We made it to the tip of Australia and as the saying goes…..it was the journey not the destination that made it so wonderful. We are totally in love with Cape York and it has skyrocketed to our number one spot in Australia so far. The landscape is dramatic and changes constantly, the wildlife are totally wild and everywhere you turn your head and the fishing is unbelievable. We left Cairns and spent a night at the delightful Port Douglas before heading in to the jaw dropping Daintree Rainforest. It is easy to see why this beautiful area is World Heritage listed - the landscape is amazing.

We took the Bloomfield track up to Cooktown and spent a couple of days having a good look around and ran in to our Euro backpacker mates Andrea and Sandy. We spent a few hours at the old convent in Cooktown where my Granny Smith went to school from 1916 to 1920 – the staff were lovely enough to get out the old register and we found my Granny’s name along with her sisters, very moving. The beautiful old building is now the James Cook museum which houses among other things, the anchor from the Endeavour.

After leaving Cooktown we headed up the Peninsular Development Road (PDR) towards the tip. We were bracing ourselves for some serious corrugations that we were warned about, however we were lucky enough to score freshly grated roads that made the drive smooth sailing. The same can’t be said of the Overland Telegraph line road which had some hair raising four wheel driving, numerous tricky creek crossings and parts so steep and slippery that we almost lost the trailer. Despite all my rants about not going near the water because of crocs, I was ordered out of the car to cross the creek on foot to check the depth…..like a lamb to slaughter. If there were Crocs here they may have been put off by my squeals and whimpers and decided I wasn’t worth it. So after nearly 7 hours of some of the hardest four wheel driving we have done, a blown out tire, a filthy car and an ever filthier child we chugged in to the most gorgeous camp ground in all of Australia, Twin and Elliot Falls. We spent a couple of nights at this amazing spot swimming in crystal (croc free) waterfalls and meeting some lovely fellow travellers.

We got back on the PDR north to the tip of the Cape fearing another tyre blow out with no more spares and set up camp at Punsand Bay just a wee bit down from the tip. This place is just fantastic – bush camping on the beach with the luxury of a pool and bar….we can’t seem to leave here. We planned on staying here a few nights but it has now blown out to 10! We drove straight up to the Tip and stood screaming and yahooing on it before heading back to the camp for 10 days of exploring, swimming, fishing and relaxing – bliss. We spent a day driving to Sommerset and picking our way around the old homestead from nearly 200 years ago, found some amazing aboriginal art in a cave and almost got blown away on the East Coast tradewinds. We spent a day over at Thursday Island and Horn Island which is so chilled out - we were fascinated by the Horn Island museum which shows a lot of WW2 memorabilia – we had no idea how involved the Torres Straight Islands were in WW2 and how heavily it was attacked , it is still littered with old war planes.

The highlight of our stay has to be the fishing charter we went on with our new found friends, Josh and his daughter Julia while his lovely wife Marie and other daughter Jasmine kindly looked after Ruby for the day. I usually hate being out on a boat for a full day as I am mostly found clinging to the edge, totally green and emptying out my stomach lining for the fish to enjoy. This one was totally different and even I managed to catch a heap of fish. All up we landed 5 tuna, 3 cod, 1 cobia, 9 barramundi, 5 queenfish and saw 11 crocs sunning themselves on the beach! By the end of the day we had sore arms, 1 broken rod, a few fish for dinner and grins we couldn’t wipe off our faces.

We very reluctantly left Punsand Bay and headed south on the Old telegraph track once again, knowing this time we were up for some particularly deep crossings. There were a couple of creeks that were so murky that I refused to walk them so we took a chance and just blasted through. After a particular nasty crossing at cannibal creek where we almost rolled the car and the camper, we realised we had put a fan blade through the radiator so we limped our way to Bramwell station where we were fortunate enough to set up camp next to a mechanic, beauty. So after a few bush repairs we decided to miss out on the rest of the sights we wanted to see on the Cape due to being so remote and having an injured car – and we hot footed it down to Port Douglas for a bit of pampering by my friend Rachels Mum and Dad, Chief and Sharyn. However, a promise of more gorgeous sights and a pig hunting trip for Nath will see us returning to the Cape at a later date for even longer.
Now our flights are booked and the car is stowed as we head back to WA for three months of work and winter……uuugh – luckily we have a date booked with Bali in August to see us through. Until we get back on the road, adios!