Blogs from Cape York, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 6

Despite the roads being like driving over the moon, we have arrived at Cape York. The furthest point north on the Australian Continent. The road in is a really narrow track through the rain forest and we fully expected a T Rex to come crashing through the undergrowth at any moment. Instead there were lots of bush turkeys, likttle black things with fan tails and red heads, playing chicken. We managed to avoid hitting them and arrived at the car park to find a croc had been spotted on the beach. We decided to take the cliff-top walk to the tip rather than walk across the sand. We spent the night around 20km south at a lovely site right on Punsand Beach. The beach was stunning - but no swimming due to crocs and sharks! We ... read more

The Cape York Peninsula has been identified as one of the great wild places left on earth, along with the Amazon and the Serengeti (Tanzania). Spectacular white sand dunes, beaches, Savannas (dotted with humungous termite mounds), Rainforests, Wild Rivers (21 as a matter of fact) and Wetlands. Indigenous people have lived on Cape York for thousands of years, the culture here is strong and several languages are still widely spoken with indigenous ecological knowledge being recorded and practiced, a fantastic initiative by Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways. Not a trip for the faint hearted, it is one the most adventurous things we have done our our Australian tour. Two weeks of driving through river beds full of crocs, treacherous tracks, from staying at cattle stations, experiencing the Weipa Rodeo and finally reaching our destination, The Tip of ... read more

After fitting new rear brake pads and a fuel filter to the Cruiser at Seisia, we headed south, stopping briefly in Bamaga to send some postcards and pick up some fresh bread (and tasty treats) from the bakery there. From there it was on the ferry once again and then down the northern and southern bypass roads to arrive at Bramwell Homestead about lunch time. We unhitched the trailer, had a quick lunch then headed off to drive the southern section of the OTT that we had missed on the way up. We arrived at Palm Creek and joined up with a couple of cars who were starting the steep and washed out descent down the entrance bank. After the two cars were over we started our entrance. Alex became official photographer again while Thomas and ... read more

Hi All Finally made it to the "glorious tip", the last three days have seen us cover about 800kms of red dirt along the Peninsular development Road aptly named as it sure needs a hell of a lot of development. We have discovered that the road signs (when there is one) have a whole new meaning up this way ie DIP mean Doom Impending Pit, as they are car swallowing depressions that your car may not emerge from. Also a bend sign means you better slow to a crawl as the roads is about to disappear at right angles then drop into a creek or other hazard. Reduce speed means you'd better stop or your gonna wear a grader and sections of tar are for overtaking- this you have to do at 150kms/hr as everyone wants ... read more

We left Bramwell Homestead and again took the southern bypass road northwards. However, this time we turned back towards the Overland Telegraph Track (OTT) via the Heathlands Ranger station. At the OTT, we headed south to have a look at Gunshot Creek, which we had heard lots about. We unhooked the camper trailer to make it easier to travel and arrived at the northern banks of Gunshot. It wasn't too long afterwards that a couple of vehicles arrived on the southern side. One was owned by a 'pom' now living in Brisbane while the other was a hire vehicle that his folks and younger brother had picked up in Cairns. They had done all the OTT except Gunshot up until now, but were heading south and wanted to complete the OTT altogether before heading home. This ... read more