Planning Your Trip

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Cape York Gallery

  Getting Here

Weipa is a mining town of approximately 2500 people located on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula. The rivers surrounding Weipa make for excellent fishing, crabbing and croc spotting. Swimming is not possible due to the box jellyfish and saltwater crocodiles. The dry season months of May to September is very pleasant temperature of 30C with a south-east breeze and cool nights. From October the heat and humidity increases, with most of the rainfall in January to March.

There is a daily flight from Cairns to Weipa taking about 1 ½ hours. For the more adventurous the drive form Cairns to Weipa takes about 12 hours over mainly dirt road.

Whats Onboard Linen, towels, soap, toilet paper Cutlery, crockery and cooking utensils Radio/CD player BBQ and stove/grill Safety gear Outdoor furniture Colour sounder, GPS map, VHF radio Fridge, freezer, icebox Extensive water and fuel capacity Gas hot water system Shower and toilet

What to Bring Food and Drinks Your favourite CDs Light bag of clothing/toiletries Fishing gear Camera

Houseboating can be a lot of fun for any age, size or type of group. The following suggestions and ideas are intended to help make your trip more fun. What works for one person does not necessarily work for another, so you may find only bits and pieces of this useful to you. Feel free to use your imagination to expand your experience on a houseboat in any way you can think of. The idea is to have fun, and there are lots of ways to do it.

Organising a group to go houseboating

The Tillymay sleeps 10 people, so most people try to fill up the boat to keep the cost per person as low as possible. Putting a group together is easy. Here are several suggestions for who you might include on your trip. (Don't feel limited to these, however):

A.  Family & Extended Family

Some people have a large enough family that they can fill a boat with family members, which can be a lot of fun and can create some really meaningful experiences. If children are of varying ages, you may want to consider allowing them to invite friends as it may increase their enjoyment of the trip. You might just decide to make it an annual event, as many people do.

B.  A Group of Friends

Inviting a group of all single adults, or adult couples, can be loads of fun. Enjoying the water and fishing by day and a lively card or board games in the evening are some of the favorite activities of our guests.

C.  A  Group of Co-workers

Inviting your friends from work can build bonds beyond the workplace and create memories you love to reminisce about when you return to the drudgery of your job!

Dividing the work

Planning the trip includes contacting everyone you'd like to have participate, getting commitments from them, planning the food, planning any additional activities (such as sight seeing or hiking around the surrounding area), arranging for small boats or other toys, planning the transportation, and making provisions for the payment of money.

A.  Setting a Date

How you go about organizing the group will depend on the type of group, but there are lots of things in common. The first problem is picking a date. If you know exactly who will be going on the trip, you simply talk to everyone and find out what dates they are able to go, and select dates that work for everyone. It is strongly recommended that your group agrees on a second and third choice of dates in case you're planning on vacationing during a popular time. As soon as you have the dates established, you should make a reservation. Even though there is occasionally last minute availability of the boat, the boat can easily be reserved for any particular week. With several people who have independent schedules it is not easy to find dates that will work for everyone. If you don't know who is going on the trip, reserve the houseboat for the dates that work for you, and then invite other people until you have commitments from enough people to make the trip possible.

B.  Arranging for Payment

It is a good idea to have people give you the cash for their share of the rental cost at the time they make the commitment, because if they've paid there is less chance they will change their minds. If someone drops out at the last minute and hasn't paid it puts a burden on everyone else who is going on the trip. You are likely to find that most people have a hard time actually making a commitment, and will not feel locked in until they have paid. You can pay for the boat as early as you want, so the sooner you collect the money and pay for the boat, the better.

Be sure to keep a good record of how much money you have received and from whom. In some cases it might make sense to let people pay you a small amount of money each month over a six month period to get to the desired level. You will be required to pay a deposit when you make the reservation, and then pay the full amount of the rental 60 days prior to your trip. You will get the deposit back after your trip, less the cost of any damages or losses to the vessel. You can generally use the deposit refund to pay for the gas to fill the houseboat at the end of your trip.

C.  Planning the Food

This can be done in several ways, depending on the type of group, and the likes and dislikes of the people. The boat will have a stove, an oven and a barbecue, so the choices for cooking are varied. Roasting something in the oven for three hours on a hot day may not be the best idea, since it could contribute to making the boat uncomfortable. It is a good idea to stick to things that are simple to prepare. Here are some ideas to make your meal planning easier:

(1) Have one person prepare a menu for the entire trip, and buy all of the groceries for the menu. Type up a sheet explaining what food is for which meal, and showing what the menu is. Of course, if someone eats the wrong food at the wrong time it will upset the plans, and could upset some people. However, this approach results in a minimum of excess food, and with planning could make it easier to handle food storage. If you go out for a week, storing all of the food for a large group is a challenge. One thing to consider is the possibility of packing the meat for the second half of the week in an ice chest with some dry ice, and tape the lid shut. After four days everything will still be frozen. Try not to bring too much stuff that needs refrigeration, because the refrigerator capacity on a houseboat is limited, and the propane refrigerators are not as efficient as the ones you have at home.

(2) Assign meals to various people, making each person responsible to bring one, two or three specific meals. This spreads the work around and lets everyone participate, without any one person having to do too much. It spreads the cleanup job, too!

(3) Let each individual or family take care of their own food. This might be a good idea if one family has special eating demands, such as being vegetarians. Generally, though, it is more fun to all eat together.

(4) Drinks are an important consideration. Usually it will be easiest to have everybody bring what they want to drink. You should use the ice chest that comes on the houseboat for the drinks, because the drinks stay colder in ice. Also, frequent opening of the boat's refrigerator door to access drinks will result in the refrigerator not working adequately, and nothing will be very cold. If you buy common drinks for everyone, be sure to estimate the cost high and collect the money before the trip. Also, expect to buy at least a couple bags of ice per day during your trip. The exact amount of ice you will use will depend on the outside temperature.

The division of food costs is an important consideration. If you use the first method, there will be an easily calculated cost that can be divided by the number of people on the trip, and everyone can be charged for their share. It is important to be fair in allocating costs, to prevent anyone from possibly 'getting their feathers ruffled.' If you use the second method, try to give each group comparable meals to bring. If you use the third method, money may not be an issue.

Happy Houseboating!!!