Campers Road Trips

[playwme]

Awesome. Keep em coming.

Have you got a full route map? Father in law is planning a Bucket List trip to ride the motorbike as far north as he can. Being the good son-in-law, I told the wife I'd go with to keep an eye on him. ;)

[Camper]

Have you got a full route map?

So I pretty much followed the blue line here on the way up and came back along the coast, there are graded roads from Cooktown to Weipa and on to Bamaga, which is very close to the tip but the corrugations can be murder on stock suspension so I chose not to go further. (P.S. friends tell me Bamaga is the kind of community you drive straight through with the doors locked)

From Bamaga it's 4 hours drive return to the tip, walk the last few hundred meters. 4wd recommended.

You can do a tour from Cairns/Cooktown/Weipa/Bamaga that will take you to the tip in a Bus if you're keen. My boss took his Caravan last year, he has been going since 68...

Between Cooktown and Cape Tribulation is still real 4wd country, the Bloomfield Track and Old Telegraph Line, they are made worse each year by the traffic and it is recommended that you ring the local police before travelling as conditions change drastically. (we did the Bloomfield track in the early 90's in a Hilux and it was great fun)

To get from Cooktown to Cape Tribulation on the blacktop you need to come back inland through Lakeland, go down to the coast at Port Douglas then head north again, it is worth it. True Jungle.

Fun fact, Cooktown was settled before Brisbane.

[Camper]

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Kuranda is in a loop of the Barron river and constricted by it.





There are a lot of Bed n Breakfast and private camp grounds around Kuranda but I wasn't feeling them, I got to town on Sunday afternoon with out having booked anywhere. I really wanted to be right in town but couldn't manage it.

I had scouted a camp ground (Speewah Conservation Reserve) as back up but decided against it, mainly because I hadn't had a proper wash in 4 days but also because I couldn't have a fire and there is no water/river there. Nice enough place though, secluded and sealed roads.

So I ended up in a cabin at the Kuranda Caravan Park, good to have a proper shower, if you come here ask for cabin 11, it's on the edge of the property and looks into the forest. I lucked out.












Shortish walk into town along an unused railway, under a bridge and along the Barron River.















There is a lot to do in Kuranda, more than 1 days worth which is why I wanted to stay in town. Cable cars, a Steam Train, Boat rides, Butterfly house the works.

The Skyway cable cars were down for maintenance which ruined my main plan of catching the cable car down and train back up the range.
So I drove the range road... down and back 3 times before I realised there is average speed cameras at each end.
Might have a fine waiting for me at home, might be OK, they take your Rego at each end and record the time taken, if you are too quick you get fined. I stopped at lookouts a couple of times but can't recall if I did one trip straight through or not.

I remember Kuranda from when we went there when I was a kid, probably with rose coloured glasses. The markets were wonderful, a maze of haphazard tiny wooden stalls, real, actual hippy's that had hand made stuff trying to flog it to tourists to subsist in the forest. I have a folding/sliding castle hand carved out of Camphour Laurel that still blows my mind, so intricate. I can still taste the sausage roll bought in the main street. The Butterfly house was huge, they landed on me, I made friends with a butterfly. We were a happy family.

So take it with a grain of salt when I say the town seems tired, more tourist trap than commune.





Having said that I met some locals in the pub who were great, classic bar fly types. You can still find local produce, the forest around the town is beautiful and a butterfly did land on me at the butterfly exhibit.
I had a lovely time on the boat cruise, and spent a few hours wandering along the river walk, truly worth the trip.