Cook’s Hut – 323 km

We realized this morning we hadn’t been mentioning the weather. It has been pretty much what you would expect in the tropics, lots of sun, some cloud and occasional showers but generally humid with temperatures ranging from 26 to 30 daily and not cooling off much at night.

We got a fairly early start this morning as we wanted to get into the Iron Range (Kutini Peyame) national park and due to the very poor campsite booking process and lack of internet we didn’t know if we would just be coming into the park and having to drive the 143 km plus dirt road back out or what. We did stop at the Moreton Telegraph Station as they will book for you but the receptionist there told us she has had about 10 successful days of internet since April so was unable to help us out. Onward we went with hope for success.

It was an interesting drive with mostly very good roads into the rainforest, eucalyptus forests, etc. over many water filled creeks (watch for crocs) and one very muddy rutted section. We thought our vehicle was dirty before. You should see it now with it deep coat of red mud. There was a “short cut” we could have taken, called Frenchman’s Track but you needed to cross the Pascoe River which can be as much as one meter deep and of the four cars attempting the track yesterday, two had to be towed to the tune of over $3000! Besides our rental agreement would not cover this adventure.

There are many areas in the Cape Peninsula where liquor is prohibited or restricted. We were given a list of how much is allowed. In the Portland Road area there is no liquor allowed so we followed a long trail of empty beer cans and cases. Guess the locals stock up internally before getting home! Wouldn’t want to meet any of them on the road.

This has been one of the best drives for bird watching so far. We saw galahs, kookaburra, rainbow lorikeets, sulfur crested cockatoos amongst others. Also saw wallabies and kangaroos hopping quickly across the road.

Kookaburra

We stopped at the Lockhart River Ranger station hoping to book a camp site in the area but no one was there. They did have a campsite booking computer outside for people to use but it was down today. They did suggest we drive 4 km down the road to the airport where you could use your mobile phone with so-so reception to phone for a reservation.

We decided to drive into Lockhart River seeing as how we were that far in already. We spotted an Aboriginal Art Centre where they support local artists, provide an area for them to do their work and sell their end products. The manager was very nice and told us how upset the locals are with the useless campsite booking system. He offered to get on the net and book for us, which he did so here we are at Cook’s Hut campground. While there we purchased a painting and the fellow who painted it was sitting outside working on more. His name is Kevin Matty and he is very shy but did eventually agree to have his picture taken. One of the young fellows who was working there had been talking about the soccer games in Canada. Doug gave him a Canada pin (we have a big supply) and he was thrilled. He immediately put it on and kept patting it and saying “I have a Canada pin!”

Norma and Kevin Matty

 

After this we drove to check out our site – only six sites here and we had the last one. We then continued down the road for another 40 km to Chilli Beach where there are many more spots. We did walk on the beach and saw firsthand the garbage we had been hearing about from other people we had met along the way. Apparently as many as 4700 thongs and 6200 plastic bottles wash up there yearly from up-current neighbouring countries (e.g. Indonesia). They encourage people to pick up some of it as they use the beach. Again we were struck with how beautiful the pure white sand beach is and not a person to be seen using it, probably due to the posted sign about a recent croc sighting on that beach.

Beach Junk

This is the first beach we have seen a bit of seaweed on so you know how happy Doug was.

We continued on up to the end of the road to a community called Portland Road. It is a very small resort area with several holiday houses/cottages for rent and a café. Also very definite NO camping signs along the beautiful sheltered beach area.

We have some pretty noisy neighbours tonight. They are on the QZ tour bus that we had actually looking into doing for this trip. The company sets up tents at many different places, then takes people on the tours, letting them camp along the way. The staff cook all the meals as well.

Tour Group Site