Cape York

The undiscovered beauty of Australia…….

As we left Rohan, the dogs and our caravan we set sail for Cape York. We planned to arrive at Cape York (the tip) in two weeks, so we left the dogs at a dog sitter.

Our first stop was Cooktown which wasn’t far from Mareeba. One of the first things I’ve noticed about Cooktown was that there were many Aboriginal people living in there. We stayed at Cooktown for 2 nights at a caravan park closed to town. As we arrived we were greeted by the beautiful Kingfisher painting on the rock.

We met with Deb and Daz, wefirst met Deb and Darren at Paronella Park and knew that they were travelling to Cooktown as well, so we decided to keep in touch. Cooktown was a really small town it only had a pub, a bakery and a fishing shop. We bought all we needed for the rough terrain of Cape York before leaving.

The next day we left early with Deb and Darren, we ended up taking a road called the Battle camp road, it sounded intimidating. Our first stop was Lakefield National Park we set up camp and tested our luck by throwing a few yabbie nets in the water. This was indeed croc territory, so we kept an eye out for crocs. While it was still bright we started a fire and got all warm. We had some dinner had a chat and as we were so tired we went to sleep.

The next day we went to a recommended fishing site. There was just one challenge we had to fish from our car on the causeway, challenge excepted! It all happened so quickly as we caught a decent size fish, dad pulled it in then there was no room for the fish he quickly passed it to mum as it was putting up a fight. From the back of the car it just looked funny as the fish was flopping around everywhere. In the end we had to let it go as it was to small.

The next site we went to was a little community called Coen. We were about to start unpacking until our friends Deb and Darren got stuck in the sandy bank. They took out their recovery gear and tried towing the van out while I was in the water watching the show. As the action ended we went back to set up the tent. It took a while as we were still learning quicker ways to set it up. When we finished, we laid by the fire with our 2-minute noodles and good company, 20 minutes later I’m still trying to go to sleep in the crowded tent.

In the morning we left Deb and Darren in the dust as we went ahead towards Chilly Beach. This was personally one of my favourite destination. As we arrived at Chilly Beach all I thought about was going to have a nap as we just had a long drive. But a lot of things changed my mind as it was a sunny day, we were right next to the beach, and we had our own personal swing.

The whole family enjoyed a beautiful walk on the beach collecting shells and enjoying this wonderful trip. The next morning, I woke up and sat on the swing with the cool breeze.

We relaxed and did some blog for most of the day until dinner. We got interrupted as a car came and unexpectedly Deb and Darren wanted to join in. We were surprised but happy as we were all by the fire with our dinner.

As we left Chilly beach and headed to Bramwell Station we occupied ourselves by listening to Harry Potter audio books as the drive was long.

As we arrived there we were exhausted but still had some energy to set up camp. So far, we have been eating bread rolls and crackers but at Bramwell we decided to reward ourselves with an all you can eat buffet dinner. As most of us are vegetarians we got a good discount which was great. Dinner time finally came, we were all waiting to be impressed and we were not disappointed. The food was yummy and lots, I had stacks of scallop potatoes and salads, while eating we were entertained by live music and it felt like a five-star hotel.

OTR (Old Telegraph Route)

Next morning, still digesting yesterday’s dinner we set out to the old telegraph route. This is a 4WD track which is very famous, known for dangerous river crossings and a 5-meter vertical drop called "gun shot".

But for us, as we didn’t have a lift kit or snorkel we avoided the deep river crossings and the drop. We did come across a beautiful waterfall called Fruit bat Falls.

We went in for a quick dip underneath the waterfall itself which was very refreshing. Twenty minutes later, after lunch we got back on the road and we sped up to catch a barge that took us across the Jardine river to Seisia where we spent two nights. At the caravan park there were many frogs and luckily there were no snakes.

One day we took a boat to Thursday Island, we were fortunate to get the seats inside as it was such a rocky ride and some of us felt sick. We tried to have a nap to make the ride go faster, we just survived the ride and arrived at our destination. At Thursday Island we wasted no time and walked to the museum although we had to climb hills as it was at the very top of the island. The museum showed us gun turrets and a beautiful view at the top of the hill.

We had lunch and went back to wait for the boat. We finished this beautiful experience by walking on the beach and catching big crabs.

After 4 months of travelling we arrived at the most northern point of Australia. We rushed to the tip but was cautious not to fall off. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I was standing at the end of Australia. Watching the waves crash on the tip was a memory I would never forget. After taking some pictures we wrote the name Morin on a rock and put it on the very top of the hill.

We got back in the car and did it all again but backwards making our way back to Mareeba..