This weekend just gone (Friday 23rd May - Sunday 25th May), Jess and I took the Friday off for a DIY long weekend, and headed up the coast. Our target was a place called the Lions Den Hotel, which is just south of Cooktown. (More info here : LINK - Lions Den Hotel) It also gave us another good excuse to head up through the Daintree rainforest via the coast road. Seems like we've been up that way every week lately!
We were a little concerned as it started raining here in Cairns on Thursday afternoon, and rained consistently throughout the night. This could mean that the creek crossings on the Bloomfield track could be up, which might bring us unstuck. The only other option is to go "the long way round", via the inland route. This way is probably actually a little quicker, since it's bitumen road the whole way, but it's no fun compared to the coast road.
We decided to head as far as Cape Trib and make our decision there. Stopping off for a cup of coffee at the Discovery Centre, we had a chat to the staff and found out that it had only just started raining up that way that morning, and had been fairly light. We decided to push on and give it a go anyway.
We stopped just before the gravel road starts and dropped the tyre pressures down to 20psi all round. We haven't bothered with this in the past, but figured with the slippery track we could possibly use the extra traction. Plus I was keen to experiment and see what a difference the lower pressures made to the ride of the car over the later, rocky sections of the track. It was a good excuse to use my brand new ARB Ezi-Deflator, and what a wonderful piece of equipment that is. I'll be going looking for excuses to use it now.
Pushing north past the 4WD Vehicles Only sign, we were pleasantly surprised with the conditions we found. Whilst it was still raining where we were, we had the feeling that we were simply following the leading edge of the rain up the coast. The creek crossings were all at their normal levels, and there wasn't too much standing water on the road - no more than a couple of hour's worth of rain.
One of the smaller creek crossings - not much water here
A good reminder to be careful around the water. Whilst Jess walked across the Woobadda Creek crossing to take photos of the car crossing, it's a good idea to spend a quick minute surveying the water beforehand, and making sure that it's nice and clear. You're not likely to have a problem with the lizards, but you should never get too complacent of them.
One of the rare non-raining moments of our trip up
A small bridge over a creek
Woobadda Creek Crossing
Woobadda Ck was probably the crossing that I was most concerned about. Emmagen Ck is the first one you encounter as you head north from Cape Trib, and marks the limit of 2WD vehicle access. It's safe to swim in, and is quite a popular spot. It can also be quite deep, but is only around 2/3rds the width of Woobadda. Woobadda is towards the end of the track, and as such doesn't see as much traffic. It's usually fine, but with the rain I was concerned that any moderate increase in depth would see us turning around and backtracking all the way south.
Jess walked across to check the depth as well as to get some "Action Photos!" from the other side. The water height was just below her knees, so we figured that we'd give it a shot. As the Pathfinder currently has standard height suspension and no snorkel, we need to be a little cautious of water. We made it through fine, and the difference that the lower tyre pressures made was amazing. Instead of hunting and skittering across the rocks that make up the riverbed, the car felt flat and stable, and simply walked straight through. Much improved over the last time when we were running full pressures (28psi).
With that out of the way, the remainder of the trip was quite quick and very enjoyable. The wet track made me thankful of the 4-wheel grip, especially on the steeper ascents and descents.
The new road north of Wudjal Wudjal is quite impressive as it hugs the Bloomfield river
Further down the road from Wudjal.
We pulled into the Lions Den at about 2pm - total travel time of around 6 hours. We quickly set up camp, and had a bite of lunch. About 5 minutes after we finished, the rain started again! Here some photos of our camp site, and of the creek that runs along the camp site.
Our camping spot for the weekend
The creek
I decided to try out my fancy new fishing rod ($40 from BCF, including a 100 piece tackle box!!! woo-hoo!), despite not knowing a thing about fishing, or even expecting to catch anything. As it turns out, using bread as bait isn't really a good idea. A beautiful cast out over the water landed about half-way across the creek. And promptly hooked a submerged tree. No amount of tugging from different angles could dislodge the brand new hook, sinker, float and 8m of line. Bummer! By now it had started raining heavier though, so we gave up and retreated back to under the awning.
Speaking of the awning on the side of the car - how good are these??!! It was an absolute lifesaver this weekend, and gave us just enough space to sit under and remain dry throughout the day, as well as cook and eat at night. Definitely very happy with how it's turned out, especially considering how much it cost us. We would have been lost and soggy without it.
Saturday dawned beautifully clear - for about 10 minutes. Then the rain, which had continued throughout the night, picked up where it had left off. Unfortunately Jess was all too aware of the rain through the night, as the tent had developed a leak over her head. This resulted in a drip every two minutes landing on either her forehead or her pillow. She had tried to re-position her mattress away from it, with not much luck. Of course I was completely oblivious to all this, and only found out over breakfast. Needless to say, she was pretty over the whole camping in the rain experience by then.However, after a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, the mood started to lift.
We were still trapped under our tarp until midday, when the clouds cleared and we were afforded a beautiful afternoon of sitting around and not doing much. That night we headed up to the pub for dinner and a few drinks. A huge pizza to share nicely complemented the rum cans, and the house dogs were happy to line up for ear-scratchings as you sat at the bar.
Unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos of the pub itself, which is a real shame since it's quite impressive. Every single square inch of available wall or ceiling space is taken up with texta writing of who's been there are what dates, where they have come from, where they're doing, and all manner of other scribings. If you ever get a chance to go there be sure to allow a couple of hours to wander around with a drink in hand and read the walls. Just don't count on the ATM to be in any working order (thank goodness for the Eftpos machine at the bar!)
Sunday dawned again to rain, which had started some time during the night. Luckly the canvas hadn't got as soaked as the previous night, so Jess was able to get a night's sleep in without any damp interruptions. We still faced the dilemma though of when to pack up. The prospect of packing up the tent wet and having to load it in the back for the car was not really something we were looking forward to.
Thankfully the clouds parted for a couple of hours, allowing just enough time for the canvas to dry to a reasonable state. We dived in and broke camp as quickly as we could, and just had packed the last things into the car when the rain started again. Good timing!
We now faced the same decision as on Friday morning - do we head back down the coast road and possibly have to deal with raised creeks, or do we give up, and head back the long way round. The creek at the Lions Den was about a foot higher on Saturday morning following the previous day's rain, although it was back to it's Friday-level before we left. As the creeks have to deal with much more water during the wet season, they're generally fairly fast to go back down after some light rain.
Long story short, despite the three days of rain, we chose to head back via the coast. We had no problems at all. There was more water lying about than on Friday, and there had obviously been a good bit of rain in the preceding two days. Despite whatever had happened in the meantime, the main creek crossings were back down to their normal levels when we arrived, which afforded a quick and trouble-free drive back.
We had a decent run back into Cairns, despite it again raining all the way back. Port Douglas was in the middle of their annual Carnival celebrations, so we had to deal with the returning home traffic once we past south of there. This made for some slow going on the windy coastal highway, but we eventually fought our way past all the belligerent motor home drivers who wouldn't pull over.
It's still raining here now (Tuesday), and the car is still filthy and covered in mud. I've not unpacked the tent as I've got no where dry to put it up to air it out. Same goes for the ground sheet, which is still bundled up in it's bag and probably growing all sorts of mould. All good reasons why I need a big shed!
Despite not having the best weather, it was still good to get away for a couple of days and sit around outside for a change. We going away again in a couple of weeks for a long weekend, so will hopefully have a bit better weather then!
All the photos from the weekend can be found here : Picasa WebAlbums - 2008-05-25 - Camping at Lions Den
