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VK4EA |
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VK4EA |
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                           01/27     |
We choose to go the last week of the June/July school holidays, thinking most travellers would be returning. Didn't quite go to plan, it is a not a place to get away from people :-). Plenty of travellers on the PDR heading South which made the drive North very interesting with lots of thick, thick, red dust.
Our itinenary ended up like this ->
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1. Brisbane to Marlborough (stayed behind the pub, reasonable food, OK facilities) |
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2. Marlborough to Ayr (Caravan Park) |
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3. Ayr to Daintree (Caravan Park) - We were suprised by the amount of roadworks, which really slowed us down |
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| 4 & 5. Daintree to Cooktown- via the Bloomfield Track - very scenic. Stopped at the Lions Den for lunch. Spent two nights in Cooktown. | |
| 6. Cooktown to Archer River (Camped at the roadhouse, had the Archer Burger) | |
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7. Archer River to Dulhunty River (OTL) - nice campsite on the Southern Bank. First night on the OTL, we succesfully traversed Palm and Gunshot Creeks with no troubles (chicken tracks) |
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8. Dulhunty River to Mistake Creek (OTL) - good camping on the Northern Bank. On the way visited Fruit Bat and Elliot Falls, fabulous |
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9. Mistake Creek to Loyalty Beach (2 nights)- TI day trip - Pajinka, Pusand Bay, Croc Tent |
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| 10 & 11. Loyalty Beach to Bramwell Station - highly recommended, good food and entertainment | |
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12. Bramwell Station to Lockhart River - via the the Frenchmans Track Traversed the Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers, only needed the winch once. |
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| 13. Lockhart River to Musgrave | |
| 14. Musgrave to Cairns - and the long bitumen drag home commenced | |
| 15 & 16. Cairns to Cape Hillsborough (2 nights, wonderfull!) | |
| 17. Cape Hillsborough to Ayr | |
| 18. Ayr to Marlborough | |
| 19. Marlborough to Childers | |
| 20. Childers to Brisbane |
Can't speak highly enough of the Landcruiser, Truck-a-saurus just kept on going. The Toyo Open Country M/Ts performed well, and nothing major happened. The only vehicle failure was the air conditioning compressor drive belt, which was replaced at the next camp. However, need to do something about the fuel consumption. Best we got was 15l/100km, does not bode well for more remote trips we have planned. The Foxwing did fall off going into Fruit Bat falls, crappy welding thanks to MW Toolboxes, luckily a couple recognised it and let us know, so we did manage to retrieve it.
The camping setup, we nailed it this time, it's only taken us 15 years to get right. All we going to change is the location of the food containers so Jayenne can reach them. I will be moving the vehicles solar regulator closer to the battery, but other than that, not much will be changing.
