Cape York

Hi CarolynB. I did the trip on my own in July. Went upthe coast road from Sydney and back down on the inland route. As far as the road went, it was quite good. They are doing quite a bit of upgrading on the road from Lakeland to Weipa. The only bad part was about sixty klms North of Bramwell Junction. It was bad. but taken it easy you make it safely. I took a Tvan behind my Xtrail and the only hic-up was the transmission cooler that came loose but I did not find that until I got back to Sydney. One Tyre had a bulge on the side wall but that got me home Ok. Go for it and enjoy it.

Hi Carolyn,
We did the Cape in July this year. We took a tent as we wanted to do the Old Telegraph Track and Frenchmans Track without a trailer.
You will be fine with a capable off road camper if you stick with the main road, strangely called the Peninsular Bypass Road. it does have its fair share of bone shaking corrugations, but drive to the conditions and you'll be OK.
It is only north of Bramwell Junction that the Old Telegraph Track (the old direct road) begins. There are some crossings here that can can be challenging especially if towing a trailer.
Mind you there were quite a few camper trailers that did this section with great success.

Carolyn B
If you want to "do the cape" and tow the camper I would suggest, to allow you to drive the Telegraph track without said trailer, you can base yourself at some where like Bramwell (Stn or Junction) and do the southern end of the track as a day trip returning on the ByPass rd and ditto for the northern section based at Eliot falls camp site and return on the bypass rd. from there you re hitch the camper and head north to the ferry along the northern bypass again.

That way you get the best of everything.

JMHO, Colin.

We had no trouble when we went up the telegraph track towing our Cavalier Off rd camper trailer ....

Hey, we are leaving Perth for the Cape on May 15th 2010. Two 4x4's both towing Camprite Off road camper trailers (built in WA). Your welcome to talk to us re tagging along, we plan to spend a week getting there via the central highway and 3-4 weeks at the cape and returning home down the Birdsville and home via the nullabour(2 weeks). 6-7 weeks all up.

Four more silver haired Gypsys.

Carolyn
We did the trip with about 80 2wd rally cars in July . Surprised me that most of them made it home with out fixing anything. Some did Cockatoo Crossing on the Tele Track with no problems. I drove the whole 9000km no worries in the cruiser. Anybody can do it gee you got a huge warm up getting here first. Going back and would take tent again. Can have more fun with out towing if you have the room for your gear with out overloading the roof rack.
As for safe, who is with what ever we do? May could be interesting/fun if we have another couple of cyclones this summer. I love river crossings.
Cheers
Sharon

We did the Telegraph Track solo with a Papas Trailer no Problems.
Just watch the 100 series on the water crossings as they will still be high. You will read on here about the fans going thru the radiator. Ensure you have a good cover over the grill and bonnet.
Just survey each crossing thoroughly before commiting

The other side of the coin. We had to get around a 4WD tourist bus with a trailer that had broken an axle on the trailer. Was just north of Bramwell Junction on the OTT.

We have a trip planned to go up there in May/June next year. We will take the Van up as far as Cooktown then do the cape with a tent camping etc. I dont think you will need to worry about being on your own up there, plenty of us retirees will be around.

We posted similar questions earlier this year, ahead of our solo Cape York trip.
Got back about 2 weeks ago, had a fantastic time. Our 80 series towed a pretty heavy duty CT, with no probs - well a few minor things - repairs to cracked exhaust, the odd small thing fallling off the CT.and a cruise contol that refuses to work, assume somethng is loose -the corrrrrugations were pretty good at times.

We did the OTT up to Fruitbat Falls, then took the bypass to avoid Nolan's Crossing. Reli's in Weipa told us that Nolan's makes a victim of about 1 in 5 cars, and being solo we didn't want to be depending on the good nature of strangers to risk their clutchs pulling us out if we got stuck.

Having said all that, we saw about half a dozen cars heading south on flatbeds. And we saw few CT's with varying damage, including a big brand unit that had a shocker literally torn off, but that guy was a bit of a cowboy. There was also a young couple who decided to do the OTT from north to south. The crossings that directon are shallow entry and steep exits. The first crossing they tried was Nolan's ..and it got 'em. Travelling solo they had no option but to open the doors and let the metre high water in around their lovely leather seats, bedding and food. Heard they spent a few days drying out at Archer River with the seats and carpet stripped.
The OTT is still an adventure and will test you and your vehicle ..and the CT. But if your prep is good and you drive with a reasonable amount of discretion, you'll have minimal probs.

We are also planning on doing the Cape trip next year around June. We're in discussions at the moment about whether to go with a hard floor or a soft floor trailer??
Also we'll be taking our Hyundai Santa Fe along for the ride. After doing substantial research on the Fe two years ago, we purchased one and she's gone like a dream the entire time. It fits the 4 kids great too! So any tips on our plan??
I can see most people like to set up for the trip with a bigger 4wd than we are, but I'm not sure it's a necessity after going back through all the posts. Trying to work within the budget you know how it is!! Happy to get there via the more drivable route if need be and will take advice about the track along the way from passers by and locals.

Lorna

I just done a trek out in the Gregory NP with Noel K, now I havn't been to the Cape but Noel has, his comments were... Cape York is a breeze compared to what we tackled over the last 6 days with average speeds of 7Kph for the 6 days, Noel was towing an off road camper.

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Carolyn,

Just got back from Camprite's factory and was told of your purchase. You have done well there, Reg's trailer is well set up.

Reg tells me you are talking about tagging along with us to the Cape next year, if so please give me a phone call and we can arrange a get together to discuss plans.

Steve and Carol 93012155