Day 18 - Bramwell Station to Cairns

I must say how great the operators are Bramwell Station are.  They had a basic arc welder but didn't know how to use it and had no welding rods.  Luckily I had some rods and the ability to fix it.  They let us use the welder and workshop and James and I went about doing the repair.

In grinding up the 'bush weld' I noticed that it was better than the original and probably would have held fine.

We weren't going to take any chances though so we cleaned it up and welded it up properly.

We then settled in and did a massive 800km run right through to Cairns arriving at about 7pm.  We gave the camper and car a bath at the local car wash to lessen the dust and dirt a bit.  Dropped in to Macca's for a feed, set up the camper had a great shower and good night's sleep.

Day 17 - Punsand Bay to Bramwell

We paid a visit to 'The Croc Tent' before saying good-bye to The Tip and heading back South.

We fuelled up at Bamaga and dropped by for a look at the crash site of the DC-3

We chose to just drive down the Telegraph Road and not do the 'Track' again so we could knock over 500km or so and get in to Musgrave Station for the night.  How things change?!

The corrugations on this section are horrendous an absolutely belted the hell out of everything.  We didn't know until after we had crossed the Jardine River on the ferry again that the shocker mount weld on the camper had broken loose.  Close inspection showed a very poor weld and it was not surprising that it broke.

The coil spring was still there luckily and had jammed itself between the wishbone and the chassis.  We manager to get it back out and refit it knowing the safety chain would limit the travel and stop it happening again.

 

Well that didn't work and after fixing it twice more we decided to have a go at welding the shocker mount back up on the side of the road with some bush mechanic skills.  We pulled the batteries out of the car and trailer and made up a makeshift welder with the jumper leads. Out with the inverter and I drilled a new hole for the safety chain and we were on our way again.

I managed to get a reasonable weld and it held all the way to Bramwell Station.  We'd only covered 200km for the day and arrived in the dark.

Day 16 - The Tip!

Well today was to be the day when we finally got to put a hand on the sacred sign and stand at the Northernmost point of the Aussie mainland.  This is just one of those things that you have to do at least once in your lifetime.  A couple of hundred metre climb up and over a bunch of rocks and there it is in sight.....

The pointy bit at the top of Queensland!

Well, here we are all doing the obligatory poses in the howling wind and light rain.  Not the way one would plan to do it but hey, we did it! 

 

We decided to go back via the beach because the tide was low.  Great move....not!  We all got wet feet as we had no other choice but to walk through the little creeks.  Oh well, all part of the adventure.

We jumped back in the car and decided to head out to Somerset for a look around and then do the '5 beach run' South before heading back to Punsand Bay.

Not a lot to see at Somerset but you do get an appreciation of what these early pioneers had to struggle with.

A bit of play time on the beach before we headed down the incredibly narrow track to give the car a few bush pinstripes!

Day 15 - Punsand Bay

We spent today as a bit of an R&R day just bumming around the campsite.  Caught up on the washing and just took it easy.

The campsite was literally about 10 metres from the sand.  The weather was unseasonally overcast and humid.  We even had the odd shower.

Day 14 - Sailor Creek to Punsand Bay (via OTL)

We woke early and had breakfast.  Amelia revelling with the independence of camping and fending for herself.

We joined the bypass road for a short stint as we finished the Southern section of the Tele Track and joined the Northern section.  The crossings in the Northern section were much more tricky than the Southern ones. Not far in and we stopped at Fruit Bat falls.  We didn't swim because it was a little bit cool and also a bus load of tourists rolled up soon after us and it got packed real fast.

 

Next stop in at Elliot Falls was great.  Again we didn't swim.

 

Once we got to Twin Falls we just had to have a dip.  Nice knee deep water, no chance of crocs and a great waterfall massage.

Back on the road a tricky little crossing.  We placed Leticia in a large hole so we didn't slide in.  We didn't realise how hard the climb out on the other side was once we got around the corner.  No photos as we were all in the car but it was hairy!  A large drop off that would have easily rolled the car and the climb up had the traction control kicking in.

Cypress Creek and the old log bridge was very interesting to say the least.  There is about a 5 metre drop to nothing under the bridge and no other choice than to go over.  Some guidance from the crew and we crossed with no problem.

There was Nolan's Brook which is the last and the deepest crossing but in all the fuss getting across we forgot to take photos.  We do have video which I'll upload here soon.

We paid the $99 and bought the return ferry ticket for the 30 second trip across.  This would be a great little business to have!!

 

We continued up to Punsand Bay campground and set up for the night.  Not a bad spot right on the beach but it does have very average facilities. What else do you do?

Day 13 - Weipa to Sailor Creek (via OTL)

We met a really great guy (Ian) and his son Daniel and James and I went fishing last night with them.  We caught a couple of small fish but nothing significant but it was fun anyway.  Ian managed to get his Troopy bottomed out on a washout and we snatched him out.

Today we packed up and left Weipa after fuelling up at $2.03/litre which wasn't too bad really.

We did the 70kms back to Telegraph Rd and then headed North.  It wasn't long before we arrived at Bramwell Junction. We didn't fuel up here at the record $2.38 per litre! A quick toilet break and then up the side track led to the famous signs below...

 

 

Here are some of the creek crossings.  We had a good look at them first with some of them required all hands on deck to guide the way through.

The famous gunshot was not an absolute vertical drop with the path we took.  The vertical drop was exactly that - vertical - and there is no way you could drive down there.  This is us going down the famous crossing.

The 20 series handed this all so easily that it was hardly a challenge and almost felt like cheating!  After Gunshot Creek the rest of the crossing were relatively easy.

We arrived at Sailor Creek in the afternoon and to our surprise we found a completely empty campground.  Another couple turned up later but it was nice and quiet and we relaxed by another one of James' campfires.  Leticia was queen of the marshmallow toasting scoring a 9/10 for the best effort.