years ago (1986 lone FJ55) and you probably would have trouble doing some of it now but up to palmer roadhouse,
maytown, palmerville station,
laura,
weipa,
stones crossing, agnew airfield, bramwell etc etc return was out to mouth of
jardine and down the coast (in the ocean) to capt billys landing, musgrave, hanns crossing, old
laura,
cooktown, bloomfield
Bob
FollowupID:
497582
Follow Up By: bob&loz - Sunday, Apr 29, 2007 at 09:42
Sunday, Apr 29, 2007 at 09:42
whoops i meant skirting the
jardine via the east coast not the mouth
FollowupID:
497634
Follow Up By: Pezza (Bris) - Sunday, Apr 29, 2007 at 11:04
Sunday, Apr 29, 2007 at 11:04
Hi Bob,
Read the original post, do you really think the ways you mentioned are the most "conservative" tracks ?
If you would recomend the 'starke' track or 'the old stage coach track' out of
Maytown to someone who is looking for "the most conservative roads" whist towing a camper trailer, then I don't think I'll be taking any of your recomendations !
There are another dozen or so ways other than yours if you include jetskis and bikes aswell, but I answered according to his post.
Pezza
FollowupID:
497653