KAddy Photography: Heading to the Cape? Here are our helpful hints….

Over three weeks we travelled from SE Qld to Mackay, Cairns, Laura, Archer River Roadhouse, Bramwell Station, Up OTT, Elliot Falls, Punsand Bay, down PDR, Moreton Telegraph Station, Weipa, Hann River Roadhouse, Cooktown, Cairns, Charters Towers, Comet, Roma then home to SE Qld

But before I start my leg by leg blow of our trip to Cape York (with info and photos) I thought I would share a couple “hints n tips” that our crew came up with along the way. I am sure there are a million more and I will cover them as I think of them but this is what we have so far.

Ready, set, go

Toilet paper – have it handy, ready to go especially for the women and children. We came across a few of the “public” loos that were out of stock. Also if you need to cop a squat then bury your paper. So many grubs out there just leaving their loo paper lying around for the world to see.

Wet Ones AKA Baby Wipes AKA Bum Wipes – have them handy too for hand wiping and freshening up when there are no showers or waterfalls.

Hayfever Meds – you are a long way from anywhere if the dust gets up your nose, so if you suffer from sinus then stock up before you go.

Vacuum Packed Food – this is seriously my new best friend. For 12 out of the 13 camping nights we ate pre-cooked vac packed meals. Curries, Strogs, Spaghetti, Chilli Con Carne etc. We vacuumed and froze them all before we left, defrosted them in a fridge bag in the car during the day while we were driving and then popped them in a big pot of water to heat the meal through. We then dished the meals into plates straight from the opened bag and served them with microwave rice (heated in a frying pan – instructions are on the rice packet), pasta n sauce or frozen veges. The empty vac pag went into the big and the hot water from the pot went into the washing up bucket – bugger all mess and meals as delicious as the day they were first cooked. I have now started doing this at home so I have some meals on hand during the week when I have to work. Winning!!

VacPacked Meal

Ziplock Bags (all sizes) – these are just handy for everything…fish, wet clothes, rock and shell collections….

Fresh fish in ziplock bags

Dry Bags – Due to limited storage room inside our vehicle we purchased dry bags/sacks to carry our clothes in. A little packing expertise was required to make them as functional as possible but they certainly kept everything clean and dry while travelling up on the roof racks. We also took some cheaper (lesser quality) ones to cart our dirty clothes around and to put the rubbish bags in until we got to a dump site. They all worked a treat – not dust, water or mess. Winning!!

Dry Bags

$1 Coins – We washed at every possible opportunity and all the machines took $1 coins. Prices ranged from $4-$6 per load for both washers and dryers (if using dryers clean out the lint filters – this will help the dryer work more efficiently)

Driving Safety – HEADLIGHTS – put em on when you are on the road especially when travelling on the dirt and UHF –invest in a UHF, this will enable you to talk to other travellers and warn of any issues ahead ie cattle, bull dust holes, breakdowns etc. We wouldn’t leave home without one.

Maps – We took the good old Hema Cape York Map which was great but I also purchased the Hema 4WD Maps App for our iPad which was super handy as well – for us it was $100 well spent.

4WD Accessories – we had max trax, winch, tow straps, big D shackles on the tow bar, yellow towing bits under the front, water bras, compressor, generator and probably a heap of other stuff I had no idea about. (please excuse my 4WD accessory ignorance but this stuff wasn’t on my list of things to “give a toss” about – I worried about food, money, clothing, destinations, accommodation, kids etc etc. The boys worried about the vehicles)

Anyhow we used the tow strap once to help out our travel buddies and we used the water bras a couple of times and that was about it.

We had a 60l ARB fridge/freezer in our vehicle (which died day 7 and was resurrected on day 10) and our friends had an 80l Waeco which we used as a freezer and a 35l Waeco which we used as another fridge.

We both carried extra water. We only had one spare tyre and our friends had two.

Last of all take your rubbish with you when you leave…only leave your footprints.