3 May 2013 – Bound for Cape York (Coen to Bramwell Junction)

Due to the comfort of our camping (or lack thereof), we were up early, had a quick breakfast and packed up all the wet gear (the drizzle got a bit heavier throughout the night) and hit the road early.  Josh filled up with fuel while the kids went into the shop neighbouring the pub to stock up on lollies and to say goodbye to the locals.  Our drive this morning saw us pass quite a few herds of cattle on the road, wave to the men out grating the roads and driving the road trains as well as taking the car through a few more creeks and crossings.  Our first stop was 175kms north at Archer River Roadhouse as Josh had heard good things about the hamburgers.  However, folk up here are not quite prepared for the tourists yet seeing as though the wet season finished early.  We had to skip the burger and just have a snack.  At this stop we got to see the memorial for Toots, who was a female trucky well-known to the Cape folk.  I’m not sure what happened to her but according to the memorial she was accidentally killed in 1992.  We took off across the Archer River crossing to become engulfed in more dust thanks to a few more road trains and enjoy the dusty outback.  Around 120kms along we slowed to cross the Wenlock River as there was a van parked near the edge of the road and some crazy young dude fishing off the crossing (I don’t know if he bothered to read the “beware of crocodiles” sign).  Josh pulled up alongside him to shake hands and state “Coz You Can”.  Let me introduce you to Ben Eliot… also referred to as crazy young dude fishing.  Ben said he was from WA and he too was travelling Oz with his family.  After a quick chat we told him we’d meet up with him at Bramwell Station for the night to exchange a few stories – and then continued on our merry way.  Many kilometres past Moreton Telegraph Station we pulled over beside a rather large termite mound on the edge of the southbound side of the road, let me just say there are thousands of these every way you turn in the Cape York Peninsula.  We pulled up at Bramwell Station intending to stay over the night but realised again they too weren’t ready for the tourist season and had not opened yet so instead we continued a bit further along to their sister stop-over of Bramwell Junction.  We were loading ourselves up on massive hamburgers when the Eliot family drove in.  We introduced ourselves properly to Ben, Jenna, their 2 year old daughter Cedar and dog Tyson and all decided that we would camp here for the night and exchange our travelling stories.  We set up camp and Josh even hung up all our new hammocks for testing.  We had a lot of fun counting calories for Ben (you had to be there) and sitting around the campfire toasting a few marshmallows and lighting a few sparklers before hitting the hay for another wet and uncomfortable night in the tents.