Not ones to do things the normal way, attacking Cape York was no different. Sitting in Karumba musing over the map, we identified a very vague, dotted, light brown road which basically cut a straight line from where we were sitting to the Musgrave Roadhouse about a third of the way up the peninsula. The backroad route would save us the trip across to Cooktown and hundreds of kilometres, whether it would actually save us time would depend on the condition of the road.
The first hundred or so kilometres was a breeze, the road seemed to be part of some sort of back road tourist trail. But as the decent road veered off to the east, we were staring down a goat track with a gate across it, which appeared to be no more than a property access road. However, there were no "Keep Out" or "Private Road" signs hanging form the gate, nor was it locked, so through we went. We passed through several other gates before crossing a huge river, the crossing was easy but at the other side (going in the other direction) there was a sign saying "do not attempt to cross the Mitchell River"…. oops. But this was only the beginning, a little further on a "road closed" sign hung from a road barrier. We had heard that this road was impassable for some time after rain, however, it had not rained in over four months so the road was unlikely to be boggy or the river crossing flooded. However, it was possible that one of the river crossings was so badly washed out that we would not be able to get across. It was decision time, we had just enough petrol to get to the major river crossing, turn back if we had to and make it out to the main road, at which point we would need to hitch a ride to the next servo to get petrol. Not a great back up plan, but it seemed good enough for us if the road really was impassable, so on we went (round the 'road closed' sign). The road was slow going, but the boggy sections and river crossing were dry and although the washouts were steep, Big Red made it through. It took us almost 10 hours to travel about 400km but it was exciting, the landscapes were amazing and we didn't see another car all day.
Musgrave Roadhouse is the only remaining overland telegraph station on the cape. It is now a petrol station, bar and campground. After our long day, we welcomed the grassy campsite and cold beers. Unfortunately, as we were setting up camp, Rob noticed that there was something wrong with the breaks on the camper. He started to pull them apart and within 10 minutes had attracted a small crown of neighbouring campers. They were actually all extremely helpful and one of them was even a mechanic. With their help, Rob had the breaks sorted out in no time and had even greased the bearings.
The rest of the journey up the cape was fairly uneventful, we did a small section of the Old Telegraph Track (OTT) and camped beside Canal Creek. Jarvis joined some other kids for a swim in the crystal clear water and we watched other cars and motorbikes attempt the river crossing. We also did the crossing the following morning and another section of the OTT. This was not an easy task with a heavy camper trailer, laden with a boat. We then took the car ferry across the Jardine River before finally arriving at Loyalty Beach campground just north of Seisa. It was more beautiful than we could have imagined. It was like arriving at an island paradise. After our exhausting drive from Darwin, across the Gulf and up the cape, we instantly relaxed into Cape York time. For several days we wandered along the beach at sunset, fished off the rocks and ate some of the best fish and chips ever at the makeshift bar on the beach.
We did some exploring too. We walked to the most northern point of Australia, had lunch at Punsand Bay, had treats at the Bamaga Bakery, stopped in at the croc tent and even popped into the Seisa Fishing Club on market day.
When we felt fully rested, we decided to finally turn our rig around and head south. Jarvis was delighted and kept saying "is this the way to Sydney", as he has asked many time on this trip, this time we could finally say, yes. We had planned to camp a few nights at Chillli Beach which is supposed to be beautiful, but dodgy road conditions and a lack of stamina on our behalf, meant we ended up heading straight to Lakefield National Park (via an overnight stop at Coen). The National Park was lovely, but in fact it was as we left the National Park and approached Cooktown that we were blown away by the view. The rolling green mountains, babbling brooks and the starting blue of the ocean in the background were simply amazing. We only stopped in at Cooktown overnight, but were also very impressed by this cute little town set on an amazing river mouth surrounded by rainforest and lush farms.
From Cooktown we took the Bloomfield Track through Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest. To say it was magnificent is an understatement, it is possibly the most amazing drive we have done on this entire trip. The track winds under the rainforest canopy up over steep mountain ranges and down through gorgeous rivers. Sometime we felt like we were above the clouds and other times we would look out our window to see the beach right beside us. At the southern end of the track, we camped at Noah's Beach right in the heart of the Daintree National Park. The campsites are limited so it is nice and quiet and we could wander from our campsite under a rainforest canopy right onto the beach. It was magical, there was even a rope swing under the coconut trees and coconuts for dessert.
After Noah's Beach, the drive was still beautiful but easier going (sealed road) and after crossing over the Daintree River, the thick rainforest slowly gave way to cane fields and small towns, then bigger towns and finally the ritz and glamour of Port Douglass. We only stopped in briefly before heading to Cairns but it felt a world away from the isolated tropical paradise of Cape York and the Daintree. We also looked completely out of place in our clothes, car and trailer all covered in red dirt. It looks like we might need a bit of a clean up before we tackle the civilisations on the east coast.
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