Nele & Andrew Around Oz: Bathurst Bay Campsite, Cape Melville National Park, QLD

Day 218 – 22^nd September 2011

Bathurst Bay Campsite, Cape Melville National Park, QLD

This morning we crossed the Normandy River and set off on an adventurous drive to Cape Melville NP. The drive to Old Kalpowar station along the unsealed road went well as the road was in very good condition. The next part between Old Kalpowar and Wakooka is marked as a 4WD track on the map but was very smooth as they are currently working on it. At the Wakooka turn off to Cape Melville is where the real 4WD started. The next 42km took us 3h with very slow, bumpy driving with the dodging of the occasional tree hanging over the track and some sandy bits where we luckily didn't get stuck. It was also a bit of a 'scary' drive as we did not meet any other cars along our way. Also they were doing some burning off which we hoped they had completely under control. But finally we arrived at our destination to find we were not on out own as there were quite a few other campers. As this is crocodile country we made sure to be croc safe and camped far away from the beach. Only minutes after we pulled up 3 other vehicles drove in, so they couldn't have been far behind us. We got talking to the people setting up next to us an it appeared we were in their regular spot which they camp at every year. We offered to move as there is not a lot of setting up involved for us (just moving the car), but they seemed happy to stay where they were and had their set-up all planned out (it's amazing to see some of the set-ups of these campers. They are often in a group and plan to stay for several weeks. This is a popular fishing spot with a lot of regulars). After a late lunch – we were starving after the long drive in- we had planned to drive to the actual cape another 12km further, but our neighbours suggested to leave it till the morning as it could take a couple of hours to get there. So instead we went for a stroll along the beach (with a safe distance away from the water) and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. Neighbours on the other side of us were kind enough to give us a couple of large mud crabs – Still Alive! We didn’t have the gumption to kill them so we gave them to our other neighbours, they were kind enough to cook them up and we had one each. This will be our lunch for tomorrow – yummy.