Heading North

Babinda

After leaving Hervey Bay we stayed at a brilliant free campsite in Babinda (just outside Cairns) that had free toilets and showers and a huge grassy area next to a creek. Loads of people were camped there including grey nomads and backpackers, and everyone was really friendly. There was a real sense of community with groups of people strumming guitars and singing, or playing soccer.

Cape York

For those of you who have never heard of Cape York (I certainly hadn’t before we started researching our trip), it is a large remote peninsula in Far North Queensland. There are a range of different landscapes in Cape York including large sections of tropical rainforest, dry eucalypt-wooded savannahs, huge mountain ranges and stunning waterfalls. It is a mostly unspoiled wilderness area, and was one of the last corners of Australia to be explored by European settlers. Of course, Aboriginal people had inhabited Cape York for about 50,000 years before white people came along. Now the population is about 18,000, with 60% of that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Cape York is now made up of Aboriginal land, mining lease land, and National Parks. The Aboriginal land is separated into different shires, and each shire or community has different rules about who can enter and how much alcohol (if any) you are allowed to take into that area. I was surprised to learn that huge fines and jail sentences apply if you are caught with more than the allowance! Though we didn’t meet anyone who had had their car searched.

The distance from Cairns to the tip of Cape York is 1085 Km. It doesn’t sound like that far, but the road conditions mean that it takes a long time to drive. Dust, potholes, creek crossings, corrugations, livestock and native animals on the road are all things to watch out for. Corrugations are ripples that run across the road and they shake your vehicle like you are driving over thousands of mini speed bumps! Most of the top end is accessed only by four-wheel drive vehicles, and in the wet season a lot of the roads are completely impassable. Supplies and groceries are delivered to towns via plane or boat.

We drove on the Peninsular Development Road up the middle of Cape York, passing through tiny settlements and roadhouses every couple of hundred kilometres. The roadhouses previously functioned as telephone exchanges on an old telegraph line, and are now places for travellers to top up fuel and camp for the night. The food on offer usually consists of greasy hamburgers and unidentifiable fried food, but the staff are always friendly and willing to share local knowledge. We stopped just outside the town of Laura at Split Rock to see some amazing Aboriginal rock paintings, then camped at the Musgrave roadhouse overnight. From Musgrave we drove through Coen and Archer River all the way to Weipa.

Weipa

Our first major stop was in Weipa, which is a mining town and fishermen’s mecca on the west coast of Cape York. It is the peninsula’s largest settlement, and it was our last chance to access a major supermarket before heading into the really remote areas. However, the Woolworths there received deliveries only twice a week by boat, so the food was not that fresh! Apparently to get fresh milk and bread you have to be there on Monday or Friday, which we weren’t.

There was only one campsite in Weipa and it was packed with travelers either heading up to Cape York or coming back. It was interesting to see the set-ups that other people had, including a range of 4WDs, camper trailers, rooftop campers and even motorbikes with swags. There was a real feeling of camaraderie amongst everyone, like it was a rite of passage to do this adventurous trip. There weren’t any grey nomads (though there were some older people doing it in groups) and there were definitely no backpackers up here! A lot of people were travelling with their families, which looked like a lot of work. Some groups had taken things a step further with their set-ups, and had things like ‘Team Kent 4WD’ and ‘Cape York 2014’ written in stickers on their vehicles. In some ways it felt pretty cool to be a part of it all, in other ways I felt a bit out of place amongst the macho Aussie blokes and rough looking sheilas! It was definitely all part of the experience though, and it was interesting to see this subculture of hardcore four-wheel drivers.

Weipa was a great place to take the boat out, with a large river mouth and plenty of small creeks to explore. We saw a crocodile and two sharks on our first day out on the water! I caught my first fish of the trip, a small school mackerel, and we had a delicious dinner that night.