Week 21- Thursday 4th- Saturday 13th August

Wroonga Point ,QLD

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star☆=Half a Star

Dad and Jackson caught a trevally, a coral trout and a tusk fish on the first day we were there...they were all yum but I think the trevally was my favorite! When we were fishing I nearly reeled in a huge fish but the line snapped! Whilst I had a break from fishing I saw lots of turtles and jumping fish! The next day we moved to a better spot that was right on a point, after we set up camp we went to EXPLORE! What happened when we went exploring was cool, but it was also funny and a bit of it was bad! This is what happened...when I first saw the sign for the Tip I was like 'What? There's a rubbish tip up here?' Then the next time I saw the sign for the Tip I said to Mum, 'Guess what Mum? There is a rubbish dump all the way up here!' Then she just laughed. Then it clicked in my mind. The sign meant the Tip of Cape York!! We went to the Tip and it was awesome. There was a great view. Afterwards we stopped at a small supermarket at Bamaga and I stayed in the car. When everyone returned with a bag or two of shopping and Dad opened the boot I heard a bang, then a strain of words that I should not repeat. I climbed out of the car to have a look and I saw that the back window was completely smashed. It turned out the shovel had slid out of its holder and when Dad had opened the boot the shovel had hit and smashed the back window. Luckily, with the tinting on the glass, it had not shattered everywhere, but Dad had to buy heaps of rolls of 'Gorilla' tape (Gorilla tape is super strong tape) to tape the window together. When we finally got back to camp (it was nearly 4pm) we saw our tent, except it didn't look like our tent. It looked like a weird twisted version of our tent. Because of the strong gusts of wind the front tent poles had collapsed and the whole tent looked crazy (we were able to fix it though). That afternoon Sam (we met him on Old Telegraph Track), Dad and Jackson caught two wolf herring and a big trevally. We had dinner with Sam and the fish made a delicious meal.  

We went to the tip of the Cape! Its otherwise know as the most northern point in Australia!👇

On the way back from the Tip.👆
 
The views from the tip of Australia!👇

Walking through the shallows to cool of, it was boiling hot coming back from the Tip!👆

You can't read any of the signs up the Cape! They're all completely covered in stickers! 

I got a fishing shirt at the Croc Tent (search it up!)......one that doesn't have fish on it!! I think it looks stupendous!👇

Alau Beach, QLD

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star☆=Half a Star

What we did at Alau Beach:

• Dad caught a Black Tipped Reef Shark on the first night we were there, it was so exiting to watch him pull it in!
• We went on a long walk along the beach, we were boiling hot when we finished!
• We had fun swimming in the pool.
• We went for a drive to look at lots of WWII planes and relics.
• The day we left we woke up and packed up early and left on a very long drive.....when we got to the Jardine River we had to wait forever for the ferry to cross! When we finally crossed it was boiling hot outside but Jackson and I got to sit in the comfy, air conditioned car on our iPads whilst everyone else had to stand outside sweltering! The rest of the drive went smoothly....NOT, it was full of horrid corrugations (grooves in the surface of a gravel road) but that night we got back to Archer River Road House and our luxurious caravan!

We fished on the beach at sunset, it was beautiful!

Dad caught a shark the first night we were at Alau Beach (we had beer battered flake* for dinner, YUM)! *flake=shark

It was fun jumping of the jetty at Seisia!

We went to see the jetty in Seisia, there was huge schools of bait fish!

Both of the nights we were at Alau Beach we brought the chairs down to the beach to watch the stunning sunsets (can you see the tree that is full of thongs found on the beach?).

The stunning sunset on the second night.👆

When we were at the caravan park the owners had heaps of dogs, Jackson and I named our favorite one Cheeky!

We went to see two crashed planes from WWII and this is one of them.👇

Fuel dumps from WWII. 👆

Weipa, QLD

Star Rating:★★★★★

★=Full Star☆=Half a Star

Weipa=fun! Even though we were only booked in for three nights at the Weipa Caravan Park we ended up staying for four nights because it was beautiful! We would have stayed more, but we were booked into a place called Adel's Grove (near Lawn Hill) so we had to keep moving. Whilst we were there Dad and Jackson had heaps of luck catching fish so now the weekly meal plan is this: Monday-fish, Tuesday-fish, Wednesday-fish, Thursday-fish, Friday-fish, Saturday-fish Sunday-meat...no, just kidding it's fish! We are now eating like kings (and queens), if they eat a lot of fish! When the boys were fishing, me and Mum spent the time they were gone relaxing back at camp (the boys always took the car) and working on our blogs. There was a pool at the caravan park and it was a cool (cool like cold) sanctuary compared to the scorching hot sun outside! It was the best when we jumped in. The other thing we did every night was we walked down to the beach (which was right in front of our camp), set up the chairs and watched the sun set on the sea....it was beautiful! One night we even drove down on the beach. For one full day we drove around to explore multiple beaches, the first one was called Red Beach and it had piles of historical cockle shell middens (they were huge piles). They were made thousands of years ago by the indigenous people from this area. The second beach we went to was called Bouchat Beach and from it you could see a small island called Sandfly Island, there was also some beautiful totem poles. The last (but not the least) beach we went to was called Pennefather and Mum and I lay on the beach and read whilst the boys scoured the the banks, fishing. By the time we were leaving there Dad and Jackson sadly had not caught anything that they could keep....but luckily some people that were camped there didn't have enough room in their freezer for all their fish (they had a boat) so they gave us 3 feeds of barramundi and 1 feed of salmon! Our time at Weipa was awesome!

When we went to the Western Cape Cultural Centre there was an astounding mini model of the museum building, it looked unbelievable!

The totem poles at Bouchat Beach.👆

We saw heaps of beautiful big piles of shells (middens)!👇

There were beautiful sunsets at Weipa!👇

Week 20- Friday 28th July - Thursday 4th August

Frenchman’s Track, QLD

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star☆=Half a Star

Friday 28^th and Saturday 29^th July:

At the Pascoe River crossing we were unsure about crossing the deep river, but some other people arrived so we ended up doing it. Even though we made it through unscathed we still got some water in the car, luckily only a couple of our books and some toilet paper got wet (even though we ended up having to ration out the toilet paper for the Frenchman's and the Old Telegraph Track!).  After driving for a bit we decided to find a camping spot but we couldn’t find one. We kept on driving and searching for a camping spot but we couldn’t find one and it was getting dark so we cleared a small spot for the tent and car next to the side of the track. The next day we drove through a huge bog hole and hit a large tree root (see photos below).

After finishing the Frenchman’s Track we stopped at Bramwell Station for the night. We went up to the bar and listened, and watched, a comedian/singer. He was awesome.

The sign for the Frenchman's Track (not very noticeable, is it)!

I💖4✖4

Crossing the Pascoe River👇

The side that did not get hit by the tree root....

the side that did get hit with the tree root!☝

Bramwell Station👇

An old saddle at Bramwell Station.

There was a super, super, super old sewing machine at Bramwell Station.  

There was an ancient can of Uncle Toby's Oats!

We saw a rare Palm Cockatoo (the arrow is pointing to it)!

We got a beautiful campsite under some trees.

The old bar.👆

There was lots of cattle and some cute calves!

The night after the Frenchman's Track we stayed at the Bramwell Station Tourist Park, it was awesome!

The Old Telegraph Track, QLD

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star☆=Half a Star

Saturday 29^th July – Thursday 4^th August

Day One and Day Two:

• We nearly got bogged (we got stuck) going up the bank after the first river crossing and we had to winch ourselves out.

• We found a beautiful spot to set up camp (it was at Bertie Creek) and decided to stay two nights, sadly it rained for the whole second day!

• Jackson spotted two bushes of fly eating plants…one nearly bit his finger.
• Bang, bang, bang! Dad, Jackson and I went to check out the river crossing at Gunshot Creek. Gunshot is renowned in Australia for being one of the hardest creek crossings. At Gunshot there’s heaps of entrances but they are all a fully (or nearly fully) vertical drop. We checked them out to decide if we were going to do it the next day or not.

Day Three:

At Gunshot we chose one of the easiest entrances, but it was still a long straight drop down. Dad made it down without breaking the car with help from some people we met on the Frenchman’s Track. On the way up the other side it was pretty easy. Because we had spent awhile at Gunshot Creek we just wanted to relax in the afternoon so we camped at a place called Cockatoo Creek. Jackson and I had heaps of fun swimming against the swell of the rapids and wedging ourselves into the rocks and trying to stay there!

Day Four:

We left Cockatoo Creek super early (at 7.30am exactly), we didn’t even have breakfast! We pulled into Fruit Bat Falls just after 8am. We changed into our bathers and rushed down to the water, it was so super refreshing. There was a mini waterfall and it was so relaxing letting the water fall on your head. We also had it all to ourselves.

Next we went on to Elliot Falls which was just as beautiful and refreshing as Fruit Bat Falls.  At Elliot Falls we also went for a walk to Twin Falls (they were beautiful but too shallow to have a proper swim) and the Saucepan. The Saucepan is deep, and I don’t just mean deep, I mean really, really, really (times 1000) deep, like super, super deep. Jackson and I had heaps of fun going down some rapids into the deep water below (we had fun even though we got a lot of bumps and scrapes).

The hardest crossing that day was called Logan’s Crossing, it was long and deep but luckily we didn’t get any water in the car. The last crossing of the day (and the last river crossing on the Old Telegraph Track) was where we camped for the night. It was super fun swimming in the water and watching the cars go past – it was fun floating on the waves the cars made. It was called Nolan’s Brook.

The start of the Old Telegraph Track.👆

There is one of the Old Telegraph poles in this photo.....can you spot it?

Getting winched up Palm Creek crossing!👇

We drove through a lot of areas were controlled burning was happening, it was so interesting and hot!

There was some mega tall termite mounds!

One night at Bertie Creek we had hotdogs cooked on the fire and damper, we made the damper by wrapping it around a stick so it had a hole down the middle of it. Then after it was cooked mum sliced it down the middle so it looked like a a hotdog bun. Then we slid the hot dog in and put in a bit of sauce, it was yum!

There was a super fun little swing at Gunshot Creek....but when Jackson had a go he let his legs down and gave me a huge splash!

Going down Gunshot Creek👇

Going down Gunshot, it doesn't look like a straight drop....but it is! 

Coming up Gunshot Creek (I thought the photo looked cool)!

The front number plate was caked in mud after we did the Gunshot!

We had heaps of fun swimming up the rapids at Cockatoo Creek.

You can't see what is written on this sign! It is covered in stickers!

Fruit Bat Falls (I think they were my favorite falls the whole trip!)👇

Eliot Falls (can you see me in the background on the second photo?)👇

Wobbling across a thin and homemade log bridge (I felt sick because Mum was filming and I was in the car)!👇

Dad driving across Logan's Crossing!👇

There were rope swings at Nolan's Brook but you could not let go when you were high enough because it was too shallow in the water.