She'll be apples: Townsville to the northern tip

Yellow route: Townsville to the tip - 2180 km

White route: total so far - 31'680 km

We left Townsville fully stocked but with no defined travel plan. The direction was all we knew – North. Free camping along the coasts is fairly difficult – what we experienced in WA earlier during our travels is also true for Queensland. Nevertheless we found a pleasant beach-camping option with a lot of privacy at Crystal Creek, South of Ingham. Paluma national park offers excellent swimming opportunities but we both are wimps when it comes to chilly water. Hence we didn’t take the chance to dip. On the other hand we enjoyed exploring the Tyto Wetlands in Ingham in the afternoon heat even though there was not too much wildlife at this time of the day. Still, we were lucky enough to observe some Crimson Finches and a Azure Kingfisher which is an absolute beauty.

Swimming hole in Paluma national park

The excellent Tyto Wetlands information centre

More hiking was to come in Girringun national park with the Wallaman Falls, the longest single-drop waterfall in Australia at 305m and lots of water torrenting down into the gorge. Cardwell, the pleasant beach town and departure point for Hinchinbrook Island, was hit badly by hurricane Yasi in 2011. And so was probably the 26km forest drive to several waterholes in the area , which turned out not to be worth doing under these circumstances.

Wallaman Falls

Cardwell beach with Hinchinbrook Island in the background

Innisfail has a few historic buildings in Art Deco style which are beautifully restored. We enjoyed the architectural walk through this small town. It is rather a town where people work and live than a tourist place. From there we spontaneously deviated from the coast to the Atherton Tablelands to meet up with a lovely family from Newcastle we met in March in Southern WA. Kristen, Julian, Sam and James spent a few days in Malanda and we were grateful that they invited us to come their way. Not only were we spoilt with a first-class BBQ dinner and excellent company but got to explore a wonderful lush green countryside and numerous waterfalls in the tropical rainforest. The landscape is picturesque with „normal“ cows like Holsteins amongst other milk cattle and reminded us in parts of Gippsland in Victoria and New Zealand. A welcoming change to all the skinny Zebu cattle we passed in the last 4 months. The lushness of the meadows was a result of regular, significant rains in the previous 6 weeks. In fact, we seemed to have timed it perfectly with the sun being back in this area. The nights up in the tablelands (approx. 600-800 metres above sea level) were quite chilly (6-8°C).

Although a big tourist attraction we had to go and see two most impressive fig trees (Curtain Fig, Cathedral Fig) and did a pleasant drive along Lake Tinaroo with very peaceful camping apart from the early morning fright I got in the toilet block, being watched by a thick and almost 4 metres long python!

Driving down from the tablelands was very scenic. Next we hiked a „real“ mountain for a change: after close to 1000 vertical metres to the top of Walshs Pyramid we were rewarded by stunning views of the Cairns region and the Tablelands.

Art Deco architecture in Innisfail

Atherton Tablelands

Johnston River lookout

One of many waterfalls in the Tablelands

Very impressive curtain fig tree

Camping at Lake Tinaroo

Python in the amenities – fortunately not venomous

Magnificent views from the summit of Walshs Pyramid

We stopped for a night in Cairns to catch up with Kate and Lindsay, another Aussie couple we met on the Gibb River Road when our radiator leaked for the first time (Lindsay was the one who offered us the putty to repair the radiator, which lasted for about 8’000 km). They were on their way back from Cape York and gave us the latest „tips on the Tip“. Again, it was a very pleasant evening.

The next 4 days we stayed in Port Douglas and got ourselves into a different challenge: we had booked a speech trainer and took private lessons with the goal to sound a bit less Swiss (especially me) when we speak English. At the same time we broadened our knowledge of typical Australian expressions, behaviour, life style and tropical delicacies. After four days we also found our favourite cafe which not only served decent coffee but nice muffins and light lunches – Cafe Ecco. This was heaven and we enjoyed it even more knowing that on our way to the top there would not be too many places like this…..

Doing homework at the campground in Port Douglas

Port Douglas – beach

As a run-up for the OTT (see below) we attacked the Old Coach road in the Palmer River Goldfields that runs between the gold mining ghost town of Maytown and the township of Laura. It sounded interesting although rated as difficult in our Hema 4WD Adventures book. We assumed that it can’t be too demanding as it was built and used by horse-drawn coaches in the early days. In Maytown itself there was not much to see as people took everything with them when they left the place in 1945. The drive in, 80km West off the Peninsula Development road was quite hilly and scenic. After crossing a dry riverbed the track started to get really tricky: steep climbs on rocky surface onto a ridge; on the downhills we had to deal with big rock steps and awkward off-camber situations. It was very slow going and when a young guy stopped us to tell that he tipped over his camper trailer twice on the Northern part we had to reconsider. The next passage also didn’t look promising, so we set camp and called it a day. The next morning we decided to turn back and accompanied the somehow traumatised young couple in finding an alternative route out of this „playground“. Sometimes it’s more difficult to say „stop“ than to say „go“ but it certainly was the right decision.

This is all what remains from the Palmer River Goldfields capital – Maytown

Steep up and down-hills

The couple wich would have wished to travel without the camper trailer......

We backtracked and made our way through Laura, the magnificent Split Rock Aboriginal rock art and the scenic Lakefield national park with wonderful wildlife (first opportunity to observe a long neck turtle at length) up to the Bramwell Roadhouse Junction, the southern end of the Old Telegraph Track (OTT).

Split rock – impressive Aboriginal rock art

very long neck.....

This legendary 4WD experience starts with one of the most challenging crossings, Palm Creek, if not for the deep water but for the very steep entry and exit banks. We consider this being a good thing as it sets the mark and it’s then up to each driver to weigh up whether his skills and vehicle are up for this or not. Already two kilometres later, at Ducie Creek, we got a dilemma whether we should walk the long waterhole, filled with brown murky water or not. Following the 4WD rules it’s a YES of course but then the owner of Archer River Roadhouse reminded us that there are crocodiles („salties“) up there and we should definitely only walk through clear water – hence a NO without doubt. We slowly drove through and fortunately there were no big holes or rocks the water level was moderate and the ground was firm. We set camp at the charming Dulhunty River for a quiet night. The next day we didn’t even attempt to drive Gunshot Creek, but took the Bypass road and drove the 5km back (very narrow for Kasbah) to this legendary — and infamous — spot where we just missed the big action. A group of – let’s call them The Hooligans – with rough cars (one even without windows) had used the area as a playground. It must have been quite a spectacle when they came down the sheer walls! They were now ahead of us, so we got a taste of their driving and behaviour further up. This is the reason why we dare calling them The Hooligans. They met every single cliché (don’t want to go into details here) but were still friendly.

Palm Creek crossing, the first challenge on the OTT

Walk through or rather not ?

Always. Is the answer for some fearless people

A Hooligan car

A Hooligan couple – it's 10am and already beer o'clock

Looking at the slopes and drops at Gunshot it is not quite inconceivable how one can drive this. Amazingly scary!

Gunshot Creek entry slopes – different options, all scary!

The water level of Cockatoo Creek was not very high and the water clear, so it was easy to walk the crossing and investigate the best line. After that we were very glad for The Hooligans to walk through a long deepish and brown waterhole. We watched four different ways of doing the crossing and chose the best one for ourselves. The famous and pretty Fruit Bat Falls were a very welcoming swimming opportunity for our tense bodies. The crossings of course are demanding but for us most of the stretches between those were challenging and asked for full-on concentration as Kasbah is higher and wider than most vehicles on this track and is also more sensitive to off-camber situations. We camped at Canal Creek, an obviously very popular overnight stop. The next morning it was drizzling when we had a look at the picturesque Eliot and Twin Falls. From here the track got even more challenging, the banks steeper, the crossings deeper but luckily with clear water. The entrance into Canal Creek was rather rough, steep and off-camber again and Oliver did some adjustment to the ramp with the showel and so it never got dangerous at any point in time. After a scary log bridge (no weight limit declared…) a rather shallow crossing (with no name). After this we got a bit nervous for Nolan’s Brook as some people advised us not to attempt it with Kasbah. To turn back and take the bypass road would have meant to do four of the just passed crossings in the opposite direction which would have been more than challenging if not impossible without a winch. Kasbah showed the many spectators that Nolan’s Brook was a piece of cake!

The spot with its swimming holes was so nice that we set up camp shortly after lunch and in the evening we cheered with some lovely people we met on the track for completing the legendary OTT — we made it!

After that it was in parts a very heavily corrugated road to the tip of Cape York where we enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the remoteness at Cable Beach for two nights.