Cape york 2004

Cape York 2004 ride of a life

Paid tours we decided are to dear and not flexible enough if we got on it to hard and didn’t feel like riding the next day

Ingredients needed

6 Mates
1 Tour Guide
Oil burning wreck of a four wheel drive
Trailer to carry 2 bikes for the fly home boys

Firstly the mates and their rides
Lenny from QLD borrowed DR400z as his race bike not rego’ed bum tank
Robbie XR600 big tank
Darran DR400z Bum tank
Ace KTM 525 EXC Bum tank
Toby XR400 big tank
Me XR600 big tank

Tour Guide
Glen, builder from Central Coast with good knowledge of the cap area

Toby’s shitbox oil burning wreck, I could be wrong but I think that burned something like 30 litres of oil to get to Cairns and more to get back I think

Trailer was built at Robbie’s yard over a couple of drunken weekends, good four wheel drive style trailer that would do the job

We had once a month meetings at a pub (except Lenny who couldn’t make the effort ok he lives in QLD and the meetings at Gosford but really)

Anyway Ace and I drove his car with our bikes to Bundaberg and picked up Lenny’s bike and on to Cairns, a night in Townsville on the turps. Dopey drove up in the oil burner and the others flew in.

We left and rode to Cooktown day 1, I drowned the XR at about the third river crossing of the trip and we had a few at the Loins Den hotel. Cabins that night at Cooktown.

Day 2
We rode out of Cooktown and left the four wheel drive for the day we travelled up the Bathurst track I think and the four wheel drive went the develop road. It was a long day we only saw three locals in a V8 Bedford truck blasting through the bush. It was a long day and when we rode around the wall of Kalpowar dam to see Glen with a setup camp it was a welcome site for sore eyes, Bundys JD’s and xxxx around I can tell you. Funny thing about this trip was Ace telling us he had seen a show about Croc’s and could wrestle one if it was less than 1.3 metres in length. Later that night we all went down to the weir wall with I think one torch and a few under the belt. All was ok until a something bumped the tinny moored near the dam wall and we all ran, fell, tripped and screamed up the road back to camp and then everyone was tough talking again.

Next couple of days we travelled to Musgrave (got in trouble there jumping off the loading ramp) Archer river (overnight stay) and Weipa (2 days there) and on to a river crossing and for the life of me I can’t remember its name. Its on the old telegraph road, anyway I must mention that whilst being chased by Lenny I threw it down the road, coming out of a left hander I hit a tree root in the sand and down like a bag of spuds! This crash was coming, normally being quickest of our group I found myself playing 2nd fiddle to Lenny’s raw speed I had told myself it was a long ride and no reason to push as I wanted to complete the ride on the bike not in the 4w4 but I lost my head and crash. This wasn’t the only crash that had happened Lenny had bent a radiator on the DR after hitting the ground and there’s a photo of Bana picking his bike up that had won’t explain!

Lenny or Bana might add a bit to this story and maybe remember the river we camped on, Ace caught the fish there if that helps. I will add the photos and finish the story off after your input