Week 10 July 17th – 21st
Thursday was not a long trip we were at Coen by about 10.00am, camping was about 3kms out of town so we decided to setup before going into town. The Coen River was beautiful, fast flowing and an ideal place to camp. We spent the arvo sitting in the shade of the paperbark trees, that hung over the large boulders in the river. We went into town around 3.00pm. Coen is a typical town for this area, Hotel, Museum, Post Office and a couple of General Stores. But it did have phone service, even out at camp so it was one of those magic pitch black, starry nights again where we made contact with family by the banks of the Coen River.
We packed up Friday to move onto Weipa, our next camp would be at Ron (Griz) and Mary’s old friends from our Hymix days. But first we had to travel the dirt, corrugated and dusty Peninsula Development Rd for 220kms.
Weipa is owned by Rio Tinto Aluminium and bauxite is mined. Coming into town a set of lights stop traffic to let the huge haul trucks continue on their way. A green light lets you past to the Port area. Huge bulk carriers that take the mineral around to the Port of Gladstone and then on to Japan.
We spent the next couple of nights with Ron and Mary. Friday night was pizza night with lots of catching up to do. Saturday was a town tour while Mary worked. The Comalco mine is huge with infrastructure that is amazing. Sunday we went out to Pennyfather a local beach that is unbelievable, pristine white sand, the clearest blue water and she oak trees that shade the campers and day troopers. “BUT you can’t swim here there are Crocodiles”. We saw 2 small 4 metre ones. The men fished, well tried to catch something while the girls chatted. It was just a perfect day.
Monday saw us moving on, we were hoping to get to Bramwell Station tonight. “Thanks Ron and Mary for allowing us to stay in your spare room and showing us around and for the laughs”.
We made it around 3.00pm and spoke to the bar manager Garry, who told us about the history of the place. Bramwell Station is the most northern cattle station in Australia, established in 1941 and is still working today. It is 1340 sq kms and runs around 5000 cattle. We were invited to happy hour and then dinner and for the live entertainment. “It was a good night”.
There are no photos this week the reason will be revealed in next week’s bulletin.
“A BIG HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO TIM”