Lakefield National Park

While Weipa Auto were busy fleecing our bank account we were busy fishing, filleting fish, croc spotting and enjoying camp cooked beef roasts with our new friends. One afternoon we were fishing for Coral Trout out on a close inshore reef right near the camp ground and we spotted a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge croc about 50 metres from the boat. Not only was this croc big - but it was bigger than our boat. Luckilly the Crocodile wasn't intersted in us - and he swam out to sea. We had plans to camp out at Stones Crossing, but were unable to actually get there - the road was almost impassible (unless you were an experienced red neck pig shooter) so we continued to sit tight at Weipa. Due to the severity of the problems with the brakes, and the 'island time mentality of the staff at Weipa Auto' we didn't leave Weipa until the 14th of June.

 Our kitchen intruder - the neighbours got a vicious brown snake (we were lucky)

Waz with dinner - beer battered cod, chips and salad.

couple of crocs sunning themselves at Roberts Creek

We packed up the trailer and headed South, it was Origin night and we were pretty keen to watch the game. We decided to stay at Laura for the night (a small town with a population of 80). We set up camp and then headed to the local pub for kick-off. The bar was tended by 4 young pommie girls who could have been mistaken for some of the patrons teenage daughters. When the crowds arrived (the indigenous folk from as far as Bamaga which is roughly 600km away) the girls looked like they had seen a ghost. Initially the crowd was barracking for QLD and when Thurston kicked a pentalty goal they went wild. However when the blues started to take the lead half of the pub had suddenly become blues supporters. All in all it was a great night and an experience that we will remember for a long time.

 

Filling up at Musgrave Station



Glad we didn't need to use the telephones.

 The next morning we drove to Lakefield National Park and set up camp at Kalpower, which was a really pretty spot along the banks of the Normbany River. We spent a couple of days fishing the river, but didn't land a single fish. While we were cooking up steak and vegie patties for dinner, our neighbours were filleting massive barras every afternoon. This didn't sit too well with us, so we packed up the trailer and headed off for the next part of our adventure.

White Lilly Lagoon

why you should always camp at least 50metres from the river banks....

Waz not catching any fish....

We decided to take the Battle Camp Track to Cooktown. The road climbs up and down the Iron Range and the views are pretty spectacular. We stopped in at Lake Emma (reminded me of you Charltone) and then stopped at Isabella Falls where we dipped our feet into the saltwater crocodile free water.

Isabella Falls

We arrived in Cooktown early in the afternoon and did a fairly dodgy job of setting up the trailer. We wanted to go out and check out Cooktown and have a dinner on the waterfront. While at the 'Top Pub' we had a heated discussion with some of the local bar flies. We were interested to know exactly where they consider Far North Queensland ends and Cape York begins. We didn't really get a straight answer but the bar fly did call Waz a yowie (Waz is now sporting a thick beard and a bigger fro than me). We are going to hang around Cooktown for a while and spend a day on a Reef Charter (maybe a River Charter one day too). We then plan to take the Bloomfield Track down to Cairns