Hi everyone,
So the recent rain impact is almost
gone, the PDR is almost as good as it was before the unseasonal
rains that we had lately.
Lakefield National Park has reopened, and I have a little report from my
partner Mark on Palm Creek crossing.
And last but not least, there are two
great events to come - Cooktown Discovery Festival, and Weipa
Fishing Classic.
=============================================
In This Issue:
• Recent Rain Impact Almost Gone
• Lakefield Reopened
• Two Great Events Coming
• Other Bits and Pieces
• Feedback Always Welcome
=============================================
RECENT RAIN IMPACT
IS ALMOST GONE
As was expected, the impact from the rains that we
had around 20-24 May, is
almost gone just about a week later.
This is completely normal as the rain
impact does not last long up here
- creek and river waters usually go down in hours, and the ground dries
out in about a week after the rains
stop.

PDR last weekend.
So the main road to the Tip - from the north to the
south:
The northermost part - Bypass Roads
and Telegraph
Road - is fairly good but scoured and chopped up a bit,
and still a little soft in some places. It's good with no traffic when
you can use the middle part, but when you have to go to the sides it
can be a bit soft.
The PDR,
south of the Telegraph
Road turnoff, is very good down until Archer, also good
south of Archer (but there you got those sharp corners), and it is
reasonably
good down to Musgrave.
Most dips have water in,
nothing very deep but some are deeper and some
are shallower - if you have a dip sign there will most likely be water.
South of Musgrave there is a section
that is a little rough, with some chopped up
bits, not very bad or long but might take you down to 60-70km/h.
And south of that the road is good,
Hann River area is good, but north of Hann River corrugations are
starting to form.
The whole thing is pretty well graded
still, but will corrugate
gradually with the increasing traffic, so if you dislike
corrugations more
than a little water and wet season roughness, early season is the time
to
go.
LAKEFIELD
REOPENED
The camping areas in Lakefield
National Park that were closed after the recent rains, have reopened. The
southern ones -
Kalpower Crossing, Mick Fienn Waterhole, Dingo
Waterhole, Kennedy Bend, Twelve Mile
Lagoon, Six Mile Waterhole, Old Laura Homestead, Horseshoe Lagoon, and
Welcome Waterhole have reopened, however Old Faithful Waterhole remains
closed due to high water levels.

Lakefield Camping.
Battle Camp Road is closed, Lakefield Road is open to Musgrave, and the
camping areas
north of the Lakefield Ranger Station remain closed (like they
were before the rains). Sweetwater Lake, Annie River, Five Mile Creek,
Saltwater Crossing, Bizant River, Brown
Creek, Basin Hole, Top Whiphandle Waterhole, Bottom Whiphandle
Waterhole, Orange Plain Waterhole, Hann Crossing, Hanush’s Waterhole,
Melaleuca Waterhole and Midway Waterhole are all
closed at this stage
but will reopen.
OTT AND PALM
CREEK CROSSING
The Old
Telegraph Track looks
about what you'd expect this time of the year, on the photo below is
the southernmost crossing (the
one south of Palm Creek), it will dry out in a week or two probably.

The southernmost crossing on the OTT.
Palm Creek
is shallow, but steep,
particularly the northern
bank.
So, going from the north to the south is easy at the moment, but from the south to
the north, which is the most usual way to do the OTT, is a lot harder.

The easier, southern entrance of Palm Creek.
The southern entrance is quite
reasonable and should be done by just about anyone in a 4WD,
whether you are going up or down it.
The northern entrances are steep
however, steeper than the photo below makes them look.

The steeper, northern side of Palm Creek.
According to my partner Mark (who does the OTT
recoveries) - coming
down it should be pretty easy, but going
up - it might not be impossibly steep,
but because it's soft and dug out, most people would probably
require
either digging or winching - unless you have very large tyres like 35
plus.
He says people pulling campers will make it a lot worse, the coming
tourist traffic will not help it, so it
will be a challenging crossing again this year (every crossing
changes to some degree after every wet season).
TWO
GREAT EVENTS COMING
And last but not least, there are two
great events coming - on the second weekend in June as usual
(and yes we do wish the both were not on the same weekend year after
year!).

Cooktown Discovery Festival 2013.
Cooktown
Discovery Festival is a great three day event with the highlight of
the re-enactment of Captain Cook's
landing in the location where it
happened on the Endeavour River
bank.
And Weipa
Fishing Classic is another great three day event, and one great
thing about it is that it's not all about fishing! There is a fishing competition, but the biggest prices can actually be won by
anyone who chooses to pay for the nomination to go into the draw
:-)

Weipa Fishing Classic 2015.
OTHER
BITS AND PIECES
* Punsand Bay Restaurant is
now open after the renovation during this Wet Season :-) Lunch
12 -
2pm, dinner 5.30 - 7.45pm. Brand new swimming pool is also on the way -
opening date TBA.
* Seisia Supermarket is now
open until 9pm on Thursdays - finally a late shopping night in the NPA!

* And finally - there is a new
Telstra tower at Jardine River - so there
is now mobile reception at the crossing (and the next spot south is not
before Weipa
and Coen!).
Mobile reception is in the Destination Guide (not an update) - and no - an
online Telstra map does not give you the completely true picture.
FEEDBACK
ALWAYS WELCOME
I really appreciate any kind of feedback
on the Destination Guide.
Please let
me know if you enjoyed it while planning before the trip, and
while using the
information once on the
trip.
If you get any questions
about
anything, please feel welcome to contact me.
That's all for this time
- happy planning, and happy travels to
those on the road!!
Have a great day :-)
Katrin
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