A simple day with no dramas. Very uneventful--and in fact, more of the same. The only thing that was substantially different were the grassy plains studded with termite mounds.
That bloody rooster at the Archer River Roadhouse woke us up--again--at 5:15am. Grrr--but at least this meant we weren't rudely awoken when raindrops splashed through the tent roof screens ten minutes later. So, for the third time this trip, we did the Chinese fire drill and put on the rain fly in the dark in case those sprinkles turned to a downpour. You'd think we'd learn to put on the rainfly the night before, just in case.
The convoy pulled out of Archer River at 8, on schedule, and headed south to Coen, arriving at 8:45 and luxuriating in traveling the smooth 20km of bitumen between the airfield and Coen's massive CBD. Being early on Sunday morning, nothing was open. Even the quarantine check point north of Coen was unmanned. We decided to push on to Musgrave to fuel Ian's petrol Range Rover.
This section of the road was old news, and recently graded, and though some of the many dips were rocky, the corrugations were for the most part gone. We found we could easily maintain 80km/h, until a surprise dip in the road appeared through the dust ahead and Chris had to skillfully brake to avoid getting major air. Traffic on this section--south of the Weipa junction--was considerably heavier, like it was yesterday, and we passed several small convoys and some larger trucks. The terrain turned more mountainous as well, with small ridges and hills appearing from time to time.
At Musgrave station, we stopped for half an hour while Ian fuelled up, and wandered around a bit. Then we headed east towards Lakefield National Park. There were several river crossings along the way, and none of them were any problem, or even very deep! Soon, the country opened up to a vast plain, the Nifold Plain, with nothing but short grass and scattered termite mounts. It's how I imagine Africa to look like--and DB mentioned that some of the termite mounds looked like elephants.
Our lunch stop today was at Breeza, under huge mango trees set next to a lagoon. It was a pleasant spot, but not overly stunning, and we didn't feel like getting too close to the water because of crocodiles. I spotted a long necked turtle rustling in the leaves under a mango tree. The others in the group called it a long necked terrapin.
From Breeza, it was an easy 40 minutes, if that, to our campsite at Kalpowar... we arrived just after 3. I walked around a bit, and didn't see much outstanding; Chris took the husk off the second coconut we brought from Somerset. When I got back from my walk, Chris was busy in a summer camp project of making a drinking mug from the coconut shell. First, I used an awl to punch through two of the eyes and drain the milk (it was delicious), then Chris sawed the coconut in half with a saw on my pocket knife. We then chipped out the meat, and ate it. It was fresh and tasty and not all that sweet. Finally, after dinner, Chris got the last of the meat out and he had himself his cup!
Over dinner, we decided to head out on our own tomorrow. We're finding Lakefield National Park to be OK, but again, not stunning at all, and I can't see spending two nights here. Sure, there are many lagoons and the bird life is supposed to be wonderful, but frankly Chris and I are more interested in Cooktown and Cape Tribulation than more of Cape York. We'll take off with Bill and Sue tomorrow and break away from the group, spend an extra day on the coast, then regroup for the final dinner in Port Douglas on Wednesday. Plus, we hear that the State of Origin finals are then! I don't think many Aussies are going to be very productive come Thursday morning...
Compared to many of the previous days, was an easy day with no dramas at all.
In the evening, we had an interesting discussion with Jan and Gerard. They suggested that we could easily do the Kimberley on our own--they did it on their own last year, and after seeing how we handled ourselves on this trip, they thought we'd get more out of it and have more fun if we didn't go with a group. It's an intriguing idea to talk over in the next few days.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
That long necked terrapin I saw! Cute!