Punsand Bay to Captain Billy's Landing, Cape York, Queensland
A short driving day, but the long drive down the corrugated track before lunch led to some ill tempers. The campsite at Captain Billy's Landing was picture perfect, but pictures can't show the howling wind, the blowing sand, and the fierce sun. The walk to the beach south of the campsite was pleasant, though, with a bat cave and many interesting shells on the beach. And many thongs. Many many thongs.
And I broke my camera. Got sand in the lens motor. Bugger.
It was an uneventful morning. We packed up camp and drove over to Bamaga for supplies before heading south to the Jardine River Ferry. About 10km short of the ferry, Chris noticed the air conditioning didn't seem to be working, and lo and behold at the ferry we looked under the hood and saw the compressor belt had separated and come off its pulleys. We pulled out our spare compressor belt, and replaced it in about five minutes. It was a Very Good Thing we bought a full set of belts, and not just the two fan belts--without AC, we'd be stuck in the hot sticky car for the next 1000km inhaling everyone's dust.
After the ferry, the corrugations started--these are evil speed bump like things in the road that vibrate your fillings loose. It was tedious driving through an unexciting landscape all the way to the turnoff to Captain Billy's Landing. We kept wondering when we'd stop for lunch, and the rest of the group similarly was in ill humor. Finally, sometime after 2, we turned off.
Along the track to Captain Billy's Landing, Bill's Pathfinder had some odd suspension problem. Bill had had a similar problem before when he was 4WD-ing in the Simpson Desert, so he had brought along a spare set of shock absorbers. Wayne fixed him up so that the Pathfinder could limp into camp.
The camp was hot and dry, with strong winds coming off the ocean. It wasn't very pleasant, but it did have an old boat shed that Wayne set up as his makeshift workshop. He spent all afternoon with Bill replacing the front shocks.
I went walking south of the campsite, around a headland to a fine beach strewn with flotsam and jetsam and shells and thongs. Somewhere, I had heard that only left thongs survived the ocean crossing, while the right thongs went missing. I did a little test, and rounded up all the thongs I could find in a 5 meter radius. Sadly, I could not prove the hypothesis: I found four left thongs and four right ones.
In addition to the thongs, there were more interesting shells--odd ones, pretty ones, cowries. I even found a nautilus shell. I've never suspected that you could find one of those on the beach! On the way back, I peered in the bat cave I saw on my way out, and saw the bats swirling around an inner chamber and squeaking in a very high pitch. It was cool and a bit creepy. It was a good thing I turned around when I did. Chris had come after me because he noticed the tide was rising... and if I was ten minutes later, I'd be wading through knee high water along the cliffs. That wouldn't be pleasant... even without the added bonus of the saltwater crocodiles that inhabit the area.
After stopping briefly at camp, I headed north. There wasn't much other than a broad beach, and much less interesting beach garbage. Along the way I stopped to take some sand dune pictures, and got my camera real low, just off the sand. The pictures were great, but... the sand blowing along the surface got into my lens mechanism, and now the camera lens won't retract and the zoom doesn't work. Bugger. I'm quite pissed off... the camera's not even two months old, and I sent back my old camera two weeks ago. I'll try to get it fixed in Cairns.
Dinner was uneventful, then it was time for bed. The wind still howled, and it howled all night long. The next morning, we were all glad to be out of there. While the beachcombing was fun, the sun and wind made it intolerable.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
Two for one day!
The strange bats circling in the cave south of Captain Billy's Landing.
The cool nautilus shell on the beach.