Disaster on the Bloomfield Track

A lot has happened in the past ten days, starting with the car breaking down. Most of us have experienced a mechanical breakdown before, but in most instances you call the RACQ (AA, RAC, NRMA), or whatever the equivalent is for where you are. An hour or so later you are either on the way again or on a tow truck heading home.

Not quite that easy in a remote area of North Queensland. Now, to be fair, we could have been a lot more remote, and things could have been a lot worse, but it was a bit awkward.

We broke down on the Bloomfield track, which is a four wheel drive only route between Cape Tribulation and Cooktown in Far North Queensland. Now this certainly isn’t an extreme 4WD route, but it does have a few water crossings and some very steep bits, and we did actually break down right in the middle of a water crossing, oh, and did I mention that North Queensland is crocodile country! Bit awkward. And then there is the bit about no mobile phone coverage, also a bit inconvenient in the circumstances.

Breaking down in the water crossing wasn’t ideal, but it was actually only really ankle deep and the chance of a croc in there is very low. Had we broken down in the previous crossing a couple of k’s before, that would have been slightly more annoying. That one was close to waist deep and flowing fairly rapidly. A stationary car in there might not have stayed stationary for too long!

Fortunately though we didn’t need to wait too long for the first car to come by and at least tow us out of the water and back onto dry land.

Then what? Can’t just phone the RACQ when there is no phone service. Over the next half an hour or so a few people stopped to see if they could help. There were plenty of suggestions to try this that or the other, but the car steadfastly refused to start despite the best efforts of a few bush mechanics. So, we just asked anyone and everyone to call the RACQ on our behalf as soon as they reached somewhere that had phone service, and we were prepared to settle in for the wait. The only trouble with that plan though is that you can’t be 100% certain that they are on the way.

But then along came a couple of outstandingly decent human beings. Lester and Pam, you guys are amazing.

A local who was still there when Lester and Pam arrived reckoned that you could get phone service at the top of the next hill, so Lester suggested towing us up there so that we could at least be in contact with the outside world. Seemed like a reasonable plan, so we got the snatch strap out again, hooked up and off we went. All seemed fine until we got to the hill, and then it got a little scary. We are talking hills that you need to use low range gearing to get up, being towed by our 20 year old snatch strap, in a car with no running engine and therefore no power steering and limited breaking ability. Had the strap broken, things may have been interesting, but fortunately it didn’t. Anyway, we got to the top of the hill, and, no phone service. Pam reckoned she had a few bars come up on phone a bit further back, so we went for a walk, held phones in the air, looked for clearings in the trees, all to no avail. I wasn’t game to be towed any further, and especially not down hill, so we needed a new plan.

Lester suggested that he and I jump in his vehicle and drive back to Cape Tribulation where there was phone service while the ladies stayed with our car. It actually wasn’t that far, maybe only 10 ks or so, but that is 10 ks on a 4WD track, with a couple of water crossings and a very steep hill. We were there and back in a bit over an hour, so not too bad.

As soon as we got phone service I had a message from Jeff the RACQ tow truck driver. Jeff also turned out to be a superior human, but more on that later. I gave Jeff a call back and he told me he was just leaving Mossman and would be there in a couple of hours. It was at this point the issue of where we were going to spend the night first came up. Our caravan was in the campground of the Lions Den pub, about 200ks north of Mossman, so that certainly wasn’t going to be an option. Someone at RACQ was trying to find us a bed for the night in Mossman, but Jeff reckoned the chances of finding anything were pretty slim.

So after a couple of phone calls Lester and I headed back up the track to where we had left Ali and Pam so that we could hang out and wait for Jeff and the tow truck. Lester and Pam were actually heading to camp where our van was so we suggested they camp by our caravan in our spot. Lester left us with a couple of very welcome cold beers and an invitation to stay at their place in Cairns on the way back south. At the time I really didn’t understand how significant that invitation was going to be.

At about 5.30, about 4 hours after we broke down, Jeff the RACQ man turns up in the truck and loads Mitzi (our Mitsubishi Challenger) onto the tray, and after a slightly hairy 7 point turn on the narrow track, we are heading back south to Mossman, and getting further away from our caravan.

When we get phone service again there is a message from RACQ to let me know that there is no chance of any accommodation anywhere near Mossman. Our only solution is to sleep in the car and then work out what to do the next day. But, this is where Jeff proved what a superior human he is. After about half an hour or so and some good conversation, Jeff tells me that he can’t let us sleep in the car and that he has a caravan in his backyard that we can sleep in. What a legend. It doesn’t end there though, he takes us to get a takeaway on the way back so that we have something to eat, gives me a beer (already had the two Lester gave me), and in the morning gives me the keys to his Toyota Prado so that we can get into town to get some breakfast and coffee.

Now all of this happened on a Saturday afternoon, so even though the car was now at a garage, no one was going to look at it until Monday at the earliest, so we needed a plan of what to do next, and this is where Shane came to the rescue.

We were supposed to be meeting Shane a few days later at Cooktown so that we could go up Cape York peninsula (the northernmost bit of Australia) together. Shane had come up to North Queensland with his caravan and his wife Danielle, and they were in Cairns when we broke down.

On the Sunday morning Shane made the 100k drive to Mossman to pick us up, and then we headed north to get our caravan and bring it back to Cairns. This is where the significance of the offer from Lester and Pam suddenly made sense. They had room in the backyard for us to set up the van and stay as long as we needed.

So we left Mossman with Shane at about 10am, got the ferry across the Daintree river, drove to Cape Tribulation and then onto the Bloomfield track where we had broken down the day before. This time though, no problems, and we got to where our caravan was at about 1.30pm just in time for lunch at the Lions Den pub. After hitching up the van, making a 12 pin plug fit a 7 pin socket so we had brakes and lights, we were on our way again. We finally arrived back in Cairns at about 8.00pm, so nearly a 10 hour, 500 k round trip.

Lester and Pam’s place was amazing. The back yard is better then some caravan parks we have stayed in. There is an outdoor kitchen area with a choice of BBQ’s, a shower and toilet accessible without going in the house, and power and water to hook the van up to. They even had a spare car for us to borrow! Turns out that Lester and Pam are very experienced travelers and had spent a few years travelling Australia in their big bus with the 4WD in tow behind. It seems like we are not the first stranded travelers that they have rescued.

Shane’s plan had always been to leave his caravan at Mareeba and use his rooftop tent for the trip to the cape. Dani had already decided that a few weeks in a rooftop tent going up the cape wasn’t for her, so she was heading back to the Gold Coast by air. So Shane suggested that we go with him in his car, and he would tow our caravan. Seemed like a good plan, and by this time we knew that our car would be off the road for three weeks or so.

After a few days at Lester and Pam’s we hitched up the van behind Shane’s car and headed to Mossman to get some essentials that were left in our car. By this time we knew the diagnosis on Mitzi. It was a broken timing belt that had caused the pistons to smash into the valves causing some major and very expensive damage.

After an hour or so we were on the road again and headed to a free camp at Mt Molloy before starting to head up towards Cape York the next morning.

By day 2 we were hitting dirt roads and stopped for the night at Hann River station. The suspension in the car though didn’t seem quite right and Shane was a bit concerned about the air bag suspension.

The next day we drove another 200ks or so and made camp by a beautiful creek. We were expecting it to be a one night stop, little did we think we would be here three days later, as I write this, still here, and not sure how much longer we will be here. Beautiful spot to be stuck though!

It turns out that the rear suspension is broken. Not ideal at any time, and certainly not when towing a caravan on dirt roads in remote areas with limited phone service and no nearby mechanical assistance. Things could be a lot worse though. We have plenty of food and water, it’s warm and we have a beautiful croc free creek to swim in. And, we have phone service.

As I write, we are still not sure of the plan, but Shane has called mechanics in Weipa and Cairns and no one can fix our issues for a few weeks. If we can get hold of the parts and the tools though, it may be something we can do ourselves. So, the plan we are working on is to locate the parts needed, get them sent to Cairns, get the RACQ to come and rescue us, the car and the caravan and get us Lester and Pam’s in Cairns where we may be able to fix the issue. Not in a major hurry though as it is beautiful just sitting by this creek for now.

It may be that we are jinxed and will never get the the northernmost tip of Australia on this trip, but we’ve had fun trying, met some wonderful people, and we are all safe and well even if our bank balances are a little lower from the experience. Maybe there will be a part 2 to this story!

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