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Cape York Thursday 28th May
Hi all, today is the day. Our plan to get to the tip of cape York and finally get to our original destination, the most Northern Point of the Australian mainland. We had a couple of destinations to get to before we make the final walk to the tip. First we had a look at three planes that had crashed during world war 2. None of these planes crashed due to enemy activity. I assume they crashed due to either mechanical failure or pilot error. There were three crashes. One was a DC3 and the second was a bomber. Both wrecks were in the same spot they had crashed. Obviously we did not deal with crashes in those days as we do now. The site has been left to the elements although the two sites we saw have been fenced off. Once we finished seeing the wrecks we took the road to the tip and half way there there was a small house with an enormous tent at the front. It is famously known as the Croc tent. It is basically a souvenir shop. The owner of the shop was very knowledgable of the local
area and customs and we had a great chat. His wife who was quite a small build had told us how isolated they were. Once she woke up in the middle of the night with a four metre python wrapped around her bum trying to squeeze her to death. She managed to grab its mouth and pry it off even though she was quite small. How scary particularly as her husband was away at the time. We bought quite a few items and continued to the tip. As we were driving the vegetation changed abruptly to dense rainforest. It was quite eerie. just before the tip, about 2km, we found an abandoned 5star resort called Pajinca. This resort had been given to the aboriginals a long time ago but for some reason it has been abandoned and left to ruin. The swimming pool it still there but has tree roots going right through it. What a waste of resources. It was at this point Paul's Troopy would not start. Now we had a running joke that given Paul and I had pulled out the engine and just about everything else in this Troopy we did not know whether it would
make the distance to the Cape. We were feeling very confidant just before we left Pajinka. Paul found the problem within a minute and it was just a corroded fused connection right near the battery. He fixed it in a few minutes and we were back on our way. Five minutes later we were at the car park just before the Cape. Just to describe what we saw, there was a car park for about 15 to 20 cars spread across both sides of the road. Directly ahead you can see a beach and to your right there was a high rocky hill. There were already 5 cars in the car park before we arrived. We proceeded to climb the rocks. It was a steady non taxing climb. Once on top of this hill we saw a view that was spectacular. We could see both the west and east costs of the Cape York Pensinsula. Technically we were seeing both the east and West coast of Australia. How bizarre. The wind from the East was extremely strong and you had to hold yourself from being blown over. A 15 minute walk and following a downhill section we reach a sign
confirming we had reached the Northern most tip of the Australian Peninsula. We were finally there. We took a few photos and shared the moment with three other groups. For such an isolated place it sure was busy. On our way back we took a more direct route on the edge of the mangroves and then onto the sand. It was extremely slippery and Allison fell as I was helping her to move from the rocks onto the sand. I am afraid she dropped her movie camera into the water. We saved the videos but not sure how the camera will fare after being exposed to sea water. This is it we arrived and it was a great feeling. Seemed surreal to be leaving so soon after we arrived. Lunch was calling so I think our stomachs were driving us to move on. On the way back we stopped a resort called Punsand bay where we were going to have lunch. Well, the Punsand bay people had other ideas. It was 2.20pm and they advised lunch was closed. A good thing we had the Troopys. We pulled out the food draws and fridges and had a quick lunch with some
bread and cheeses. Stopped the kids from complaining on the way home. We passed and stopped at an aboriginal swimming hole. It had two walls on either side of the hole, to protect from crocodiles. A bit cold. We headed home and in the evening we did some fishing off the Seisa pier. Cohen ended up catching about 18 bait fish. The way the fisherman were working was some people were fishing for the smaller fish, approximately 10cm and then they use that fish to fish for the larger species. Cohen ended up being nicknamed the bait boy and he was ensuring about three of four of the men were being supported by fresh bait fish. The only fish Xavier caught was a two metre shark. Could not land it off the pier. And was let go. Overall a very satisfying day with the final dinner being chicken parma and mash. Our journey to the Tip was a total of 4,170km
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