Four mates ride dirtbikes up Cape York Australia.
Day 3: Musgrave Station to Portland roads.
After a good breakfast we head north on the Cape Developmental road to Coen. I stretch the KTM's legs and blister the track at over 130kph in places. Dr Nicks suspension on the KTM is phenomenally good. Nick Dole that is from Teknik in Penrith, http://www.teknikmotorsport.com/. He was given me the same suspension that he fits to KTM 640's competing in the Australian Safari. What can I say, its an inch more travel and has transformed the bike.
Pulling into Coen way ahead of the rest of the guys I poke around the place a bit and then catch a bit of a kip under a tree. God I love the outback. When the rest of the crew get in a decision is made to fix a slow puncture in Craig's rear wheel, and an alarming crack that has appeared on the subframe mount of Rob's DRZ. Thankfully the local mechanic, named Phil of course, at Coen has a tyre machine and heavy duty tube. While Whitey (Craig) changes tubes over, between a pie and drink for lunch Phil welds up the subframe for Rob. All fixed we hit the road north again.
The Cape Developmental road is big, fast and boring. We shoot lots of onboard footage with the digital cameras being so bored. The road we are traveling is well maintained so as to allow easy access for large vehicle loads to Wiepa. Wiepa is on the gulf side, eastern side of the cape, and has the worlds largest bauxite mine. Thats the ore form of aluminum. Our next stop is Archer river roadhouse, where we take a full fuel load and a hamburger on board. We are staying here on our return trip and Peter makes sure of our reservation before we depart at about 2pm.
North on the developmental road we head and turn east to Lockhart River. The track here is being widened to 2 full lanes. Poor Peter has been talking this track up as a lot of fun, but now the bastards have wreaked it. Turning it into another dirt freeway. We encounter the crew working it, a D9 and then a grader as we climb up into the Ironrange national park. I have a good time perfecting my river crossing technique on the Wenloch and then the Pascoe. The trick is to be not to fast or slow and slip the clutch ready to take on more if you hit an obstacle, so as to not stall the engine. The Pascoe we will do again tomorrow on Frenchmans road. Here the Pascoe is nothing to worry about, its wide and about two feet deep.
We bunch up at the river crossings, and at one particular one I arrive way to fast following the two tracks ahead of me. Shit! Where does the track go? I look to the right, where I see Peter and Craig, and overshoot the corner. Thankfully the track is wide and the drop into the creek gentle. I giggle nervously as I pull up next to Peter and Craig. They are pissing themselves, having both done the same thing! We sit and wait for Rob... Yeah here he comes... Bugger me if he does not gather the bike up in a nice bit of rear wheel slide and take the corner correctly! The only one amongst us to do so.
The scenery is stunning as we travel through Ironrange national park. The mountains on this side of the cape are big and fully clothed in dense rain forrest. Where there is rain forrest there is water, and we find creek crossing and puddles one after the another, and then another after the one.
At the turning to Lockhart river we turn north, and travel to Portland roads. Its about four in the arvo when we get in at last and get off the bikes. Our accommodation is a beach house rented to us from Portland House. As we settle in for the evening a storm comes up, short and sharp. We quickly close the shutters on the house as the storm rattles over us, opening them up afterward we are rewarded with a stunning view out to the north overlooking the Coral Sea.
Portland House Lot 10 Portland Roads
Cape York · Far North Queensland · Australia
Phone/Fax: 07 4060 7193
International: +61 7 4060 7193
Email: stay@portlandhouse.com.au
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