Wednesday 17 May 2017
Another lazy get away morning, 8:00am.
All maps and advice we had indicated that it was a 6 hour drive from the Portlands Road turn off to Chili Beach.
Once again, more bitumen sections on the Bamaga Development Road, this is getting to be boring, really looking forward to getting onto the OTT (Old Telegraph Track) which is one of the reasons we are heading to the Tip once again, for the adventure of conquering the OTT.
We arrived at the Portlands Road turn off knowing that it would be about the 6 hours to Chili Beach, we had booked and planned on “checking into” Chili Beach Camping Ground the following day, we thought that we would be free camping somewhere along Portlands Roads Rd. At the turn off to Portlands Roads Rd, there was a sign indicating a camping ground not too far further on. Why Portland Roads ? It was named by Lt James Cook in 1770 after the Duke of Portland, the latter part of its name is an old maritime term ‘roadstead’ or ‘roads’ a place where boats could safely shelter.
It was an easy decision to decide to pull into the nearby Chungalungan Camping Ground for the night. This was an open area on aboriginal lands, and so payment was made when the dude came around on his quad bike. The toilet facilities were quite good which was a surprise. The showers (two) were open air, however were a good size and had corrugated iron sheeting. To heat the water required lighting a fire under a 44 Gallon Drum, which had the water pipe coiled through the tank which was half full of water that was heated, and in turn heated the water in the pipes. Was it hot, well needed to balance the hot with the cold water. The water was drawn from the local creek.
Light to heavy showers as we were setting up the campsite, more of a nuisance than anything else.
The campground had several fire pits, so we just had to have a fire to sit around after dinner.
A few passing showers was the order of the night, a light shower, just enough to move out of the rain, then stairs so back around the fire, then more showers. Repeat several times.
