Living the Dream Down Under: Laura to Chillagoe Caves and back to Cairns

Aboriginal rock art at Split Rock, Laura

The road to Laura, Cape York was very corrugated and with a broken air con belt it was hot and dusty!! When we got to Laura we decided to camp up on the river with our German friends and then we headed to Split Rock to check out the Aboriginal Art. Laura has the largest Aboriginal art galleries in Australia with over 1200 sites. This was a very spiritual place and had some beautiful rock art, including some strange spirit alien type drawings.

The baby calf we saw on the Palmerville track

A funny sign along the way! Poor car haha

The next day we headed off on the Palmerville track which is a 5 hour, very remote bush track. It was a fantastic drive and the best track we drove in Cape York - scenery was amazing and a lot more interesting than the main highways - having to get out and open and shut gates, up and down hills, through grass as high as the car and many water crossings. We saw a baby calf that had just been born that was so cute. He wanted to come on the trip with us as he ran after the car when we drove off. As we approached Chillagoe we drove through the Welcome Range which were magnificent volcanic rock formations - looked like it was from another planet. When we got to Chillagoe we stopped with the boys for some fish and chips at the local pub and a few beverages. That night we camped at the Walsh River and got eaten alive by some kind of midgies. Gav caught a cherubin (large freshwater prawn) with a spear that was 40cm, as well as a freshwater long tom that had a flounder in its mouth. The Germans were very impressed and excited to cook it up on the fire - it was delicious.

Me sitting at Chillagoe Caves

The long tom and cherubim that Gav caught - thong shows how big they were.

Gav walking into one of the caves.

Early the next day we packed up to a feast that Andre had cooked for breakfast. It was our last morning with the boys, as they were heading west towards Darwin. After breaky we went on some cave walks with the boys in Chillagoe. The most magnificent was The Pompeii Cave which you clambered into a tight tunnel, which opened into a 70m wide by 70m deep cavern open to the sky at the top. Massive boulders tumbled down through the landscape - it was an amazing sight. On we drove after Chillagoe leaving the boys behind, towards Mareeba and then on to Cairns. We decided to go back to Palm Cove in order to clean up after the dusty mission that was Cape York. Over the next few days we cleaned out the tent, the trailer and the car. Gav put out the crab pots again and managed to snag a few more mud crabs.

N & G