CAPE YORK TRIP - Winter 2011

[rupicon]

im keen, could maybe get my act together by2011
would want to do the hard options though,maybe split in to two groups and meet up again ?

[zjtoo]

Just got back from the cape this sat morning left syd start of june went with 6 vehicles most with camper trailers 2 with jayco campers 4 vehicles with trailers drove the whole length of old OTL 2 with jayco only drove the second half which was in fact harder no mojor probs with any vehicles or trailer including jayco most people wouldnt believe that we were taking them up old otl fuel ranged from $1.30 at cairns to $2.05 at seisa A big tip do not go to cape during june july leave cairns at end of july youll miss the big rush school holidays

[IVAN]

hopefully ill have better luck at the Gunshot than i did at my attempts on BIG RED!!!

[glend]

Just wanted to bump this up again to remind people and get folks thinking about: time required, options, level of difficulty they are comfortable with, etc. This thread is for consensus gathering to inform trip planning. I would hope that by October we have had enough discussion to frame a trip that has the support of the people who want to go.

[Steve F]

If I can go I'd like to do the hard options as well, I'd plan to travel light with no camper etc I'd also be happy splitting into two groups if need be.

Cheers
Steve

[tonysrich]

I wanted to do the Cape on a motorcycle in my twenties but it never happened so I'm dead keen on geting involved.
Winter is a long time, any month more likely than another?

[glend]

We will need to develop a consensus on the month. There are pros and cons for just about every month next winter. If we schedule it too early (May and maybe June) it could still be wet, and as we have seen this year the wet continued longer than anticipated, ie the water crossings maybe deeper. OLD school holidays start the last week of June (for 2011 they are from Friday the 24th of June to Sunday the 10th of July) and this will be a period that is probably more crowded up there. Into July we still have QLD school holidays running into the NSW school holidays (Monday the 4th of July to Sunday the 17th), but that is also a good argument (crowd wise) for going abit later (and maybe in the drier month of August). I guess it depends on personal factors such as: do you work in education and need to take advantage of that space in the calendar to take time off, or are you taking kids with you and they can't miss more school than the holiday period and maybe some additional time, etc).

If anyone interested could consider a set of weeks that best suits their life then perhaps we can get a poll organised to help develop the consensus dates.

[tonysrich]

My wife's a teacher and I'd be taking my kids so we'd want to go in the school holidays

[glend]

Tony, assuming you have the time available from the evening of the 1st of July 2011 to the evening of the 17th of July (NSW School holidays) (say 16 days), working back from the transit stage durations (Sydney to Cairns and return say 3 + 3 minimum and that is really pushing it) that allows 10 days for the Cape. BTW four days up and back (to and from Sydney - Cairns) is probably more realistic with kids, which means 8 days to do the Cape. This is a trip of long distances (maybe 9 - 10,000 in total door to door), and you need to allow time to enjoy the trip and have a lay day here and there. The recent Desert Trip (5400 kilometres in total) in the same timeframe, showed the benefit of having time to relax now and then. Personally I think 3 weeks (21 days) is the minimum to allow for this sort of trip and to come back having enjoyed the experience.

[glend]

For those interested in a possible Cape York Trip in 2011, have a look at the latest issue of Campertrailer Australia (Issue 32) which covers Part 1 of their 2010 Cape York Trip. Virtually the entire issue covers the Cape York Trip and is a great source of knowledge about travelling to the Cape. A big bonus is that the magazine comes with a nice HEMA map of the Cape from Normanton in the west, to Innisfail in the east and right up to the Tip, with all the usual HEMA map inclusions: phone numbers, GPS points, etc.