Cape York is one of the iconic road trips of Australia, once the domain of only the most hardened four wheel drivers it in now accessible to most, and we set off with my parents Annie and Ashley to tackle the 2000 km return trip in our trailer and an off road compact caravan.
The main Peninsular Development Road goes all the way to the tip area. It is the main transportation route and has travellers and road trains aplenty. It has some bitumen sections, with more being built, but for the most part it is gravel of the most corrugated and bone jarring kind.
From Cairns we headed over the Daintree River ferry, through the amazing rainforest of the Daintree National Park to Cape Tribulation. From here we proceeded over the Bloomfield track, a four wheel drive track of little technical challenge but amazing scenery as the road travels through more amazing rainforest before rising up mountains where you get glimpses of amazing coastline, white beaches with blue sea fringed by lush rainforest.
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| Cape Tribulation |
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| Cape Tribulation |
After lunch in Cooktown we pressed on to Lakefield national park, where we camped by the Hann River. You could cast a lure directly into the river from our campsite, but we were a little unnerved when we noticed a large salt water crocodile lurking nearby. Again there was not much luck with the fishing until we tried hooks baited with salami.... with which (amongst much urging not to go too close to the water's edge) the kids caught turtles! Nothing for dinner but they had a great time keeping them captive.
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| Zoe making friends at Hahn Crossing campsite |
We continued our trip northwards, first overnighting at Archer River roadhouse then to Bramwell Station, where the Old Telegraph track begins. Leaving our rigs at Bramwell, we set out for a day of exploring the tele track..... except the first creek crossing was of the order of only to be attempted by the slightly insane. Ominously there is a large sign on a nearby tree which says "TOWING" with a mobile number.
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Anticipation in the air.
The start of the Old Telegraph Track at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse. |
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| Palm Creek, the first obstacle. A lot worse than it looks trust us... |
Getting into the creek in one piece was one thing but getting out the other side also required a winch. (even with a winch a group of vehicles got stuck in there the following day for over 6 hours). So we followed the other sensible people and went around, and had a great day doing some tamer creek crossings and watching the crazy people doing the crazy stuff.
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Gunshot Creek, Old Telegraph Track.
A good way to break stuff on your car.
(Thats not us...) |
From Bramwell we continued north ..... we had booked a nights camping at Eliot Falls which is located on the Northern section of the Telegraph track. After stopping for a great swim at Fruit Bat Falls we went towards Eliot Falls but on reaching the final creek crossing we had some reservations...... the water was more than a metre deep and cars which were coming across were opening up their doors to let the water pour out of their cars. Not only did we not want a car full of water, we were also towing the trailer, which as well as making the crossing more difficult contains all of our possessions! So again, we went around, and decided to camp at a very pleasant little bush camping area on the track to the north. When we arrived in the northern tip area we saw many people drying out their car carpet and removing the seats from their cars in an attempt to dry them out. So whilst losing cred as hardened adventurers by again taking "the chicken track" our car does not smell and our possessions are dry.
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| Creek crossing at Sam's Creek, Old Telegraph Track |
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| Eliot Falls |
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| Eliot Falls |
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| Eliot Falls |
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| Fruit Bat Falls |
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| Pitcher Plant |
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| Fruit Bat Falls |
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| Beautiful woodland on the way to Eliot Falls |
From here we headed across the Jardine River ferry to the"tip" area. We set up camp for a few nights and the following day travelled to the northern most point for the obligatory selfie with the sign.
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| Crossing the Jardine River |
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| All south from here... |
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| Stunning coastal scenery of the Northern Peninsula Area |
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| Stunning coastal scenery of the Northern Peninsula Area |
We went on a day trip to Thursday Island, the administration centre for the Torres Straight Islands and the Tip area before turning around and heading towards the South.
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| Thursday Island |
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| Thursday Island |
The tip area has a feral wildlife problem we've not seen this as yet- there are a large population of wild horses who daily would roam through the campsite, going through all the rubbish bins and trashing people's campsites. They have the capacity to make significantly more mess than the usual campsite pests, crows and dingos.
On the trip back we spent a couple of days in the remote Oyala Thumotang National Park. A mere 90km off the road, this place is famed for birds and we were hoping to site the elusive Palm Cockatoo here. We rocked up to the campsite, walked under a tree and the first bird we see.... Palm Cockatoo!
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| Camp at Oyala Thumotang National Park |
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| Camp at Oyala Thumotang National Park |
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| Camp at Oyala Thumotang National Park |
The Cape is a bogan wonderland. There is challenging four wheel driving, great bush camping, the opportunity to purchase truly revolting souvenir fishing shirts and plenty of fellow bogans letting it all hang out. Unfortunately not all visitors to the area treat the place with the respect it deserves. Rubbish and (human) waste left in bush camping sites is becoming a huge problem. Whilst we were camped on the tele track there was a beautiful swimming hole fed by a pristine creek a short walk away from the camp, but unfortunately hundreds of people felt they needed to carve their initials into the rock walls surrounding the area. Some areas have had to be closed due to the impact that visitors are having. This is the sad side to our trip to the tip and hopefully visitors in the future will start to behave in a more sustainable way.
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