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Published: July 15th 2012
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June 8 - June 15
We overnighted at the campground at the Jardine River and were up early to catch the first ferry of the day. After the rigors of the OTL the final dirt roads heading towards Bamaga and Seisia, the most Northerly towns on the cape, were a delight, though the ever present clouds of dust were with us. There are several communities around these towns, all different indigenous communities so we were told. Seisia is Torres Straight Islanders, Bamaga about 4km inland is Aboriginal, the settlement of New Mappoon, between the two is a relocated Aboriginal tribe from around Weipa, none to happy to be there and Umagi is yet another group, all have not too much to do with each other it seems. Nevertheless everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful!
My sister and brother in-law had stayed up here at Loyalty Beach, just a km North of Seisia town and had raved, so we thought we would check it out as well as the park in town. Loyalty was certainly the pick and we had soon set up camp for what ended up being a wonderful 8 night
stay, 50m from the beach, under the trees looking West across the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was beautiful to watch the sun set over the ocean, a first for Jen and the kids and something which brought back memories of growing up in the West for me. The aim of our stay here was to firstly, stand at the tip of Cape York and secondly to catch some fish at the famed Seisia wharf!
Next day we of course headed the last 30 or so kms North towards the tip of Cape York, the country changes quite rapidly and you actually go through a patch of thick rainforest quite near the tip carpark. Upon arriving at this isolated spot we were surprised to be there with at least another 30 or so people. On the way we also ran into a family from WA whom we had seen in Cooktown and met at Old Laura Homestead on the way up the Cape. So we started the 300 or so metre walk to the tip with Ed and Naomi and their kids. There were so many people there we had to queue to get our photo taken next
to the sign. We had bought a packed lunch in order to sit there for a while and we are glad we did because everyone else moved on quite quickly and we were left to enjoy our lunch in isolation at this remote location.
The scenery is breathtaking, the azure waters, the beautiful white sand beaches and a myriad of islands off the coast, but somehow it all seemed a bit of an anti-climax. I think in analysing it that the feeling reinforces the concept that life is as much, if not more, about the journey than it is the destination. We had made our destination, fulfilled our goal and now we needed to refocus! If this trip has taught us anything, it is to not worry about what might happen or what is coming next but to enjoy the moment and not sweat the little stuff.
After the tip we drove to some of the other sites along the tip coast, Somerset Bay and then did the five beaches 4WD trek before heading back via Punsand Bay camp site to see if we might head up there to camp after Loyalty Beach. Of
course we stopped at the ‘Croc Tent’ to buy a T-Shirt and some souvenirs of our epic journey to the tip of Australia, it was a great adventure! Now for some fishing!
Ed whom I mentioned earlier was a keen fisherman and had given us some tips for Seisia Wharf and we were going to meet them there in a few days time but we were keen to get started. Thankfully we were camped next to a great couple Wayne and Mel and there little boy Angus, who kind of adopted us while we were there! These guys are keen fisherman and were happy to help us novices and during our time at Seisia we had a number of long nights at Seisia Wharf with Wayne and Mel, it was great fun. We learnt how to ‘jig’ for baitfish and how to use those live baitfish to catch something larger. We didn’t have too much luck but I did catch a big bony herring, which we couldn’t eat but at least it was a catch and put on a a great fight. The thrill as something strikes and the drag whirs is like nothing else, I can
see why people get hooked (pun intended) on fishing.
We took out our boat a few times, twice on the calm gulf waters around Seisia and once out on Jacky Jacky Creek, we trolled with lures with little success on the gulf waters but in Jacky Jacky Creek, Zan landed two good sized trevally which made all of our days! Jen also caught a good sized spotted cod which we threw back, it wasn’t until later that we found out they are actually good eating and we should have kept it! We enjoyed the trevally for dinner that night!
It was warm up on the Cape and one of the tragedies of this part of the world is the beautiful beaches and gorgeous waters that you cannot use to swim in because of stingers, crocs and sharks. We asked about swimming holes and one of the park workers told us about ‘Cypress’, a swimming hole that the locals use, it was some obscure directions we received and a bit off the beaten track, but we headed off with Wayne, Mel and Angus to see if we could find it? An hour later we pulled
up at this beautiful little creek, we had been told it was croc free but you never know, however I jumped in to check it out and soon we were all enjoying a wonderful swim in the refreshing waters of this little creek, it was a great fun afternoon.
Later in the week we met up with Ed and Naomi and their kids for the morning, Ed and I went off for some fishing in the boat for a couple of hours while the girls nattered and the kids played. No luck on the fishing front but a nice couple of hours chatting with some new people. One afternoon we went looking for a big croc we heard inhabited a creek a few kilometres up from Loyalty but couldn’t find him, two nights later however he came swimming by the wharf when we were fishing, just awesome! Other than that we didn’t see too many crocs up on the Cape, even though they are supposed to be everywhere. The rest of the time at Loyalty Beach was spent, cleaning, repairing and reorganising and plenty of sitting around reading and relaxing. The eight days went all too fast,
soon it was time to head off so we filled up with our most expensive fuel to date, $2.15 per litre and turned our truck towards Weipa, but that’s another blog!
Steve, Jen, Zan and Will
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