Whitsunday's to Cape York

Wednesday 14th July 1971
Woke to find it was drizzling rain so we decided not to go on a cruise out to the islands. We packed up & got ready to go, while I was waiting i went to the souvenir shop & bought a tea towel & a bird ornament for mum. When we were ready to go we found that the draw bar on the no.2 rover's trailer had cracked at the weld, so they went to get it welded while we went for a drive around Shute Harbour & had a look at the site seeing boats. We also saw the Whitsunday passage which was all misty with rain it would be a good place if the sun was out. We then went a joined the others at the welding shop at Cannonvale ,it was a good business the wife was the ironworker & she did welding to, they lived on site in a very unclean shed but they had a lot of money tied up in machinery . He did a good job it cost $7.00 for 1hr15 min.I posted a card to Mrs Brown and left CannonVale at 1015 & drove though rain to Townsville had lunch and onto Cardwell were we stopped for the night about 5 mile north.We are about 50 yards away from the main train line we are looking forward to an interesting night.It is very hot for July despite the overcast conditions. The other rover is having trouble with its boiling radiator.

Thursday 15 July 1971
Start at 6.45 after a rainy night and no trains, arrived in Cairns at 9.30 and went to post office to ring Cheryl found out she was sick so started to worry so posted a letter.went to the tent shop and bought a fly for the tent cost $10.00.We went shopping for provisions cost $44.00 including 12pkt of sao's. left Cairns at 12.30 drove north to Mosman then inland to Mt Molloy then onto the Palmer River where we made camp at 5.30 on the fresh water river.That night we all went up the pub where to our surprise six nice girls were working. The Palmer river was a gold mining settlement there is a story about the settlement and Dead Mans Pass. It is said that the Chinese used to walk through this pass to the gold workings and the aboriginals used to ambush and spear them as they went through .We got to bed about 10.00 it was a very mild night.


Friday 16 July 1971

Got away at 8.30 after looking at the fantastic bird life on the river finished no. 13 film. Drove through & had a look at the aboriginal paintings just south of Laura .Drove through a lot of creeks and finally got bogged in one , so we made camp about 40miles from Coen. I got sick that afternoon . Three fellows travelling south in a Toyota truck pulled up they told us the Geraldine river was 7ft deep so this dulled our chances to get to the top, bed early