Thursday, September 25, 2008

Route Planning on the Cape

Starting to put a route together.

This is about once we get to Cairns.

Currently thinking something like:
Day 1 Cape Bedford 200ks
Day 2 Cape Melville 190ks
Day 3 Salt Water Creek Camp 160ks
Day 4 Archer River Road House 220ks
Day 5 Chilli Beach 140ks
Day 6 Moreton Telegraph Stn 140ks
Day 7 Seisia via OTT 200ks (Maybe too optimistic)
Day 8 The Tip 35ks

Still working on some multi day stop overs and the route back to Cairns

4 comments:

Gribbo said...

Trip up looks great Gaz. Is there a track on the west coast to come home on, through Weipa etc?
Gribbo

Gary said...

Hi Gribbo,

Sorry for the delayed response.

No directish route though Weipa could take a side trip that way. Info suggests not much to see through there so I figured best way was to plan a variety of stops.

For further thought.

Anonymous said...

There is a track through stones crossing, but the owner of the station on the northern side of the river has recently (how recent i have no idea) put up a gate to stop people driving through it, and apparently he lets in very few people, but you could always try....

Gary said...

Reposting a post on ExplorOz

FollowupID: 604393 Submitted: Monday, Nov 24, 2008 at 16:58
Member - Tony B (QLD) posted:
There are some great back roads to drive if you go to Lakefield after Cooktown. Here is a couple of options - first the easy one. Exit Lakefield from Old Laura to Laura. From here head north up the PDR to Fairlview. Turn West and head down to Farlight and south on to Palmerville & thuru to Wrotham Park. Turn West on the Burke Development to Normanton. Have not done this for a couple of years - there may be an issue with road opening between Palmerville and Wrotham Park. Check first. If there is change you direction from Farview west to Pinnacle/ King Junction Turnoff. Head south through these stations to Gamboola and then west on the Bourke Dev Rd. A variation on this alternate route is to get permission to go through Strathleven over to Drumduff on to Koolatah and down to Dnbar then west on the bourk dev rd. And another twist is before you get to Gamboola you can take the track north of the Mitchell River over to Highbury on to Drmduff - Koolatah - dunbar - Normanton.
These are all great drives well worth the effort. At some stage on all these routes you have to cross the Palmer & the Mitchell Rivers. They can have very soft sand. If you want to give them a go let me know and I will give you more details. A very adventurous way is exiting lakefield at Musgrave Station heading south to Artemis South West over to Oroners and down the Station tracks down to Koolatah. Permission needed also on this variation & good to get directions before attempting. Cheers Tony