4WD ADVENTURES

Cape York

Our root to the tip!

Day 1 - Cairns to Cooktown

We left our van at Cairns Coconut Resort for $10 a night.

We decided to use a tent for our trip up the Cape which we felt was more suitable for our family of 6. We brought a Black Wolf 10 man instant up. We had two sets of bunk beds for the boys and a blow-up mattress for us. This worked well as everywhere was a one-night stop for us except Punsand Bay It was a really quick and easy set up and everyone slept really comfy. We have plans to head to Fraser and Moreton Island again so we knew we were going to get more use out of the tent.

We left Monday morning at 5am and headed for the Daintree Ferry to follow the Bloomfield Track towards Cooktown via The Lion’s Den Hotel (we arrived too early for lunch so kept moving). We explored Cooktown and our first night we camped at Endeavor River Escape just outside of Cooktown.

Day 2

We left Cooktown and headed for Lakefield National Park. We visited the old Laura Homestead and had lunch at Six Mile Waterhole. Our second camp was at Kalpowar Crossing in Lakefield National park. This had a cool little water crossing and a local Saltwater crocodile visits regularly along the banks.

Day 3

Today we left Lakefield National Park and headed for Archer River Roadhouse via the Coen River for an arvo swim. As far as Roadhouses go this was our favourite. We had a lovely spot with a campfire and the famous Archer River Burgers were definitely worth a try. We spent the Arvo exploring the Archer River.

Day 4

We headed for Chilli Beach. We booked site number 20 which was a beautiful huge site, with ocean views and sheltered back from the wind. We loved exploring Chilli beach! We even got to do some beach driving, collected coconuts and saved a Dugong.

Day 5

This day was a big day driving as we drove from Chilli Beach to Weipa which took us about 4 hrs. Weipa is a good spot to stop with a Woolworths supermarket, phone signal and drinking water. We had a spot at the Weipa caravan park near the beach and caught up on some washing and stocked ourselves up with food.

Day 6

We left Weipa and headed to Bramwell Station for lunch and to the start of the Old Telegraph Track.

We did a drive in to see Palm creek which is the very first crossing on the OTT but unless you had a winch it was a no go for us so we took the bypass and headed straight to Gunshot. (This is where our OTT adventure really began) Today we did the Southern part of the OTT:

Gunshot
Cockatoo Creek
Sailor Creek
Fruit bat Falls
Elliot Falls & Twin Falls

We spent the night at Elliot Falls Campground.

We pre booked all our sites as we headed up The Cape but unfortunately when we arrived at Elliot Falls after our swim at Fruit Bat someone had already set up camp on our site. Luckily sites were big enough and we were able to set up with Tom's parents on their site. Do be aware of this as it isn't policed and you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. This apparently happens a lot and it’s pretty much tough luck.

Day 7

We explored Elliot and Twin Falls before heading back on the OTT towards Punsand Bay.

Today we did the Northern section of the OTT:

Canal Creek
Sam Creek
Mistake Creek
Cannibal Creek
Cypress Creek

Nolans Brook (This one is the deepest of the crossing and has already claimed 85 cars this year on the OTT. I wouldn't recommend going through this one with being snatched through. We saw a couple of cars try and they didn't make it.

After the OTT you have to take the ferry across the Jardine River which cost $100 a car return.

We arrived at Punsand Bay mid arvo after a stop off at the Crock Tent for all our souvenir's and camped at the Punsand Bay Caravan Park for 2 nights. The atmosphere here was awesome and the wood-fire pizzas were so yummy!!

Day 8

We set off early to head for the Tip hoping to beat the crowds (we had been warned you could be standing for ages waiting to get a photo if you go to late in the day). So glad we did as there weren't many people about at all and at one point, we even had the Tip all to ourselves. We walked the beach to the tip and did the walking track up and over the rocks back.

What an amazing feeling of accomplishment you get standing right up there at the very tip of mainland Australia. It’s like a feeling you can’t even describe.

Day 9

We left Punsand Bay and Tom's Parents and made our way back down towards Cairns. Our first day heading back was a big day and we made it to Musgrove Station for dinner and camped up the night.