FRENCHMANS TRACK! Cape York 2021. Our DEEPEST river crossing EVER! Another drowned 4wd in the Cape!

can't believe it here we go we've made it to the old telegraph track sure it's got to be australia's most iconic track if not very close to maybe i should have just brought a boat for this track instead oh god help me [Music] [Music] [Music] that's always a good sign when there's a number for towing at the crossing just popped over to the five beaches run i think it's called over at somerset not too back not too far back from the top but from the northernmost point so on your way back you turn left then come down to this beach run along this coast but the weather's pretty rugged over here still it's uh very windy it's a bit of a wild day today plus it's always windy over here i'm pretty sure anyway from what i've heard but so far just seems to be the short little beaches you pop down onto then up through the side of the bush then onto the next one it's only about a 5k run i think [Music] wow [Music] cool it's hot we're just having forever walk down on the beach around the headland and that i think we found ourselves a camp spot for the night doesn't really seem to be any markings or layouts of where to camp or whatever so i don't know we just found ourselves a spot back up behind the trees a bit because that's winds whipping uh onto the beaches you wouldn't really want to camp in an exposed spot like up on one of the headlands i'm saying in here obviously the view is not as good but at least we're not getting murdered by wind this is where we are over here on this beach run we're down this end so that was obviously the top up there tomorrow if we go for drive and check out this drive through here over uh this pun sand bayonet and then we'll drop back down and probably check out the jardine river mouth and maybe camp there tomorrow night or we'll come back and camp back near the jardine river and ferry again i reckon yeah i think we're really only get a couple nights up the top up here but we still get to uh get a good exploring of the area and check everything out sort of only had three weeks for this trip we got delayed on the way up we got three thousand kilometers to get home and we got covert issues going on again at the moment as well so i'm a little bit cautious of getting trapped up here and not being able to get back home might sound good a couple months traveling on the road but it's probably not going to work that way because if we can't get home there's probably going to be lockdowns everywhere and then we're just going to be locked down somewhere on the road and we're not really going to be able to go anywhere or do anything i don't get back home to work and uh run all the stuff i do i've been trying to keep it as best eye on my car and everything as possible because they're just so remote it worries me how remote you are up here so hard to get parts and help and then with covert going on it's just putting massive delays on everything again i just absolutely flogged this car off road weekend after weekend trip after trip like you're just gonna get problems on it here and there and actually funny for because i know someone say oh i should have bought a cruiser is the one you always here on the way up here the only car four wheel drive i've seen on a tow truck going back down the pdr was a land cruiser so maybe i shouldn't have bought a land cruiser just cooking up a little bit of pasta for dinner i haven't lit the fire yet because it's still quite warm but probably light soon there's no flies on mozzies here hasn't really been too bad this trip at all just gonna do a simple red pesto pasta dish for dinner just got a few veggies some chickpeas the pasta's over there cooking out of the wings [Music] packed up camp nice and early this morning uh i've got out of there just after 7 30. it was very windy all night on that coastline we were still pretty protectorate wherever you could hear the wind blowing all around you now i'm just coming up off this beach now to the track out of this area this track is actually quite rough and rocky all right drop out of here now we're gonna head over towards the west coast i think of this uh top end of australia we're on this road over towards that ponson bay now it's actually quite a fun little tracks couple of water crossings in it there's a few uh big holes and ruts here to navigate one that i'm in here right now yeah it's definitely a four-wheel drive only and quite a fun little track way along that road through to this ponson bay is just up there and then where we are right now is just down the beach copper k's cable beach i believe this is cool we got this place to ourselves which is pretty awesome so you just drive the car up a track here and then yeah beach front views all around you it's a bit of a shame you can't really swim at these beaches because they're so nice but you got that risk of crocodiles and the other problem is the stingers up here it's more in the summer months but still don't really want to risk it with that and the crocs what an awesome spot walls came down they've been holding us in without a place to call home [Music] didn't really do much filming today we just sort of hung around the top end up there and checked out a few of those coastal places and towns and that sort of thing we're going to head back down to the jardine ferry get across that before it uh closes then we're going to punch down to through bat falls we're super keen for a swim and then we'll camp somewhere back along the pdr tonight how amazing is this through bad falls that water is so warm it's probably 4 30 5 ish o'clock in the afternoon good thing is most people left now is one group up the river there a bit just absolutely incredible you can see why people call this the best swimming spot on the cape it's coming up about six o'clock now we got the whole place for ourselves there's no one around it's just still so warm out here and this water is super warm as well up above the falls cars swimming up there there's a few like little craters in the rocky bottom or whatever you can swim in how is it in there isn't nice [Music] back over the car just heading off a little bit of dinner and sitting around here enjoying this afternoon i sort of checked that fuel filter again after yesterday's incident so um so that's my factory filter there that's my secondary one the secondary one has a glass jar a glass like thing down the bottom so you can see in there but the sensor in the factory one was the one that went off yesterday saying that it had water in it so if you disconnect that wire on the side and then undo the bung out of the bottom you'll get like a maybe a big cup full out of it see i think those pins are what detects the water they detect resistance because water and diesel have a just a different resistance or something on them anyways i've just drained it just to you know do another check of the system so there's my diesel there and looks clean as thankfully it looks like there's nothing in it because if you get water you'll see it because uh water and diesel have different is it like viscosities or something i'm not i i'm horrible at chemistry oh i'm just making words up i don't know but you'll see they'll sit differently see that's just one clear whole substance so i can't see any contamination in that at all meaning hopefully we're all good what i'll do is i'll tip a little bit of water in that because i don't want to put that back in the car now because it's still to come out of the fuel filter put a bit of water in just to show what it does when it when water goes in it cape your chemistry but just tip like just try and do a few drops just to see if we can see what the drops do that's a few drops yeah see you can actually see him in there yeah if you've got bits of water in your fuel that's kind of what it looks like dad the scientist who actually i failed chemistry in high school lucky this is the world's most basic thing not allowed to camp at this fruit bat falls so pack up now i have to go find a bush camp up the road somewhere i really love these quiet spots out in the bush to yourself just wake up to the birds and the peacefulness so nice after we finished up at fruit bat falls last night we saw we'd just do a night drive south uh cover a bit of distance it made about two and a half hours south down to the start of the frenchman's track where cam sort of a couple k's off the pdr here just on the edge of the road that way we didn't have to drive all that distance this morning and then we can just spend the day doing the frenchman's track i don't know if we'll camp further along it or if we'll just do the whole thing we'll see how we go i guess we'll just take our time and i think it's probably nearly 200ks we did i just took it nice and slow nighttime on the pdr there's a lot of wildlife around and you can't really see what's the uh ditches and the corners and all the corrugations coming up as well so i just sort of started around 80 that whole way the good thing was the only past thing is five or six cars in that whole run at night whereas in the day you just pass so many cars so it just keeps down the dust and the amount of rocks that get sprayed you when you go when you go past people they're going too fast like i had rocks crack my windscreen twice yesterday [Music] all righty we're all packed up cam time to hit the frenchman's i think it's about a 50 kilometer run and i know the two big challenges are the wentlock river crossing and the pasco river crossing never done the track before like anything up here so we'll see how we go and see what else comes up along the way not far from the wentlock river and we've come up to this big swampy area these big water channels to go through the main one is probably just over knee-deep it's reasonably hard that one in there is underneath deep but it's like soft there's about a foot of slush on the bottom of it just because it's like i may go second of this just hold a little bit of speed put that rear locker in just because a bit of a slushy bottom in there well i got wrecked by the water he got so muddy oh dropping down one very steep bank down towards the wenlock and then here we have hit the mighty wentlock is it wenlock wenlock or wentlock i think it's wenlock there's no t wenlock river not 100 sure but the crocodile situation is that it is possible highly unlikely i've never heard of anyone actually seeing a croc here but i think it's possible it's over knee deep and sandy bottom should be all good but it is when when locked with it with no t i just looked it up on the map screws across here and all good i'll be out the other side next obstacle this reminds me of one of the teletrac creeks one of these beautiful clear creeks of a sandy bottom warm water so the car's up there and you've got two options this one looks all good it's about knee-deep drivable up out of that bank i'm just going to have a look at this one over here a bit more of a channel to come down sun seems quite muddy in here doesn't really look like anyone's been driving it looks like someone gave it a go and then backed out maybe gonna swim in this nice clear water here so good it's a little bit dirty from just driving through it we'll clear up in a minute or two any crocodiles in here i've got a water tank underneath the tray i'm just filling it up now out of this so i've got water here 22 liters i think that is and then i've got to spare 20 layers of diesel there which i haven't actually had to use this trip so far but i got it there spare if i do need it yeah i'm going to empty that hose into the tank and then i'll fill that up out of this clear creek here as uh back up water i'm in the big leagues totally don't miss me balling like houston hey feeling [Music] i think that i'm back in my bag now so i need to go y'all we're just continuing our way through the bush here between the wenlock and the pasco nothing too challenging um it's all quite flat bushland area i guess a few little creeks to cross and low-lying swampy areas a few ruts and holes and that's about it but beautiful area out here it's it's quiet out here as well compared to saying like the teletrack we passed um like one person was camped back near us this morning sort of past them and that's about it for the day so far turns out that hole there is quite deep maybe i should have just gone around that one i didn't think it was gonna be that bad that's a bit of a wheel left there have to try and back out of here and squeeze my way around no it's not gonna uh it's just going to want to go to that hole every time it can't get around it all right i'll have to back right up out of here and just go the track around i should just done that to begin with [Music] told you that i'm sick football with the money stabbing too much that i've been through so i put it all in that review i guess the lunch still works i've made it to the pasco river we've ever seen here though we've been here about now had some had a swim had some lunch up the top went for this group of four to come through so taking a while and then i've drowned their last car coming through got caught in the boulder in the middle and then the back kind of floated around downstream a bit and he was in there too long and the engine just can't winch it out but i don't know how they're gonna get out of here so we're just waiting for them to clear and i just gotta see what they're gonna do and we'll cross this pretty deep but it should be all good it's just gotta pick your lines a few boulders in there all right i'll start bringing mine down they've pulled that one out just out of the way far enough i can squeeze past yeah that navarro's got an airbox forward or they've drowned it i was feeling all right about it now i'm a bit nervous after the car before me just drowned same as nolan's car before me dream i'm gonna put all my magic buttons in for this one i'm gonna chuck that rear locker in i'm going to put the ultimate 9 throttle controller down a little bit but not too low i'm going to put on it probably a 2 which will just give me that little bit of kick if i need it but it'll just help keep it smooth and controlled across there been using it quite a bit this trip if i need to you know dampen things down and take things nice and slow and controlled all pump it up if you need to uh go a bit of sand send to get up things definitely going to need every possible bit of help i can to make it safely across this river so that was belly button deep that no did you actually think i was going to do it it was pretty deep hey and i was in there like it was going slow through that that was deep i did not think you were gonna drown no i thought you were well when i was in there no but when i was in there and it was up over the bonnet and it was like i was in there sort of starting to get into it a bit and it was just like churning that water yeah that was a really deep day it's not funny but the guy who did drown his car in front of me i heard him say that was the one this is like one of his first ever four-wheel driving trips so if that's your first ever full driving trip um yeah that's a full-on water crossing all right we're up out of there i'm not sure i don't feel like there's not many other challenges on the track in fact that's kind of the thing and then it's now out to the main road but we'll see what happens but yeah potentially frenchman's done at pasco river crossings definitely uh yeah definitely a little bit [Music] born [Music] [Music] so just punched out another couple of hours south down the pdr and we're gonna camp out the cohen tonight we're just a couple k's north of cohen on the bend i think it's called nice little river camp spot here i've got a heap of reception here as well so i need to catch up on a few work things tonight emails and all that sort of stuff that's the hard thing about like so much of the cape there's just no reception you have to be careful as well you can be hundreds of kilometers and you just see no reception so once you head north north from here like you can buy wi-fi at archer river roadhouse in bramwell junction but you won't actually s physically get reception until the jardine river now once you crossed the jardine you got reception up again at bemigar and then we had some right at the tip so yeah just like you just don't really get much around these places or it's probably worth it really to have a satellite satellite phone with you or something which i don't i've only got a plb i tell you what the rooftop tent has been absolutely amazing this trip is just perfect for a trip like this yep off the ground away from all the crocodiles and snakes and uh pigs and everything else that up all up this top end as there's lots of breeze up there being hype off the ground you can open the whole thing right up we've had a couple nights so it's poured rain on it doesn't leak you don't get any rain in it keeps the dust out really well haven't had any dust in there providing you just zip it up of a day because like the dust you'll see like get on the edges a bit up through the gaps which allow the water to run out when it's raining so if you don't properly close it up you get you probably would get a bit of dust in there but yeah just make sure it's closed up no dust no water in there no nothing it's been unreal perfect for weather and a trip like this all right here we go chair review with malakai okay this is a chair so it's quite comfortable sit down so you can buy a pewdiepie gear for 400 bucks or you can buy this for wait what's the price the canopy's been great this trip as well it seems to have kept all the dust out it's kept the dust out heaps better than the car but in saying that you know like i've got windows open in the car from time to time which dust ends up coming in and stuff but yeah all everything in there is clean as i can't really see any dust at all the fridge has been great and it's good having the freezer because of being able to have lemonade icy poles out of it every day as well i just got a stack of them in there just in the process of packing up camp this morning might go down for a swim in a minute we were planning on doing the old coach road on the way back to cairns but i don't think it will now i think we're gonna have to leave it um this covert situation is just getting worse and worse i've sort of got to be home in about four or five days and we're two over two and a half thousand kilometers from home so i do the coach road that's couple days on that and i'm still going to be like over 2 000 kilometers from home to do then in like two or three days which i don't think i want to do i'd rather just spend a few days along the coast getting back home might just have to save that for another trip up here it's absolutely incredible place up here i'm super glad that i came up and experienced all that and yeah hopefully we'll get back here again sometime in the future it has been a little bit daunting as well just doing it solo and having a couple of car things along the way and just being so far from help and out of reception and everything else is definitely a little bit of a interesting experience but hopefully everyone enjoyed the videos everyone's always been telling me to come up here for years and i've been wanting to come up here for years and this year we just finally said that's it we're gonna do it i decided like a few days before and then we left next time i definitely spend a bit more time preparing and uh making sure my car's properly ready and i've got everything i need and all that sort of stuff but yeah i think we've we've survived anyway we still got about 500 kilometers back down the pediatric hands though yet everyone support the channel you can over at patreon or follow along all our adventures as we go on instagram or facebook i'll do a behind-the-scenes trip information video on patreon for cape york so if you are planning on doing a trip up here or sort of do a full map run through on there and give everyone the details of everything you went if you're interested in that and then over on the website we've got stubby callers we've got those respect the bush bags we've got shirts hoodies we've got a few things available there so if you want to grab something and check that out it's just tylerthomson.com.here we're getting a little bit low on food i think this is the last meal we can cook and then we got a couple leftover dinners in the fridge um wait how do you think i'm going to get my money whatever pdr south we went maybe about yup yup off the ground away from all the up off the ground away from all the wow yeah and then don't forget over and then dave now pretty nice spot here last night not just an impress just keep cruising what's up [Music] yes inside of these clothes i know there's no surrender [Music] all this time all this time try to make this song [Music] try to make it now go inside and save us later

Channel: Tyler Thompson

Views: 35,580

Rating: 4.9744816 out of 5

Keywords: 4wd, 4x4, offroad, capeyork, australia

Id: LX0b_zf6EO4

Length: 29min 52sec (1792 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021