South to Cairns

Back tracking south towards Cairns, we stopped at Bativa Gold fields and camped next to the Wenlock River. 

The next day we went through quarantine just south of Coen, which was easier than I expected I just showed them our fruit & vegetables box, all wrapped in newspapers and covered with a potato sack to keep them cool, dry and prevent sweating, and that was it, on your way, no search, nothing confiscated.  I think they were looking for things like fresh mangoes (out of season), that could carry disease down from the islands to Australia's commercial crops further south.

Wenlock River at Bativa gold fields

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On down to Musgrave Road House, leaving a trail of slowly dripping petrol, where we stopped for fuel, only 50litres at a time to keep it below the leak, and a hot (cold) shower.  A family we had met couple times along the road borrowed my socket set to fix there exhaust that had rattled loose along the way, in exchange for a Bundy can each, so two cans for James, he was very happy we packed the socket set under his seat.  Found a free camp just south of Musgrave  at Morehead River, thanks again to Wikicamps, most of the camps we just find / pull up  randomly and are not on any map.  

Bativa camp under the mango trees.

It was a nice quiet camp, until kangaroos came hopping and  thumping through our camp at 2am, must of pitched in the midst of their highway. In the morning it was a straight shot south, it wasn't long before we hit the tar seal, that nearly puts you to sleep after the exciting rough dirt roads but everyone including the Challenger appreciated the smooth ride.  Stopping at Split-Rock Art just south of Laura for lunch and to explore the caves and rock art paintings.

Flying fox rock art site 

It was a nice walk part way up the hill to a couple different caves and rock art sites with a lot of paintings and descriptions of what they meant. I don't feel it's quite right to post pictures of them on here, I even hesitated to take photos, you must visit them for your self.
After a while relaxing and taking in the magic of this place we walked up the hill further, past another 'no entry' sign and up through more caves and rocky outcrops to the top of rocky plateau. Looking out over a vast  primeval valley, unchanged for 40,000 years, no sign of man's footprint, it was as if we had travelled back in time.

Split rock, rock art at Laura

Barra soup

On down the main rd to Mt Molloy, and down the hill towards Port Douglas, stopped at my favourite fruit shop again, fresh cheap bananas, dried bananas, lots of fruit & veges. We found a track leading off the road into the rain forest, it was the power line maintenance track,  camped under power lines overlooking the valley, Mossman & Port Douglas, it was a nice view.  Pitched a camp, and had Barra head soup for dinner, cooked in coconut milk with veges & a sprinkle of cumin, there was plenty of meat still on the Barra frame.

Camp in the rain forest above Port Douglas

 In the morning we carried on down to Port Douglas storage, to pick up tools oh no not more stuff to fit in somewhere. Down to cairns and camp at Trinity Beach, which was scheduled to be closed for remodelling. We will need a new camp soon.

Sunrise in the rain forest

Old time steam Engines

Steam engine wreck

Giant termite mound overtaking an old tank 

Termite mounds looks like a grave yard & tombstones all lined up the same direction. 

Primeval ancient valley, no sign on modern man. 

Good view all round 

Ruined by the road south

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Weipa & The Roofrack

Still holding on over the rough rds.

After our long drive straight from Varillia point to Weipa, and a couple days with out beer we went straight to the  Bottleo in Weipa, realised it was after 5pm on Friday, good time to buy goon, but everything else in Weipa is closed for weekend, so we did a bit of shopping and found a nice spot out at the beach to camp for the weekend, didn't wana pay $36+ per night for caravan park. We will spend that on drinks and camp for free at the beach. We did however pay $7 to store our frozens in the caravan park freezer.

Chilled out for weekend, had a go at fishing with no luck, that's OK we still got fish in fridge to eat.  Monday rolled around and it was time to go to work, doing the roof rack. 

Nice spot for it, shady roof and concrete, spoiled. 

All the required parts where waiting for us at Weipa Smash Repairs, along with my kayak guarded by the most confident vicious Jack Russel you've ever seen, leader of the pack of bigger guard dogs. The nice guys there lent us the tools we needed.

Redy to add new track mount system

 While they cranked some heavy death metal we went across the road to the car wash to do the rack undercover. It took all day, unloaded what we could off the basket, then proped it up with a couple blocks of wood, leaving all the dual battery cables in place. The new rack is attached to the outer shoulder of the roof using 10 rivets on each side and aluminium uni strut cross bars. 

It looks a lot stronger and professional than the other one that broke.  Borrowed a few extra rivets and a beer off bazza who was fixing a roof next      door and finally finished as the sun was settinmg.            

New Roof Rack-choice

                                                                                                                                                 

Metal roof lug ripped out. 

Yeah! roof racks done after 3 weeks of creaking, moaning and groaning, oh and the roof rack making noise too. There was no way of nursing it along the rough roads and tracks, give it heaps and hope it's still up on roof when u stop for the night, the jandals and ratchet straps held on the whole way round the top end.

Ahh finally got my head space back with the ratchet strap gone, and I got my jandals back, they are still good, not bad for a free pair from Trinity Beach in Cairns, only 7000kms of corrugated dirt roads on the clock.

We had a celebration that night at the beach, stayed up late listening to music with a bonfire and drinks down the beach. The next day it was back to Weipa Smash Repairs in morning to pick up kayak and other things that we unloaded to save weight. Now to fit it all in and on somewhere. Picked up our freezer stuff from caravan park ( charged us $7 a night for 3 nights in the freezer but I only paid for one),  and off out of town, south to somewhere....

Controlled (I hope) burn across the road from camp. 

The only lights in weipa, give way to giant trucks

Main bauxite port wiepa. 

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Varillia Point

After seemingly endless running around this small town, of ,shopping, getting fuel, catching bait while waiting for the bottle shop to open, we finally headed off, late in day, didn't get very far as the sun was on it's way down so we stopped at Jacky Jacky Creek.  The story goes that Jacky Jacky was a member of an early exploration expedition and was killed & eaten by cannibals here so they named the creek after him.


Our camp at Jacky Jacky creek

 A beautiful little crystal clear creek in the middle on nowhere, not even a sign post. Camped there the night and tried cooking the biggest sardines ( the hearings I caught for bait ), for dinner, the locals told us if you deep fry them for long enough the bones melt away. That kinda worked, they were very nice and lots of them, all the small bones you just chew up into bits and there OK to swallow, still lots left for bait.



Jacky Jacky creek swimming hole

On to Varillia Point, Everyone we spoke to in Bamaga said it was closed, out of bounds, the bridge is collapsed, police and rangers handing out fines, mine is developing, there's a big fence, it's a nice spot!, the stories aren't very consistent except for the underlying fact that they all said don't go, even the wise old fulla with the white beard driving the ferry muttered something when we asked, so we asked the ferry office too,


Long red dirt highways

( the closest civilisation to Varillia point ) but we thought we
would nose in there for a look. 

No sign post no markings but we found the turn off the development road, it was closed with orange hazard fence and warritars, oh and of course to scare people even more police tape and a road closed sign. There were a couple other tracks leading around the blockage just like a fallen tree on every other track we had been on.  Past the road closed barriers and off down the track before someone sees our dust trail.


The old log bridge, gateway to Varillia point 

Think light and skinny

 Apart from the rough rutted track the first obstacle we found was the old log bridge. It's marked on the map, everyone said it had collapsed, we thought maybe it had that's why it was closed but we went for a look. The bridge was very old, very skinny, dodgy, rickety, and just made of rotting gum logs sourced from nearby, but it looked wide enough and strong enough for the Challenger.  James guided me over the bridge, I couldn't even see it it was that small, then a sharp right straight after the bridge which got the gravity of the truck all wrong, lifted the front wheel and didn't feel like it was going to stop at that, so I rolled back towards the bridge and straightened up a bit, it felt much better, still got up it on 3 wheels though.


Local gum logs, termite resistant, I hope. 

Now down long rough track to the beach, over, around and through big holes and ruts that carry on for ever, fallen trees, past the mining lease boundary with nothing insight, finally we made it to Varillia Point north beach. Awesome deserted spot, with lots of picnic tables & shelters, some were just a tin roof and some gum logs, we chose one to string our hammocks up in and set the kitchen up on the table, collected some coconuts for breakfast & I had a fish off rocks. 



Afternoon snooze in the beach hammock

Got 10 rock fish, a deadly species found all over the world but seldom seen or landed due to their immense weight, you Loose your gear Almost every time, I even lost my rod to one when my back was turned. James went walking way out into the shallows of the bay with a spear looking like a real local,came back with 3 mud crabs and  a stingray for dinner.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      . 



Quiet Dingo at Varillia north

In the morning there was a Dingo watching us, waiting for us to leave so he could sniff around, these Dingo's seem like the Fraser island Dingoes, they are very weary of people and keep their distance. After another bullet proof coffee & coconut, banana, chia smoothie for breakfast, the blender is Jame's alarm, LOL.  We took down the hammocks and moved up the beach to the spit, past a ww2 light ship wreck, to a wicked camp underneath huge cassurinas , right at the mouth of the estuary. Went fishing in the river and after seeing a few bait fish being herded into the shallows I got a big Travelley. James got a couple Brim and a Flatty, and a small Dart fish. I speared some live bait and hooked onto two sharks which took my line after a quick fight, James went walking with the spear again way out the river mouth, following the low tide, I could barely see him, he came back with another crab, and a flounder, but lost his rod to a shark. Yet another Great fish dinner cooked on the fire. Time to relax it the beach hammock I found.

Varillia point lookout, north.  

In the morning I noticed the fridge wasn't cooling properly, lucky everything was still frozen so it kept it cold while I turned it off for a rest, see if that helps, must of been all the rough roads shook it up a bit.
We packed up again ,had a quick unsuccessful fish, and spotted a whole heap of pig tracks and rooting along the estuary bank, it was under the high tide too, means they were there early this morning, the tracks looked like a sow and handful of piglets, I tracked them for a while but didn't catch up. 

The light ship wreck

Varillia  Beach

Back down the beach past the wreck to Varillia point look out, nice spot for lunch with a excellent view of Varillia North. Then we carried on along the southern track over to Varillia South, just before the beach is yet another perfect crystal clear creek.Had a wash, filled drinking water drums, set Yabbie pots, did washing in creek in a sensible order of course. 



BARRAMUNDI!! 69CM

We set up camp under the shade of a Squeaky Tree, about 50m from the creek mouth,  which lasted about 15mins, then I climbed up and cut of the squeaky branch, the tree and myself said ahhh that's better.  Hung my washing on the tree and went fishing in the creek, with my last fishing rod, a short inflexible boat rod the two good ones had gotten lost. There was a nice steep bank which I thought would be too steep for crocs. Hooked up a heap of little mangrove jacks on the hand line, which were fun, they leap out of the water and either snap your line or spit it out, landing on the bank next to you. Lots of mullet cruising around, so I got some in the cast net for fresh  bait, no decent fish in the creek but I think the tide is coming in later on tonight.  After more fish for dinner I went back to the creek to tidy up in case a crocodile decided to visit, dropped a line in since there was a bit more water from the high tide, and wham, a massive fish grabbed my line without hesitation, I grabbed it and tightened the drag, then a big Barramundi lept out of the water several times, from one side of the creek, to the other, ripping line out despite the tight drag, I could see his red eyes in the torch light, finally got him to the bank, I GOT ONE ! BARRAMUNDI ! WOOHOO!

Now to swim back with a bucket full of fish. 

Cheribin are a excellent indicator of water quality. 

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After a dodgy proof photo I cleaned, gutted scaled and filleted him, down by the creek, away from camp to avoid attracting crocs, the scales are the size of my thumb nail, was easier to scrape them off by hand rather than a knife, very thick fillets came off easily leaving all bones on the frame & thick boneless fillets. Now he will fit in the fridge, which thankfully had started going again after a rest. In the morning there was a big croc slide, he had climbed up the steep sandy back and scouted out where I cleaned the Barra, lucky we aren't camped too close and any traces of fish were either at the creek or in the fridge.

Breakfast on a stick. 

The next morning the tide was going out so I packed a fishing kit and followed it way out the rocks, found a nice coral drop off with seaweed for cover, pulled 3 blue-bones out of the snags and 3 more got away by taking my line into the reef. James came out the rocks after checking the Yabby pots ,  he got 4 big Cheribin caught on half an old mandarin.  We decided to go back to camp when the tide started coming in, work boots are also good for rock fishing, especially if you need to swim back over invisible jagged rocks & coral using fishing bucket full of fish and bait as a float. Blue-bone and Cheribin for dinner, very nice.

Dinner, Blue bones.

After a second night at Varillia South,4 nights total, we decided to make our way  Weipa.
We had a good feed of fish  in the fridge plus James is out of beer. We checked the pots, James had another 8 big Cheribin, mandarins are great bait.In one epic long drive, we went  all the way to Weipa just in time before shops closed.

Taken from a distance, he's a big killer. 

Herring at Sesha jetty ,bait for a week at Varillia point. 

Saw King Brown  Snake( or something big & deadly looking). Stopped for a swim at lunchtime,  Let James out at Bramwell Station Road house to have a  beer with Kevin cause Kevin's me mate.  Rolled into Weipa servo almost out of gas due to a fuel leak at 5pm on Friday,Yaay goon time.                                                                                   

Put your right leg in

Put your left leg in

Another perfect sunset, waiting for fish to cook on the fire. 

The scaly back of the red beast 'vrill', this is what the mine is after bauxite

Looking down at Varillia north campsite 





Camp sunset at Varillia south



Water source for the next few days.




Yet another beautiful sunset



We made it over the bridge, time for another swim. 



The closed track to Varillia point. Uncharted horizons, knows no boundaries

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