Day 27 - Weipa - Day trip to Penefather River and beach camps (Sun May 20th)

It was a magic day today, we started it of by watching our Jabiru catching some fish for his breaky. Damon got some great pics of him.

 

  

After our breaky we drove up to the Penefather River to check out the beach camp spots for future reference.

The Penefather River is about 70 km north of Weipa, and is a very popular spot for locals, and travellers like us to camp. One local told us, some of them camp for up to 6 weeks, even growing they're own vegies!

The camp spots are either on the beach, under the sheoaks south of the river, or up near the river mouth and also along the Penefather River. We didn't actually venture to the river mouth this time, but kept south of the river mouth and had lunch on the beach. We could easily spend a week here, especially if we came with a group of mates, with one of them bought a boat, hehe. The only thing that gets me, is that we can't swim! Camping right on the beach, when it's hot, and this beautiful is like tortue.

 

We chatted to some campers who had been camping here for a week, they had a perfect spot under the sheoaks, in the breeze. They said they had seen a croc cruising past, and also one up on the beach, maybe the same one. We had our eyes peeled, but didn't spot him.

 

The track into the beach is narrow, with some soft sand. Once closer to the beach and amongst the sand dunes, the tracks are very soft. The first camp spots are on the sand dunes where the track pops out, then it's a further 8km drive north to the river mouth. A permit is needed to camp anywhere around here, and these can be obtained from the Weipa Camping Ground or the council office in Weipa.

We saw this amazing little waterhole on the road out to the Penefather River, some locals were enjoying a refreshing dip when we stopped to have a look at this waterhole.

We wanted to have a dip, but didn't pack our swimmers as we didn't expect to be swimming, or find anything like this. I will have to make sure our swimmers are in the car at all times now.

Back at camp we had our swim in the pool. Whilst having our swim, we saw a 4wd towing a Camprite rock up. I had to go say hi to our fellow Camprite campers! They are from Grafton, and are on a 6 month trip around Oz as well. They are 2 weeks ahead of us into their trip, have 2 kids, and are pretty much heading in the same direction as us. So we're bound to bump into them along the way somewhere.

The day ended with yet another beautiful sunset!

We leave tomorrow, heading for Cairns, with an over night stop, somewhere along the way. We've enjoyed our time here, and could of spent longer. Next time we will, when ever that may be.