The
old river ford used to be the place to cross the mighty Jardine.
Yes,
it used to be
the only
place before the ferry
came along :-)
Nowadays
it's done for fun - and I have seen people getting
through, but I have also
seen people
fail.
The
river ford crossing is mostly shallow but quite long, and very soft in the
middle. It's the soft sandy bottom of the river that gets
people
bogged.
The
other thing is that in the northern end of the crossing the river
is deeper, so even if you make it through the soft
middle part of
the river, you still risk to drown your vehicle in the northern,
deeper end.
And this is also the part where the crocs live, and where
the water is murky so you cannot see them.
All I can
say, even if you really
know your own
abilities and those of your
vehicle, it is still a bit crazy to do it, and as always, some people
do.
Back in the early years, I
run into these guys on the Old
Telegraph
Track
and we did the rest togehter (great people - four Victorians and two
Tasmanians - they helped me through the hardest crossings that time, I
was on my own).
The
two Tasmanians decided to give the Jardine a go, and luckily they had
plenty of people to pull them out. A snatch
strap was
attached before the first vehicle even went in.
So, in he goes, from the southern end of the ford, right
through the soft
part, and towards the deep
part, and he made it!
So the
second guy
goes in
without a snatch strap behind him, and gets stuck in the soft
part. Pulling him out from
the northern side didn't work, so he was finally pulled back to the
the southern bank by an OKA.
It is
actually quite crazy to walk in this river, even in the shallow parts.
It may seem like a safe thing that the water is clear and you can see
that there are no crocodiles approaching you, but if there was one,
it
would not matter that you could see it - you would not outrun a
crocodile in the water.
Living North of the Old River Ford
By
2015, and with my local vehicle
recovery partner, I had grown enough to drive this crossing (the
video of
him guiding me is in the Destination
Cape York Travel Guide). Living in Bamaga,
we now approach the Old
Ford from the north,
... and sometimes it means clearing
trees,
... chain sawing at the
crossing,
... still crazy enough to walk across
the river if we need!
Did YOU Cross Jardine
at the Old Ford?
Did You Do the Old Jardine Ford?
Tell us! Send in a photo, send in a video! (The video cannot be attached here - please let me know so i can send you my email address, or put it on You Tube and send me the link - i can embed it from there right into your page).
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Crossing Jardine River October 1988 In Sept to Nov 1988 our family and other went to Cape York. We visited lots of other places on the way, Brisbane Expo 1988, Fraser Is, Great Barrier Reef …
Crossing on dusk, walked across 4 times 1991, ferry was there but we were younger and hadn't seen a croc for the whole trip.
Got there late afternoon, about croc teatime, 4 motorbikes, so …
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