Straight to the TOP

Our next destination was Bramwell Station.
Here we made another discovery. Let me quote from our tour operator's (Frontier Safaris) document: ".. portable generators and or 240 power inverters to ensure life’s little luxuries like charging your camera or keeping a beer cold for the end of the day are taken care of."
Well, our generator was dead and no amount of care could bring it to life.

Luckily Bramwell Station had a powered camping site, so we put our worries away. The station is advertised as Australia's most Northern cattle Station , but at the time of our visit, all cattle has gone to Roma cattlesaleyards. Only one very friendly (and hungry) cow remained...

We had some free time to walk around, not very exciting. Most impressive were termites mounds...

During happy hour in a local restaurant we learned a bit about station's past and present. Due to drop in beef prices the cattle side of the business is not very bright. This is compensated by involvement in roads maintenance and tourism.

Next day we had a long ride, straight to the top. Flat terrain, dust, corrugated road. Luckily I had a very good book, and ability to read in a shaking and rocking bus. Jardine River crossing was the only break in this monotony...

Just 10 metres and price.. $129 per car - return.
Short stop in Bamaga to replenish our food supplies..

Finally we reached Loyalty Beach our camping site for next 3 nights...

Oh, I forgot to show a crocodile warning. It was there, trust me. I could bet somebody saw there a crocodile, even two.
Luckily, in the shower, I had much more pleasant company...

Jump to - earlier - Part1, Part2, Part3 Later -  Part5, Part6, Part7, Part8

Paradise lost

In the morning we had first chance to look at our equipment in a daylight. Photo below says a bit..

To be on positive side - I really enjoyed ambience in the toilet and shower...

We were farewell-ed by a local peacock.- move your mouse over this photo, he will show you the real face...



Then we hit the road...

It was our scenery for the next 3 days. Flat, dry terrain and dusty, corrugated road. Look at the picture above. There was easterly wind (from the right) , compare colour of trees on both sides of the road.

Termites mounds looked like unending cemetery...

Our destination was Archer River camping grounds. The river looked very tempting...

but....

Crocodile warning accompanied us at each creel, river, lake. I asked some passers by if they actually saw a crocodile in this area. Answer was: somebody told me, that somebody told him, that somebody saw a crocodile here, even two. From now on, I heard this story almost everyday.

Back to the camp to find, that our guide... Well, look first into our tour operator (Frontier Safaris) document::
"Our Guides work extremely hard to provide passengers with excellent, wholesome meals. With more time available in the evenings, our staff can concentrate on their culinary talents and present a complete 3 course meal."
Our guide simply disappeared so we were left to our own facilities to prepare the dinner. Our (Ann's) culinary talents were apparently good enough to attract our guide, but he strategically disappeared for the wash up duties. After completing all kitchen chores we discovered the reason for his absence: rugby match against New Zealand.

We lost.

Jump to - earlier - Part1, Part2 later - Part4, Part5, Part6, Part7, Part8

First step in the Paradise

In the morning I embarked our touring bus. It circled street of Cairns and slowly filled with my companions for the next 2 weeks. I made already some half a dozen tours in Australia and usually most of passengers were young backpackers from Europe. This time I found myself in company of people of roughly my age group. How reassuring.
Another pleasing factor was meeting on the road other people in the same state of mind as mine...

Our bus climbed steep road. We were surrounded by dense. lush bush. Sugar cane, tobacco, mangoes.. what a fertile country. Finally we reached Mareeba for a short break. We stopped in the local museum while our guide asked two ladies to help him in food shopping.
- We will be back in half an hour - he said - fair enough, probably some savories for happy hours or desserts. We spent half an hour happily enjoying the museum.
I had also a chance to look at other tourist. Mostly in well equipped 4WD vehicles. But also such ever-young couple - how beautiful...

In fact the museum was quite interesting, I did not mind another half an hour, but it appeared to be over two hours. Apparently we hit the road without any food supplies. This was definitely a completely new experience.

We passed Mt Molloy and began descent on the North side of Great Dividing Range. Our driver/guide introduced himself as Buud, or maybe Bood, hopefully not Booed. Quite impressive story - born on the cattle station, many years in the outback, healer, astrologer, accepted into an Aboriginal tribe. Only two things missing - he never ever guided a tour, and never been North of Laura. The FAQ page of tour operator (Frontier Safaris) assured: "..providing an unrivalled level of customer service with friendly, knowledgeable and experienced guiding". Oooops.

On our way we (luckily) noticed  sign of Split Rock. Aboriginal rock paintings. Unfortunately our guide could not tell us much about them, just few general remarks. I could not find too much information in OTHER SOURCES. Ironically, I found a very expressive description of encounters with Aboriginal art in Laura region in a fiction book by young Polish author. But the book is in Polish - lucky me. So I just watched paintings in silence...

More pictures HERE.

Quite late we reached our first camping site at Hann River roadhouse. First encounter with local fauna - this emu was very keen to have his share in watermelon. Luckily we had old soldier on guard...

In the last rays of sun, we set up our tents, ate dinner and went to well deserved rest...

Jump to - earlier - Part1, later - Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6, Part7, Part8

At the gate to paradise

In August I made a tour of Cape York. I do not intend to write a detailed report of this, or even any report. Just few accidental comments...

The tour started in Cairns. Evening before the tour start greeted me with a promising sunset...

I spent some time studying the tour itinerary and comparing it to the very first attempt to reach the Southern top of Australia - tragic expedition of Edmund Kennedy - details HERE.
It went like this:
".. They arrived (by ship) at Rockingham Bay 20 May, but once landed the party encountered terrible terrain such as mangrove swamps, mountains, lagoons, rivers, and thick rainforest that made it almost impossible to travel with horses, carts and sheep. After nine weeks, they had travelled just 40 miles from the coast, and 12 miles north of the landing point.."
"By mid November, the men and horses began to weaken, so the decision was taken to leave eight men behind at Weymouth Bay, while Kennedy and four others continued north..."
"Kennedy and his aboriginal tracker Jackey Jackey pressed on towards Port Albany and the rendezvous, but they were closely followed by menacing natives. Near the banks of the Escape River, 20 miles from the tip of Cape York, Kennedy was speared several times and died in Jackey Jackey's arms. After a feat of endurance of about ten days with no supplies, Jackey Jackey made it to the supply ship alone 23 December 1848.".

From the team of 13 strong, tough men only 3 survived.
What team will I join tomorrow. Shall we survive?

Is there any message in this picture?

Jump to: Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6, Part7, Part8

Kathmandu? Rather Brighton Beach.

In August this year I bought a pair of sandals in Kathmandu shop...

They required some time to adjust to my feet, and vice versa. And when we reached a satisfactory agreement, a disaster happened, a clip broke...

Well, not really a disaster because I was not in Himalaya but at Cape York, and what is most important, just 100 metres from our campsite. Anyway, I would expect, that the shop under such adventurous name, will not leave its customers barefoot in the middle of nowhere. Thus a suggestion to change the name, as in the title.

Broken clip, not a big problem. After return to Melbourne, I visited the Kathmandu shop again. They inspected the goods and the receipt - well we will give you your money back.
- Wait a minute, I already got used to these sandals, I do not mind keeping them, just give me a half a dozen spare clips as they are the weakest link.
Shop assistant went to inquire....
- Sorry, but we have no clips. So we will give you back your money.
I took my money, but I am still disappointed. What will happen with these sandals? Will they bother to replace a clip and send sandals to some charity shop? I doubt. My guess is they will be dumped to the rubbish bin.
I always linked tourism with care for environment. This time the link was broken, just because of lack of a spare costing probably 50 cents.

PS. There might be some positive outcome from my writing. I released this post on Facebook and received a message from Kathmandu, that they passed it to their management to consider providing spare parts for these sandals.

Winter solstice

Winter solstice,
the sky divided in halves.

Sun takes upper hand.

MS Walk 2013

Sunday morning, the weather looked promising, so I decided to ride my bike to the event. In some places there were remains after Friday night floods...

Finally arrived in Albert Park. Behind me runners end their effort...

Apparently some people found more comfortable transport devices...

Now time for walkers - a big, big crowd. One of these rare occasions when being in a big crowd lifts up your heart...

And real friends will find each other even in the biggest crowd...

Few minutes waiting for the start...

and off we go!

The lake is accompanying us all the way...

Long, long row of joyful walkers..

There are angels in the crowd...

The finish line....

The final outcome of my effort was over $800. Maybe I will hit thousand next year?