North to The Tip

When we left Townsville in mid-June we knew it would be a long way to Cape York - the most northerly point on the Australian mainland - affectionately known as "The Tip".  It's the very top of the "pointy bit" in Queensland.  It only took us 2 days to get to Laura for the Aboriginal Dance Festival (see separate post).  We stayed overnight at Rocky Creek, a great free camp on the Atherton Tablelands about halfway between Atherton and Mareeba we had checked our when we were in the area a year ago.

After 5 nights at Laura immersing ourselves in the Aboriginal Dance Festival we were back on the road.  Our vehicles wouldn't stay clean for too long as we wouldn't have many kilometres of sealed road for the next few weeks.  The Bend, a popular free camp just north of Coen was our next stop.  There's not much water in the river and there were campers on both sides of the river.

The next day we drove on to Weipa.  This is the largest town on the Cape York Peninsula with a population of about 3500-4000.  It's primarily a mining town surrounded by large bauxite mining leases owned by aluminium giant Comalco.  We were booked into the only caravan park in town for 3 nights.  We had booked from Laura - a good move as the park was full.  School holidays were about to start and there were many campers in town for extended periods of fishing.  Fishing seemed to be the main topic of conversation - when, where, how many, how big ..... and the ones that got away.

Weipa is a pretty town about halfway up the western side of the peninsula on the Gulf of Carpentaria.  There's a bauxite loading port facility which always seemed to have 2 ships berthed.  We drove around the town past some picturesque picnic spots on the nearby man-made lakes.  A visit to the North-West Cultural Centre was very informative about both european and aboriginal history of the area.  First european contact in the Cape area was by the Dutch traders in the mid 1600s.  The Cultural Centre has one of the best views in Weipa, out over the bay, and has good coffee as a bonus.

Weipa is on the estuary of the Mission River and we drove north over the Mission River Bridge - just because we could.  We could see bauxite exposed in the rock strata as we drove along.

After stocking up at the local Woolworths, we were back on the (red dirt) road heading north again.  There are several good campgrounds along the way which we will stay at on our way back southwards.  We're also back in the country with ant-hills several metres high.

We arrived at the Jardine River Ferry about 2.30pm, paid our money ($129 for car+van return), drove onto the ferry and we were soon across the Jardine River.  Sometimes there's a bit of a wait for the ferry (it closes for lunch from 12 to 1pm which can lead to a lengthy queue) but we were lucky and drove straight on.

About an hour later we were setting up camp at Loyalty Beach, one of several large campgrounds with beach frontage, power and water - bush camping with all mod-cons!

It's very relaxing here and is quiet during the day when most campers are off doing touristy things.  The main things to do are to visit The Tip, fishing and a visit to Thursday Island.  The campground restaurant has good meals at reasonable prices and we can vouch for their fish and chips on Sunday evening.  A great way to relax and watch the sunset.  The locals often have crayfish for sale and we've helped out the local economy and bought some.

Our trip to The Tip was uneventful. We stopped off at the Croc Tent which is a souvenir shop run by a young couple and which provides good information on road conditions, weather and things too see.  About 18km further north we passed the remnants of a disused resort and shortly after we parked our car and walked over the ridge to the northernmost point on the mainland.  The 15-20 minute walk was certainly worth it with great views as we rock-hopped up and over the ridge before making our way down to the waters edge.  Islands of the Torres Strait were only a few hundred metres away.  There were plenty of people there, all taking photos as were we.

This is another one to tick off the bucket list - we've now been to the most northerly (Cape York, Qld), most westerly (Shark Bay, WA), most south-westerly (Cape Leeuwin, WA), most southerly (Cape Otway, Vic) and most easterly (Cape Byron, NSW) points on the Australian mainland.

Whilst in the northernmost region, we drove the short distance to Somerset Beach, a very pretty beach with Albany Island about 800m across the water.  Gravesites mark the nearby Jardine homestead. Then it was back to our campsite.

It's so nice up here we've decided to stay for another week.