The Tippy Top of Australia

Well goodness me! I can now empathise and fully understand why Burke and Wills gave up. I tried walking through a rainforest and only a half a dozen steps in my ankles were encircled by tendrils of God only knows what plants and leaves from pandanis palms and eucalypts were by turn slapping me in the face or entwining themselves in my hair. Forget wearing a hat – that is swiftly removed by the dominant forest and forget slapping away the conspiring insects that inhabit it that are determined to protect themselves by biting you or alternatively feeding on your blood! Half a dozen steps were plenty for me and I wasn’t half starved, dehydrated, and lost. Having said that – they were so very close!

I made my way into rain forest country as I made my way from Chillagoe which is well and truly in the outback, and I started to climb the Great Dividing Range – meaning I was heading towards the east coast and would soon be pointing myself towards home. It was almost suddenly the landscape morphed from the red brown dirt and lethargic eucalypts to lush farming area with the emphasis on lush. All of a sudden, I was among vast citrus orchards, banana plantations and sugar cane farms. The grass was so lush and green on the side of the road t made the sky seem much bluer than it has for a while. I came into a gorgeous little town called Dimbulah perfect for a coffee stop and then onto a larger but not huge town called Mareeba. Perfect for stocking up with food and diesel and then a left turn to head north. The first part of the Cape drive is in the mountains – you go up and down and up and down relentlessly. We did this for a time and then slept in a roadside stop and on Mt Molloy, then up and down again to a remote roadside stop called Lakeside. I was feeling really good about the roads. At Lakeside we took a left turn onto the Peninsular Development Road and then the fun and games began.

It was a very pretty drive again of red dirt and very small eucalypts, but a dusty and rough one. One lesson learnt is if you see a sign that says Burke Development Road or in this case Peninsular Development Road – read UNDEVELOPED!! Of course, to begin with you are lulled into a false sense of security and then the onslaught begins! Intermittently they will have lengths of tarmac and I knew I was getting tired when I saw more gravel coming up and nearly wept! The road becomes gravel which starts in gentle corrugations which deepen the further from civilisation you travel, so that by the end your arm muscles tingle and your teeth jangle. If another car or road train came up or passed you heading in the other direction so much dust would be kicked up that sometimes visibility would be reduced to just the end of your nose. It was with great relief that I found a camp site on a cattle station. There were lots and lots of cars, caravans and campers making their way in there. And we all had the same routine when we got there, we opened our caravan doors and then went back to the vehicle to get the screw drivers and then back to the caravan to screw back on cupboard doors! I cannot believe they build these things, and you pay for a vehicle by its very existence vibrates when being towed and these doors are attached to their frames with the tiniest of screws, I was surprised they had stayed on as long as they had but the corrugations put paid to that! I am so pleased that I had just by pure chance I had bought some longer screws and by the end of the trip I had to buy more!!

I started the next morning thinking forlornly another day of vibrating, but soon got going and into the rhythm again, then suddenly the road stops and you find yourself and this rather rickety looking ferry which is the only way you cross the Jardine River. I must wonder what politics has stopped a bridge being built there but this is your only option and trying to get on there through a very deep dip and then onto the ferry towing a caravan is not easy – suffice to say I did a much better job on the way back than I did on the way into the tippy top of Cape York.

Cape York is under the jurisdiction of a land council, and it is a conglomeration of 2 or 3 rather dispirit areas of civilisation. The main town Bamaga reminded me of a little Asian town but with more modern shops. I had thought once I got over the river the road would improve, but that was not to be the road was certainly not as rough as the middle bits but corrugated nonetheless and I found myself just wanting it to stop. I relished the challenge but needed a couple of days to recover when Mr Bingley and I eventually arrived. I was chatting to a lady behind me in the supermarket and said that I had arrived the day before and was slightly traumatised by the drive and she told me that it took a good week to recover! I really didn’t need that long for I was camped right on the beach so the journey there was quickly forgotten (a bit like childbirth I suppose!!).

I was looking out at the Gulf of Carpentaria and the vanishing point of the vista was through the opening out to the Ocean. I could gaze out at Thursday Island and was intrigued at night to see the lights of civilisation flicking and found myself wondering at the activities going on there, knowing all along they would have been as banal as my own! The sand of the beach was coarse a bit like the sand on the ninety-mile beach and wouldn’t run through my toes like it did in Broome. You were warned to stay away from the edge of the water as a croc had been spotted in the last fortnight. I didn’t need telling twice. On the journey up to the Cape I noticed every time I got out of the car the atmosphere was warmer and more humid and on the Cape the nadir of this is achieved.

The next day Mr Bingley and I got in the car and made our way right up to the very top, which was a curly rough ride of about 20ks. There were a few people there when we got there. I was unprepared for the sense of achievement I felt, and it seemed they were all experiencing the same feeling. It was a lovely feeling of comradeship.

I had 5 nights there on the beautiful beach and everyone of them were beautiful. Blissful! The only shadow was that I knew that the only way out of there was on the same road and that the road would have to be navigated. But it was and then you climb back into the mountains and another left turn back at Mareeba again took me down, down, down the mountain to Cairns. Here I am going to give the caravan and car a big hug and a rest after their fine efforts!