We met the boys on the road at Old Laura Station, a good hour drive west of Cooktown. We didn’t get much of an early start and started off north at about 1 o’clock. The first stretch of the trip was through Lakefield National Park and the boys were keen to explore it and find some watering holes.
We stopped off at a few creeks but the park was very dry and there wasn’t all that much water about. It was the end of the dry season at this point so I’m sure once the rain comes in it gets nice and lush in there.
We stopped off at this watering hole called Ole Faithful and we met these three men who were camped out there for a few weeks. They just really wanted to fish so what they would do is rent out all the campsites in the area so there were no other people competing with them for a catch. Since we weren’t looking to fish they let us stay at one of the campsites for the night.
Not long after setting up camp, we heard some shouts from the river bank. The guys had just caught a large barramundi and wanted us to have it for dinner. Barramundi is a sort of bass like fish and it is extremely popular in northern Australia.
So we just threw it on the fire and it cooked all the way through. No pan or grill or anything. It was delicious – so juicy and fresh. Our first camp fire cooking experience of many.
The next day we made it to Coen, which is just a small town that is good to refuel and resupply at. Nothing special here. We drove down a bit further and about an hour into the driver Alex had to pull over and work on his car. His brakes were acting up and we needed to get to a mechanic to resolve the issue.
We had two choices at this point. One – head back the way we came towards Cooktown. We knew there would be a mechanic there and the spare parts we needed. Or two – continue on to the nearest town and hope they had the parts. We couldn’t really come to a conclusion so we flipped a coin. And the coin told us to continue on and that’s exactly what we did.
The next day we got up early and made it into Weipa, a really small fishing town. But that’s about as big as it gets up there. Lucky for us they had the part that we needed. And it was the last one too. All hail the decision making coin!
We really didn’t get into all that much in the afternoon. Alex had to fix his car so we just hung out in town by the main shopping center.
That night we made it as far as Bramwell Junction. Just a roadhouse and a camping area with these gigantic termite mounds. I can’t believe they get this big. Apparently, they are made from the waste that the termites produce when they are eating through all the trees. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told but I’m not really certain of it.
We met these two Aussie girls and just made a fire and chilled with them for the night. They had a very eventful trip north and were moving back down south again. They wrecked their car on the way up and had to spend a month in Weipa. Which sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me. They also found a dog that had been attacked by a crocodile. They were bringing it back to Weipa to get checked on and one of the girls was going to adopt it.
Bramwell Station is very famous because it marks the official start of the Old Telegraph Track. A super gnarly 4WD track, the “Tele” as the locals call it, was originally built for the telegraph wires that connected this part of the country with the rest of Australia.
Alex and Ty were really keen to give it a shot. But this track is no joke. Not only does your car need to be in the right condition. You need all the necessary equipment and a bit of luck to make it through.
We surely had the luck. Just not the equipment.
Just for shits and giggles, we went down the track to the first river crossing (there are multiple crossings on the track). One look and we knew it wasn’t for us. The climb out of this river to the other side of the road looked impossible to me. The detour down the main road would have to do.