Wet day in outback Australia, what to do? Well why not drive to the tip of Cape York. The husband has a warrior mentality – if the going gets tough – the tough get going, and going he did, in a sturdy three door Hyundai we recently bought in Cairns from an over zealous lover of the demon drink who desperately needed to pay a fine.
Packed to the gunnels with everything and more than anyone would need if stranded in the Outback Australian bush for a week, in short we had a week to do Cape York Peninsula, there and back!
Lakeland was our first stop, a small tidy outback Australian community surrounded by banana, peanut and coffee plantations, with a nice green shady camping area, and the best coffee in outback Australia. We set up the tent, cooked a divine barramundi and green salad meal and swapped stories with a few alternative life-stylers dining out of sardine tins, who had hitched down from the 3 day Laura music festival. Packing away our gear we had no sooner settled in for the night when it started to rain and rain it did, all night, heavily.
The next morning we headed north to the small township of Laura and on to the Musgrave Roadhouse on stretches of seal alternating with patches of soft red dirt connecting one distant horizon with the next. The rain pelted down filling the deep causeways, and creek crossings quickly becoming a gal’s worst nightmare.
The road deteriorating before our eyes, the dirt road turning to red mud, reminding me of the soggy clay you throw at a potters wheel in the days when I made many lop sided ash trays for all the relies Xmas parcels. The expedition was going steadily down hill, visions of ending my days buried in red mud under a gum tree was not on my list of things to do.
Slithering into the very outback Australian, Musgrave Road House, we carefully parked on the only rise in Cape York Peninsula, so we could slither downhill to resume what was slowly becoming an epic journey. Our little Hyundai was looking like a Tonka toy smothered in thick red mud amidst ’see how many wheels you can have on the road’ trucks, enormous 4WD’s, and ‘in need of panel beating’ coaches.
I hastily ordered cappuccinos, cold beers and all the unhealthy food I could muster whilst the warrior pounced on the diners to get the latest road updates. A coach driver had slithered side ways toward a cattle stop with 10 senior citizens on board, only straightening up seconds before crashing and loosing only his bumper bar.
The general consensus was that apart from the next 25 clicks (km’s) where the cattle stop was number one hazard, the road wasn’t too bad, but in our not so Outback Australian vehicle, boxing on wasn’t advisable, of course if we could sit out the rain, e.g. camping in a soggy inhospitable outback Australian paddock, we would be sweet in a couple of days.
The bowels of the roadhouse harboured a large T.V. with Wimbledon happening. I settled down to munch my unapproved heart foundation tasty morsels, 100% happy with the Williams sisters, leaving the warrior to exchange near mishaps and make new best friends, I was not moving north, and not camping in a soggy paddock, of that I was certain.
Finally the decision was made after many hours to turn around and retreat as we would run out of time to reach the tip and return safely. Retreating along the red slippery road which didn’t seem quiet so bad, my warrior was constantly trying to convince me the road was rapidly drying out.
And as we know from those child hood fairy stories every story has a happy ending. We found a beautiful white sandy un-rutted beach with divine warm salty ocean, and not a rain cloud in sight. Here the warrior spent the next week justifying bailing out!
Elaine and Richard Bryant are born and bred Kiwis, experienced in the natural outdoors and love overseas adventures. They are independent and fun loving with a passion for finding that idyllic corner of the world sometimes overlooked by those seeking outdoor adventure travel experiences.
http://adventurealive.com
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