Comment: Cape York

Hi,

I'll start it off with some comments and questions. 3 weeks is not a lot of time to do the Cape so you will have to limit what you see & do. What sort of vehicle are you driving? Are you towing a camper, tenting it, swags etc? Alone or in convoy with others?

I have travelled to the tip twice in the last 4 years. For me, the pinnacle, apart from the tip itself, was the iconic Old Telegraph Track, a must do for me. Hence the reason I ask what vehicle etc. Are you into full on 4WDing? The OTT is not that difficult, but there are pitfalls if you are not careful. You need to thoroughly research the OTT and make up your own mind. There are plenty of YouTube videos of crossings like the 1st one south to north at Palm Creek and the last one at Nolans Brook where a lot of vehicles drowned this year !!!

The Peninsula Development Road is fine straight to the top but can be badly corrugated in places, dependent on time of year, when it was graded etc. It doesn't take long to deteriorate. We were there in late July, early August and it was pretty good considering. Other places you could consider visiting - Weipa, Chilli Beach, Captain Billy's Landing, Frenchmans Track (YouTube the Pascoe River crossing), Vrilya Point. A day trip to Thursday Island was great too.

Just a few thoughts of mine. I am sure others will be able to assist more. Have a look as well at the My Swag forum. A bloke on there has been leading groups of forum members to Cape York for a number of years and the reading/photos/videos etc may well give you all the information you need.

Cheers,

Dave

Interesting. What do you call alot when drowning. Why are they drowning eg no snorkel!
not checking depths ! bogging down!

Hi Christine,

You don't mention if there are kids involved but if there are (particulary very young ones) it would be a rushed trip. To put that into some perpective, we have done the trip a few times with the last trip being our shortest (4 weeks) included two young families. It was a very fast trip for the kids in particular as they needed their breaks etc.

We passed through Lakefield via Laura (not Cooktown as it was too time consuming) then onto Weipa and from there to the falls before a side trip to Verillia Point. Then onto Punsand Bay and Iron Range on the return. All stops were a couple of days and overnighters which meant a lot of setting up and packing with little time to enjoy the trip.

I don't mean to put a damper on you planning but it is 1800k from Brisbane to Cairns and another 1000k to the top which is a long way. Having said that our first trip in 1993 was only 4 weeks and we had a great time just be mindfull there will be little time to put the feet up.

Kind regards

We travelled to the Cape in July-August of this year.

I to am from Brisbane, so I'll list what we did for you.

We took three days to do the Bruce and get to Cairns, stopped at Rocky and then Townsville.....we had a couple of nights in Cairns (which we had done before but it was an opportunity for a last stock up and recheck everything)...From there to the Daintree (great spot for 2 nights) and from there on the Bloomfield Track to Cooktown. Personally (due to the wind) I didn't like Cooktown, we had 3 nights there but that could be cut to 1. From there we went up through the Lakefield NP (nice trip and roads in good order) staying overnight at Kalpowar Crossing (I'd spend 2 next time) and then over to join the PDR at Musgrave and over to Chilli Beach (also windy but we managed a camp spot out of the wind). We did 2 nights there, visited Portland Roads and the Lockart River airport (to see the 2nd world war memorial). Then across to Weipa for 2 nights to resupply...not much to see there but we enjoyed it. From there up to Bramwell Junction and the Old Telegraph Track...more on that now.

The first crossing is pretty tough (Palm Creek) BUT there is a detour around it, just ask Jamie at Bramwell Junction. And I'd agree Nolans Brook is terrible and we avoided that BUT the rest is doable and part of the magic that is the Cape.

We had a few nights at Twin Falls / Elliot Falls....great spot, highlight of the trip!!

We did all of the OTT except Nolans Brook, even with a snorkel I wasn't going to take my Prado near that....but fun to watch others try!!

From there we went to Loyalty Beach, great campground and facilities...we had 4 nights and did the Tip and Thursday Island on two of the 3 free days.

We then expressed down to Laura, and then back to Brisbane with another 2 nights on the way home....so about 3 1/2 weeks all up. We did miss Captain Billys Landing (which I hear is nice) but we thought we'd got our "fix" at Chilli anyway.

Great trip, do it again tomorrow

Looking to go june 2013. Was Nolans and the first river deep and boggy due extra water or due to alot of vehicles chopping up the bottom due to spinning wheels. I assume there are no by passes for these two
What are the conditions like going from Port Stewart thru Running Creek to Musgrave
Understand could be different next year

We camped at Bramwell and went down to Palm Creek for a squiz that afternoon before doing the OTT the next day. We did see a guy come through from the North, the exit out (the one that claims all the side steps going the other way) was that steep he had to winch out, and even that was tough going. Water is no issue here only entry and exit.

South to North it's doable, the other way is also but you'd have to say far more extreme.

Whilst having never tacked Nolans personally, I'd agree with the above comment re tyre pressures.....I'd take them down to maybe 12 PSI, put on your water blind and probably attack it fairly hard IF I was doing it. I elected to bypass with my 2 year old Prado as I felt it just wasn't worth the risk, but it's certainly fun to see people having a crack.

Don't forget to camp at Charlie's Mine outside Coen. Great Place.