31. Mt Carbine
Born to ramble and born to roam
The open road is all my home
I want for nothing, my life's complete
I'm free and happy with my itching feet
The notorious Bloomfield Track through the Daintree is gradually being tamed. From the south it's now all sealed to Cape Tribulation. From the north it's all sealed to Bloomfield. The remaining 25 kms or so in between is still as rough as guts and hopefully it stays that way.
As it is, you can cruise along in bitumen bliss through some of the most beautiful rainforest in Australia. It's like the rainforest around Cairns, times 10!
Notable along the way is a little hamlet up in the hills called Rossville. It's hard to say how many people might live there because you rarely see a house, just a driveway disappearing into the jungle. It has a distinctly alternative air about it.
Eventually you emerge at sea level at Weary Bay.
Then not far to the settlements of Ayton and Wujal Wujal, the Bloomfield River and Wujal Wujal Falls. Very photogenic.
Back on the highway, I only had two bushfires to contend with. The first one looked a bit hairy as I approached so I hung back and observed it for a while. There were a few cars emerging apparently unscathed from the opposite direction, so I headed through. It was fine once you got beyond the active leading edge of the fire but that initial commitment to enter required (at least for me) a girding of the loins.
The second one was a piece of cake. The flames were well away from the road.
That's 4 fires I've driven through in the last week. Not once did I see any Fire Service personnel. Supposedly they mobilise if any private property is threatened, otherwise they just let it go.
Their unhelpful advice to motorists is "Motorists should drive with caution and to conditions".
How on earth does one know what the conditions are likely to be?? That information is nowhere to be found.
Anyway, I'm staying tonight at Mt Carbine in the caravan park.
Tomorrow apparently there will be about a million cyclists riding from Cairns to Cooktown along the road that I intended to take. They may even have the road closed for a while. We'll see.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when they get to the bushfire zone. There might be a few singed cyclists who didn't "ride to conditions".
The open road is all my home
I want for nothing, my life's complete
I'm free and happy with my itching feet
(Stan Coster)
Back on the road, heading south. I whizzed past the turnoff to Wujal Wujal (Bloomfield) just a bit out of Cooktown. About a millisecond later I thought to myself, "Probably should've checked that one out". I had a ten second debate with myself, which was won by Adventurous Me, so I found the nearest turnaround and went back. The notorious Bloomfield Track through the Daintree is gradually being tamed. From the south it's now all sealed to Cape Tribulation. From the north it's all sealed to Bloomfield. The remaining 25 kms or so in between is still as rough as guts and hopefully it stays that way.
As it is, you can cruise along in bitumen bliss through some of the most beautiful rainforest in Australia. It's like the rainforest around Cairns, times 10!
Notable along the way is a little hamlet up in the hills called Rossville. It's hard to say how many people might live there because you rarely see a house, just a driveway disappearing into the jungle. It has a distinctly alternative air about it.
Eventually you emerge at sea level at Weary Bay.
 |
| Weary Bay |
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| Wujal Wujal Falls |
The second one was a piece of cake. The flames were well away from the road.
That's 4 fires I've driven through in the last week. Not once did I see any Fire Service personnel. Supposedly they mobilise if any private property is threatened, otherwise they just let it go.
Their unhelpful advice to motorists is "Motorists should drive with caution and to conditions".
How on earth does one know what the conditions are likely to be?? That information is nowhere to be found.
Anyway, I'm staying tonight at Mt Carbine in the caravan park.
Tomorrow apparently there will be about a million cyclists riding from Cairns to Cooktown along the road that I intended to take. They may even have the road closed for a while. We'll see.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when they get to the bushfire zone. There might be a few singed cyclists who didn't "ride to conditions".