(Day 21 TLCC
Cape York Trip - Jan and Dave Marsh)
We departed
Laura at 8.15am but after approximately ½ hour Jeff and Thelma had to return to
Laura. They had a shock absorber problem, which meant we were down to 5 vehicles for the trip to
Maytown as David Darke is traveling with Donald because Iris is having a rest day in
Laura.
We traveled several kilometres alongside the little
Laura River, which is one of the very few that has water due to the dry season. We are in bulldust country, dry
creek crossing, scrub country and more bull dust. We traveled over some small
rock steps and then onto the Logan Jack Memorial at the site of his North Trig Point which he surveyed during 1895. We then progressed down some interesting
rock steps known as Hellfire Pass and onto the Old Range Descent Hotel site. We crossed the North Palmer River and onto
Maytown.
Maytown is the site of an old gold mining town with interesting history. In the replica hut, Bill was reading an interesting entry written by someone from
Melbourne who had been to the
cemetery and found a relative’s grave.
On the return trip, everyone got up Hellfire Pass, no trouble at all however earlier, when Jan Marsh was driving, a walking tree ran at her and broke their CB aerial –
well that’s her story, so we all believe her.
Going up from one of the creek crossings Dave Marsh made some exciting viewing – his HJ61 looked like a bucking bronco not a sedate 4WD vehicle.
After a long day we returned to
Laura all covered in bulldust and probably a few bruises after all the bouncing around and ready for a few drinks at
Laura pub. Overall, a top 4WD day with no damage to vehicles.