Aug 15-18 (Day 197-200) - Fruit Bat Falls to Weipa

We rose early and moved our van back to the normal carpark, just in case anyone wanted to cause us trouble, but no-one did. We had a morning swim at Fruit Bat Falls for a good 30 minutes and went back to the van to have breakfast, and no-one turned up at all!

Fruit Bat Falls at 7:30am - nice way to start the day!

At Fruit Bat Falls there are these amazing carnivorous plants! They keep their lid open
until some insect comes to investigate their sticky centre, then SNAP! Insecty Goney!

Given we were now leaving from Fruit Bat Falls we had to forego the idea of staying at Moreton Station, so we drove carefully along these horribly corrugated roads down to Bramwell Junction Roadhouse. Some of the corrugations were up to 10cm deep!

Hardly a smooth ride!

10cm tall corrugations on Bamaga Rd!!

The turn-off to the south part of the Old Telegraph Track, which we came up on August 4

The kids amusing themselves plaiting bracelets

In places the road condition is so bad that a 'third lane' has been added
by drivers along the verge of each side of the road!

At one point this Eastern Brown Snake slithered across the road in front of us!
Would have been about 2.5-3m long

We got to Bramwell for lunch and shared the irony with the staff who served us last time that our OTHER spring had broken! We enjoyed lovely (if expensive!) burgers for lunch - $16 per burger! Well it is out in the middle of nowhere!

Burgers at Bramwell Roadhouse

Heading south along Telegraph Rd

On our way back down Telegraph Rd towards the turn-off to Weipa, we went past many 'Dip' signs again, many of which (again) were hardly a dip at all, some were moderate dips, and a couple were real shockers! So we decided to engage in some 'responsible graffiti' and marked the signs near the worst of the dips 'BIG dip'!

Take note folks! You want to slow for this one!

About 60km south of Bramwell Roadhouse is a junction turning west which takes one past Batavia Downs station. This is a quicker way of getting to Weipa as you chop avoid a much longer way around as if you stuck to the main road.










We headed into Weipa, where Mim and Matt did some shopping, the rest of us set up the van, and we then went back to pick them up and all went for an evening swim. Ahh!

We finished the night with fish and chips from Barramunchies, the shop attached to the caravan park

Sunday August 16 - Tuesday August 18

 For the next few days we just hung around at Weipa. We had phone signal after several days without it, so I had some work to get done. We also did some more shopping. I tried to grease the suspension joints on the caravan, only to find one of them was blocked, but again one of the spares came to the rescue so I changed that over and bought some new grease. Amidst me getting some work done and the kids doing some school work, the days were swimming in the pool and being stunned by the gorgeous sunsets!

A fellow camper blowing out everyone's air filters who needed it!

Working by the pool while the kids swim. Not the best work posture though...!

Sunsets were magic!

My turn to cook breakfast!

Why am I cuddling a rubber doormat at Weipa Mitre 10?? Well we
had one of these as a wedding present, and it moved into our old caravan,
and into this van. But earlier this trip it was just coming apart so we binned it.
But despite checking in numerous Bunnings stores down the coast we
simply could not find this style anywhere! So imagine our surprise
when a little Mitre 10 in Weipa had one, and only $20!!

 

-- Greg