CAPE YORK Top Ten Tips for the Tip

All good tips, thanks.

Hi Warrie

Good to keep those things in mind.

The sixth beach on the five beaches run gave us a real fright
, and below i list a couple of our changed perceptions from
our 2002 sept trip.
The first point about phones has changed and i don't know the current situation.




CHANGED PERCEPTIONS
----------------------------------------------------------
from our research we had built up a mental
picture of what to expect, it was not always correct.

1/ No Phones -> CDMA phones were used at Cooktown Coen and all across the top of Cape york including at the Tip itself.

2/Insects bad -> Basically we found very few.

3/ CROCODILES -> Many people told us none any more on main
4wd routes,we certainly saw no signs and swam everywhere like
everyone else.

4/ STINGERS etc -> None because it was not yet Summer but
swimming was not allowed at PUNSAND bay, the main 4wd campground.

5/Development rd Corrugations -> Worst than expected, took out
Patrols shocker and many small things , Kids played game of
counting Bullbars fallen off cars.

6/4WD NEEDED to get to CAPE YORK -> There is not a single 4WD
type obstackle between Melb. and Tip on the main roads, it
just hard & rocky and you need the very best tyres/suspension.
The top has severval small towns connected by bitumem roads.

FAVOURITE PLACE - Fruit Bat Falls? Elliot Falls? the tip? - No
For us a number of things came together to make the Pascoe
river camp on the Chilli beach rd our most remembered spot.

Just before Pascoe river crossing on main road from chilli beach,
we saw the unmarked side track though
that leads to the river bank. The area had recently been burnt off.
About 100m in someone had cut the head of a cow and stuck it
on a pole (warning ?) , the bulging eyes were gross.
Driving past this down the track we came to a line of large
Fig trees under a green canopy that surrounds the rivers edge.
We saw 1 car which turned out to be a Victorian couple from near
us in Ringwood. We drove down the steep sandy embankment onto
the 50m wide sand bank before the narrow river. Weighted up
all factors and decided to camp on the sand bank.
Light nice fire and cooked our last apple crumble in the bedourie
oven. With our wheels and tents in the sand , cold cream and
chardonay from the esky , women nearby ,the distant red glows
from burning off and beautiful green canopy above ,I can
assure you that heaven was not far away.

Great info.

25 more sleeps untill we undertake our maiden Cape York voyage.

Were on our way on the 28th june 2008 from sunny coast for 5 weeks. We are on count down. see you there

no crocs up the cape, what do you do, drive with your eyes closed. we did the cape in 2006 and here's a list of places i saw crocs:

1: on a daintree river cruise, we stayed at daintree overnight and then took a cruise the next morning, saw atleast 4 crocs in that short river cruise.

2: just as we were leaving the wujal wujal community, whilst driving along one of the ladies in our group of cars spotted a monster on the other side of the river bank. we stopped on the side of the bitumin road to take pics and were soon joined by a couple of other keen holiday makers taking pics.

3:crossing a bridge over a small creek along the developmental road i stopped to get out of the dust my mate in fronts vehicle was kicking up, looked down at the sandbank on the side of the creek and noticed a couple of what looked like tree branches. looked abit harder and noticed they were actually 4 small crocs.

4: pennefeather river, whilst camped there for a couple of nights we saw a big croc on the other side of the riverbank . it was there pretty much the whole time we were

SNAKES!!!
saw plenty of them, mostly whilst driving thankfully. though the big brown that came through the middle of the seisa caravan park camp area was not a welcome visitor. people jumping up onto tables and chairs left right and centre.

biggest shock up the cape was not the price of fuel or alcohol, but the price of coke, can't remember exact prices but remember thinking the price was rediculous.

Here's one for you..went to purchase a packet of smokes at the Seisia supermarket and was told they are $20 a packet..hmm i thought ..might need some for the return trip so I'll get a carton(4 packets)..checkout chick says that will be $ 96...huh..wait a minute...I ask her if I buy 4 packets it will cost me $80 but a carton of 4 will cost me $96..why is that...she says "doooooh a carton wieghs more then a single packet so it costs more to frieght it here "...i look at her and say " OK " I'll just have 4 packets then for $80...now she was dark haired and dark skin and I'm a dumb blonde whitey but I think the brain cells were on special when hers were issued.

THANKS FOR THE HEADSUP ON ROOD CONS WE LEAVE TASSIE TOMORROW HEADING TO CAPE 79 SERIES +KIMBERLEY AND MATE WITH A HILUX AND SLIDEON HAVE PACKED SPARE SHOCS FOR BOTH CAR AND TRAILER ANY FURTHER ADVISE APP

Gidday John, hope you have a safe trip, it's a long drive from Tassie!! Regarding roads I have learnt from the forum that a road can be graded one day and in a couple of months can be back to it's horrible corrugated self. On our trip they had just done the section of the PDR between Archer roadhouse and the turn off to Chilli beach and also the windy section south of Archer. These bits were smooth and as good as tar, see if they are as good for you after two months of traffic.
The northern bypass had some very sandy sections with two deep tracks for your wheels so just slow down to 40 to 60 clicks. Also some corrugated corners but nothing worse than say 1 km of them, then the dirt /sand would change and you'd be out of them. You 'll learn to pick the colour of the dirt which gives the worst bumps.
I drove a '99 Pathfinder towing an old Jayco Swan weighing just under a tonne loaded. Car tyres at 26psi front and rear on the dirt and no flats in 2500km of dirt. Did 11,250 km all up return from Sydney at 24cents per km costing $2,700 in LPG and ULP. Cheers, Warrie