Tip Top

We did it. We made the most northern part of the Australian mainland. Late, rattled, poorer and convinced camping is not our style but we did it nonetheless. Was it worth it? Of course. How many people can say they’ve been to the Tip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(poor Suzi)

8 days waiting for the new glass for the Suzi window, $360.00 plus 8 more nights in a caravan park @ $40.00 per night (outrageous for what we got), $129.00 to cross the Jardine River (28 seconds each way), $48.00 per night in the Seisia Camping Park ( 3 nights), $404.00 for a boat trip to Thursday  and Horn Islands (concession rate), $25.00 for a 2 litre cask of wine and $2.47 per litre for fuel sure made the trip memorable.

But, it was more than that. Its an experience, its an achievement and its another tick off the bucket list. It is also quite a surprise. The roads are crap – about 1050k from Cooktown (via Weipa) of which perhaps 300 are bitumen, the rest dirt, corrugated, dippy, wafty, generally bad. But, we were told by some old timers, the roads are the best they’ve ever been. I’d like to say that it was ‘Heaven on a stick’ once there but it isn’t. Injinoo, Bamaga, Seisia are Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander communities with all that that conveys. The wind blew, it rained, we had horses tramping through the camp grounds and raiding our camp kitchen, dogs everywhere (including sleeping beside the tent). Camping was truly an experience.

On the way after passing through Musgrave Telegraph Station (1886)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

our first night out was spent at Charlies Mine Camp out of Coen. $10.00 per head for the privilege of putting up our tent for the first time. Others looked on and laughed a lot but we managed, and it stayed up. Pity abut our self inflating mattresses. Ground gets bloody hard with only 2 inches of separation – and no power so no CPAP so sleep was a bit elusive for both of us. But Charlie was entertaining and we met and enjoyed the company of Keith and Jill and Joe and Heather all of whom were headed in the same direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie started up his gold stamper – one single poppet head driven by an electric motor through 3 Toyota Hi-lux gear boxes (the cars from which they came are buried on the site) – quite an engineering feat all in all.

On to Weipa. It is a mining town with a population of about 3300, 1500 of whom work for the mine. Bauxite (aluminium) for which they get presently about $50.00 a ton to be processed everywhere else but in Australia. Bauxite is just below the surface – they lift the topsoil take the next couple of metres and eventually replace the topsoil. It’s all simple open cut, literally just scratching below the surface….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only traffic lights in Weipa control the ‘haul road’ over which the main road passes on the way into town. The tour bus (twice daily 40 people, $40.00 per head – nice business), ‘company’ car park, haul road, mine face, loading at mine face (220 tonnes), back down haul road to crusher hopper, across to train loading hopper, train with about 40 trucks each carrying 100 tonnes and off to port for loading on ships.

A couple of nights in Weipa and we’re no better campers, power enabled a better nights sleep but it’s a long walk to the loo in the middle of the night. The mine tour was an education, very interesting. But, it begs the question – why can’t we “value add” in this country?

Out of Weipa via Batavia Downs Station road to link up with the lower part of the Telegraph Track and on via Bramwell Station, Bramwell Junction for a $15.00 hamburger and $2.05 fuel and a look at the start of the real Old Telegraph Track…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and after watching a couple of others test the crossing we decided that we still had a long way to go and couldn’t risk the possible damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the “smooth” parts of the track had the tow bar dragging over the ruts. So, back to the Development Road and its dreadful corrugations. On we juddered to the Jardine River, just in time to miss the last ferry by 7 minutes ie 5.07 pm. So, camp up at Jardine River camp ground. Found Alan and Barbara from Wonthaggi who know Frank and Jenny Deane – small world yet again. Ferry only operates 8.00am – 5.00pm – you’d think at $129.00 a trip they’d like to keep it going 24 hours but they are indigenous. The traffic up and down is amazing – its continuous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats Fruit Bat Falls where we stopped along the way to investigate the prospect of overnighting but “no camping” was the order of the day. Note the price of fuel at Jardine River and that’s the river that costs $129.00 to cross.

Next day on to Seisia but there’s more to tell than I can fit into this post and keep it readable, so tune in to the next Tip Top instalment.