Aug 19 - 28 (Day 201 - 210) - Weipa to Coen, staying at Coen

Wednesday 19 July

Sorry it's been so long! We've had limited signal and limited time (believe it or not!). But here we are, finally publishing this entry on September 4!

Before leaving Weipa we couldn't help noticing a couple of these enormous Mercedes-Benz 4WD ex-Army trucks! I spoke to the owner and he said they were planning to travel for about 10 years in them, and when they've finished in Australia and travel is allowed again they're planning on heading to Africa. Quite a journey! He said it's got about a 7 litre engine so I did ask about the fuel economy (hardly an appropriate term for a tank this size!) and he said he gets about 1km per litre - i.e. 100L/100km. As an indication, when we're towing our van we get about 18L/100km in our Pajero, and most modern vehicles get around 10L/100km or better. I would hate to be paying the bill to run these beasts!

A giant machine - and expensive to run!!

We left Weipa campground and parked just outside for a few minutes to empty our waste and noticed a familiar tree. It was a cashew tree - we didn't realise they grew in Australia because the last time we had seen anything to do with cashews was in Thailand were we watched how they produced them and why they are so expensive. Only 1 nut grows per flower bud.

 

One of the caravan park staff said that when Comalco owned the mining operations up here they planted a whole lot of cashew trees which now pretty well grow wild.

We then did some last minute food shopping as we weren't going to be near big shops for a while and then onto get more fuel in the jerry cans and the car ($1.39/L in Weipa).  We noticed this very typical country sign as way of payment.

We got some extra bolts and plates to make up our own U-bolts for the van suspension if we needed them, then headed out of Weipa for the last time and on towards Archer River.

An ore tanker taking (presumably) Bauxite from Rio Tinto's bauxite mine.

This was now a new bit of road we hadn't been on up here as we'd taken the short cut from Bramwell Station a few times now. The road started off OK but then turned into a pretty rough road unfortunately. But we just took out time and dodged the pot holes and dust holes and dips.

There are often cattle just roaming freely along or even over the road.

We stopped off at Archer River for some lunch and a leg stretch, then continued down to Coen where we had camped on the way up. We hoped to be able to camp in exactly the same spot and to our delight it was available!

Back at Coen!

Coen - Thursday 20 August - Saturday 29 August

We had only intended to stay here at Coen for a few days, but we loved it so much we ended up staying for about 10! It really is the perfect spot - fresh water to swim in and drink in a pinch, clear skies and full sun for the solar panels to keep the batteries charged, decent phone signal to get business work done and school work, 5 min drive to town centre for supplies, empty our waste and refill our water container to top up the water tanks.

So here's a bit of a summary of what we did and some photos.

Cows from the abandoned property next door coming for their morning drink

Coen River, just north of the swimming hole

"The Island" - more on this later

First night dinner around the fire

Our campsite at Coen

Helping Matt with Maths

So, the island. There's a small island in the middle of Coen River. It's only just an island, because the water on one side between it and the riverbank is only about 40cm wide; but the other sides it's well spaced from the riverbank, and the water in most spots is reasonably deep.

The kids decided to set up a bit of a hut on the island under this tree with some corrugated iron and other bits and pieces they found.

Here's Matt with an old bedframe they found in the river!

The kids had put quite a bit of effort into building their base on the island and had had a few games there, which gave us a bit of an idea - should we let them sleep the night on the island??! After some lengthy discussions about the risk, how many arguments they'd have, whether or not they'd get cold and so on, we felt they could manage it so we put the idea to the kids - "YES PLEASE!!!". We decided to treat it as though they were really sleeping on a deserted island, so we gave them a timeline that they had to collect everything they wanted and get it onto the island by 5pm otherwise they'd have to do without. And no coming back to the van unless they needed the toilet or it was an emergency.

The kids setting up camp on the island

Bek making a fire

They took a bottle of milk for their morning cup of tea, and it was up to them to work out how to keep it cold.
They ended up tying it to a stone to sink it in the deepest (coldest) part of the river,
and tying a stick on a long string as a float marker. It worked a treat!

Boys coming back with firewood from the mainland

We all had tea on the island together - the kids cooked the potatoes and sausages

The kids settling in for their night alone on the island!

Monday 24

So they slept there on Sunday 23rd August and we had no nocturnal visitors! It was a bit scary for us because we weren't quite sure how it was going to go, and every noise we heard initially we wondered about! But they were fine. We snuck out of the van first thing in the morning and captured some sneaky photos while they weren't looking. Then Greg and I enjoyed our morning cuppa all by ourselves while the kids had their billy cuppa over on the island.

The kids' morning on Coen Island

Morning cuppa while the kids were on the island

The kids managed it, although they didn't sleep too well! They had slept on some square foam mats under their bath towels, but the tree roots below these had been quite uncomfortable.

So the next night they slept soundly in the van, but the night after they had another shot! They spread a lot more sand over the tree roots and it worked a lot better for them. This time there were some people camping a bit closer so we were a bit unsure about whether or not to let them stay on the island for the night. So we went over there with them for a while, played a few games together and kept an eye on the other campers to try to work out if we felt comfortable with it or not.

Keeping entertained while we sussed out the neighbours, before allowing them to stay a second night.

In the end we went ahead with it and they were fine.

Video - The Castaways!

Somewhere while the kids were doing all this, someone had the idea of pretending there was a horrible person the kids were running away from to get to the island, and after many twists and turns we ended up shooting what ended up as a 30 minute video called "The Castaways"! We all ended up with a role, and the island took a starring part as the scene of most of the action!

Wednesday 26

While Greg worked, the kids and I explored an abandoned house nearby. Looks as though it had a fire from some electrical problem and it spread.

Thursday 27

Lots of video editing no doubt!

Friday 28

Today was a day of celebration as it was Bek's 15th birthday. I still can't quite believe it. She's growing up so fast and developing into such a lovely young lady.

Pouring a wax seal on Matt's card

Matt even made up a signet / stamp to put into the molten wax on the card!

Morning coffee

Reading Jude's hand-made card

... and ours (thanks Mim!)

The birthday present... not really, just a cow taking a longer walk for its morning drink

Our last day at Coen

We had intended to leave Coen on about August 25, but decided to stay until Bek's birthday! We really enjoyed Coen, but we must move on as we have some parcels waiting for us at Burketown. So August 28 was our last night.

-- Greg and Mim