To the top
July 21st, 2007 | by lissie |Greetings from the tip of Cape York - well as I write this that is where we are – but I doubt that I will find any internet access before we get back to Cairns! We have made it to the top – yes I know there is an island in the background but that doesn’t count. Truckie has counted 15,000km (and that doesn’t count Bass Strait because Truckie took the ferry) since we were at the southern-most point on Tasmania so its been a fair haul since 1 May! One of the odd things around here is that there is not a sign post to be found – even for the main town, Bramaga, we had to ask some kids were the turn-off was! The track to the tip of Australia was basically marked by a single casual sign at the start of a 1km or so walk thru a board walk and then a scramble over some rocks – fortunately there is quite a well worn trail.
We have however now purchased the Tshirts so can leave – well once we get out to Thursday Island – which is proving tricky at the moment with the winds as they are! Apparently we are in the SE trades which basically means its nice and warm – in fact would be very hot if the wind died completely, which it does occasionally. Fortunately the “resort” we are currently camped at has a pool- an above ground para one – but it is at least a pool – because all you can do with the beach is take pictures of it!
There are two ways up to Cape York, the Old Telegraph Track (OTT) and the Bypass road. There are 30 or 40 creek crossings on the OTT and here is a picture of the first one – trust me that slope is steep! We went and had a look but decided we didn’t want to risk having to get Truckie towed back to Weipa at a cost of $1800 if he got stuck in one of the crossings which was reportedly windscreen height! It took 30min to do the 6km there and back to get this picture. Instead we did the bypass road – which was in pretty good shape and detoured to camp by the sea at Capt Billys Landing – where the wind would have done Wellington proud and we spent a sleepless night waiting for the tent to blow away around us (it didn’t). We would have been better off putting our gear in the tent and sleeping in the back of Truckie.
Truckie would like to point out that he’s no wimp so here is a picture of a water crossing by Truckie – note the photographer had to walk across first avoiding the crocodiles to take the picture!
Some of the beaches are absolutely gorgeous but unfortunately between being very, very shallow and crocodile infested the only natural water we’ve been allowed to swim in up here were these falls – they are absolutely gorgeous -and a pleasant temperature- they were well worthwhile detour after the shower-less, wind blown camping at Capt Billy’s!
Oh and by-the-way we had a big toast to absent friends and Paul’s 55th on the Cape! Luckily we had a whole bottle of bubbly because there were so many to toast. Camping note – the billy works quite well as an ice bucket! And in this climate its best to keep the red wine in the Esky!
