Cape York 2020 - Elim Beach to Chili Beach

Chili Beach in the Lockhart River area of Cape York, windy on our visit and so much so we cut short a 4 night stay back to 3 nights.

It certainly would pay to check the weather for this pretty area before choosing your camp spot. We were fortunate to have a camp spot reasonably protected from the never ending wind. The beach front camp spots afford no such protection.

We did managed a few side trips:

1. Into Lockhart River and the airport there (some historical significance post WWII).

2. Up and down the beach and into Portland Roads. The later being fairly protected and quite a pretty spot. They also have a public dump, which we took advantage of. A well advertised cafe "Out of the Blue" was not open when we were there and a sign indicated it was only open Saturday and Sundays (and with limited trading hours). Mind you, I can understand why the opening hours were curbed, given travel restrictions.

3. We spent a full day travelling the Frenchmans' Track. We travelled East to West which made for an interesting exit from Pascoe River. We pulled up on the eastern bank of the Wenlock River for lunch and to give me time to pull the rear sway bar completely off. I lost the left inner mount and bush, I think, after leaving Elim beach and I lost the right inner bush on the Frenchmans' and it was just not pleasant listening to the sway bay bang constantly. A video on this trip will be released next week, it will be a short video too.

All in all, 3 nights at chill Beach was more than enough on this trip given the persistent wind. It would certainly be worth a longer stay if the weather was better. And, the great Barrier reef is only a few kilometres off the beach too ....

Kenny