4th October 2016 - Cooktown to Coen

Departing after a very relaxing & enjoyable couple to days in Cooktown we headed back along the bitumen road to Laura via Lakeland.  (We had intended to take the unsealed road to Laura but after asking advice from various locals, we headed back the way we had come. When we asked about the condition of the dirt road to the north, we were told that it was either rough or rougher and would end up taking us much longer that way).

Topping up with fuel at Lakeland

This area is a massive banana producing area with mile after mile of banana plantations

So far the roads are excellent

But the rivers have all dried up

Laura Roadhouse - very basic - happy we didn't decide to stay here for the night

A big dot on the map doesn't mean anything out here - decided not to even bother with a coffee here after checking out the "shop/cafe"!!!

Five km after leaving Laura, the roads changed from bitumen to corrugated unsealed roads as seen below........  Our remote journey had really begun.........

Unsealed roads 

From here to the tip of Cape York, a great deal of roadworks are being undertaken -  some areas with just grading but with some quite long distances of bitumen too.  It is reported that they hope to have a bitumen road right to the Tip by 2020.  Considering that it is over a 1000km north of Cairns, the nearest major town, that would be quite an achievement.

Change from unsealed road to bitumen

Frequent roadworks on the road north

Terry always has time to stop to inspect cattle- one wonders what there is for them to eat!

I must add here that although Tezza has time to stop to view cattle, he does not have time to stop to take photos so many of my pictures are taken while moving so please excuse the quality!

Hahn River Roadhouse - we didn't stop here but are told it is a good o/n stop

Eventually we reached our destination for the night - Coen.  Where would we stay?  The township was very small with a short main street with a general store, The Coen Homestead and the obligatory pub.  Some bright spark had added an "S" to the beginning of the pub's name - The Exchange Hotel. We decided to camp at The Coen Homestead next door to the pub but booking in was not an easy matter.  The front door was open but apart from a couple of workers in the yard, there was no-one around.  The workers knew nothing about the guesthouse.  We wandered through the guesthouse and around the back but still no-one.  We really didn't want to travel on this late in the afternoon so Terry decided to go next door where he eventually found the indigenous lady who ran the homestead.

She informed us that we could camp wherever we liked and could use a showeroom behind the house.  We also had full use of the well-equipped kitchen.  All for $20 per night!  As we were the only camper we had the lovely green back lawn to ourselves. There was another camping area on a lower level but that was dry and bare. There were 2 or 3 guys staying in the house  - mainly workers connected with the new road.  They were a great source of information about the roads ahead.

Camping at The Coen Homestead

The Outside Patio at the Coen Homestead

The lower camping area at The Coen Homestead

We set up camp and then had a wander around the town which took all of 10 mins including a visit to the general store.  Being a mainly indigenous town there were lots of friendly kids around the store who were happy to smile & chat to tourists.

There was a garage opposite and the guy there was very helpful supplying Terry with a secondhand replacement hub cap for the trailer free of charge.  In all our outback travels, we have always found that the locals are more than happy to help with any equipment problems, very often free of charge when actually they are in a position to charge whatever they like because travelers have no alternative!! Once in Alice Springs we lost the nut off our tow hitch. A shop owner searched for some time for one that would fit but refused any payment so we decided to buy some batteries but to our surprise they refused payment for these too saying it was too much trouble to print the invoice!  Country folk are exceptional!

 The Coen Homestead

We spent a very comfortable night camping at Coen and were up early to pack up and move on in the morning.