On to Musgrave

Kids enjoy the car at Bramwell Station

Broken fuel line.

Archer River

Daisy is pretty small.

6^th Off again with Daisy fixed and raring to go. Called into Moreton Telegraph Station and selected breakfast from their vast menu of pies or pies. Despite the culinary paucity it is a lovely green place for travellers to stay under shady trees with friendly staff. The road is still pretty crook and we decided not to sidetrack into Weipa for an extra couple of hundred km of corrugations. Just north of Archer River Daisy died and we discovered a fuel union had worked loose and all our petrol had slowly run out on the road (no fuel gauge in 1928 Austin 7's). A young couple with a couple of kids stopped and I jumped in with a jerry can to go 25km to Archer River for petrol and hitch a ride to return to Lang who was fixing the fuel line. Before I could leave Archer River Lang appeared having been refueled by Shane who was passing on his way to Weipa with a can of chainsaw fuel – Austin 7's will run on anything it seems. Having a petrol engine is becoming a serious remote area planning issue in this day of diesel engines in 90% of 4x4's.

We soon had camp set up and dived into the clear waters of the Archer to get rid of the dust.

7^th Leaving the Archer we bounced over a terrible road towards Coen. There was no generator charge and after a bit of investigation it seems the primitive cut-out had failed although the generator was still working. We managed to get a charge by Lang revving the engine with me under the bonnet pushing the contact in but the rough road and gear changes caused the engine revs to drop and the contact to pop out. We figure the car will run for days on a full battery and we have switched off our stereo, Engel fridge, airconditioning and electric seat adjustment to reduce electrical consumption.

Musgrave Telegraph Station is a nice break with good food and a welcome cold beer.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

4^th We did not get away from Seisia until early afternoon but decided to head south as far as we can during the afternoon. We are the only car on the ferry and at about 4pm we turned off on the Old Telegraph track to Sailors Creek to find a great spot beside the water with nobody for miles.. We had a refreshing swim in the creek followed by a nice meal under the stars. The car has been running well all day

5^th Set off from our camp site and after refuelling at Bramwell Junction we decided to go into Bramwell Station again as they have had a horse race, bull riding, greasy pig etc festival on all weekend. After lunch we are off and all-but reach the main road when Lang detected a strange lurch and crunch and realised we had broken the right rear axle housing completely off the differential.

We limped back into the homestead and Lang and the station truck driver welded the crack.The light axle was also fitted with a neat cross support brace under the differential like off-road race trucks to cope with any further excess overloads.

We decided to stay the night at Bramwell Station and enjoy the live entertainment once more.

Southbound across the Jardine River

Sailors Creek. Beer was only cooled in the creek but washed the dust away.

Almost luxury!

Typical road - nowhere near the worst.

We make Cape York

2^nd Lang headed off to the garage and worked there all day with Mark at Top End Motors rebuilding the brakes and the leaking radiator. I went down to the wharf and managed to get on the ferry over to Thursday Island where I spent the day. It certainly has changed since we were here 30 years ago!

3^rd  We are off early to head for the tip. The road is pretty rough but we cover the 34kms to Cape York by 09.30 despite drowning Daisy in a deep creek crossing. As it was low tide we were able to take Daisy onto the beach for photos of our arrival. Lang and I walked out to the tip and by the time we returned the car park was filling up and on the way out we passed dozens of 4WD's all heading to set foot on Australia's northern most point. The road from Bamaga to the tip is the roughest so far and we were limited to second and third gear on the corrugations.


A bit deep for Daisy - nearly made it.

The famous Croc Tent Cape York road

A lovely day at the tip.

Australia's most Northerly point.

We are still having radiator problems so it is back to Top End Motors for some more repairs.