It's funny how when you are in the warmth it feels like the whole world is too. It is hard to imagine the 4 to 12 degrees that Melbourne is in, as we enjoy another balmy 32 degree day.
Reception is an elusive stranger out here so I attempt to write the goings on bit by bit. I will post these pieces when we once again hit the bright lights….or at least a telecommunications tower.
We are now well and truly on track to the 'Tip'. We are on Cape York at a place called Elliot Falls, a well known place to wet your toes on the trek to the top. Gorgeous waterfalls (Twin Falls, Indian Head and Fruit Bat Falls included) that allow a rare opportunity for Croc-free swimming this far north. We are only a hundred km's from the tip and up here the peninsula is less than 80km across.
It is dry and arid, quite different to how we both pictured it. The trip east to the coast at Chilli Beach was a voyage through the more familiar rainforest as we travelled through the Iron Range. However that is apparently the only true rainforest on the Cape.
Chilli Beach was blowy and a bit stinky but also quite interesting as you realise how far up the east coast you are. The tide came in and out and bought with it the inevitable rubbish that blows up the east coast of Australia. We can only blame ourselves for that one! The place however was quite beautiful with stark white silica beaches, meeting the frenzied growth of the rainforest.
On our way back to the development road from Chilli Beach, we took the lesser known Frenchman's Track, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. The track was great fun, with heaps of washouts and holes to negotiate, not to mention that it ran along the top of the Iron Range before dropping down into the Pascoe River. The Pascoe River crossing, according to our reference books, is a notorious crossing on this track and can be not only deep but extremely hazardous. Being quite late in the season the water level was acceptable, just coming up to the sills on our cruiser, but the approach and departures from the river were more than challenging even without a camper trailer. With an extremely steep descent from the southern side and a long rocky climb over boulders out of the river, it would definitely be the toughest thing we had been through as yet.
The Frenchman's Track is not recommended for trailers and right in front of us was the reason why. However with a good walking of the river and a discussion about our best line, we decided the car was capable of pulling the trailer out the other side. The convenient positioning of a couple of cruisers with winches (having smoko) on the other side, certainly cemented our feeling that it was now or never. We made it through. The rest of the track was just as interesting and challenging as we drove through to meet with the development road and continued heading north to Bramwell Junction and the start of the OTL (Old Telegraph Line).
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