Weipa - Bramwell Station - Seisa - Cape York (The Tip) - Thursday Island

Weipa was a lot nicer than expected, we had a really nice grassy campsite on the beach front and the sunsets were lovely. We were also lucky enough to see a dingo that came within 3 mts of our tent.

Weipa is a mining town , Bauxite is mined to produce aluminium. We took a tour of the mine which was quite interesting.

The hospitality in Weipa was interesting ................ we were greeted at the bowls club bar with

 "wadda yers want"

After Weipa we headed to Bramwell Station where we had a nice meal with a bonus as they had satellite TV and Mark got to watch Geelong thrash Collingwood .......... (sorry Michael & Leah, had to mention it) Not long after we left Bramwell Station we came across this large snake on the road. He wasn't happy about us checking him out  and was rearing up at the car.

All through our travels of the Northern Territory there has been controlled burning but we were surprised to see so much burning going on in such isolated areas of FNQ , this photo was taken along the Old Telegraph Track, the fire was vey close to the road.

 

One of the highlights of the trip was Eliot Falls and Fruit Bat falls, spectacular waterfalls that were safe to swim as the crocs can't climb the rocks to get to those areas.

What a welcome relief this was to wash off some of the dust and cool down, with no showers at this campground we were glad to be able to have this swim.

Seisa was the next stop, a really windy spot, very warm and once again a campground on a lovely beach but it was a no go zone, apparently a large croc patrolled the beach most days.

We were almost there only 35 klms to "The Tip" .

Early the next day we headed off early for the last part of the trek.

We made it !

Before we headed back down we decided to do a trip to Thursday Island........... we had lunch at the most northern pub in Australia and there were some lovely views but it was all a bit underwhelming.

We headed back down the next day ................ it took us ten days to get to  " The Tip " but only two days to get back down !!!

The next couple of days were spent at Wonga beach cleaning red dust from everything.

We will now start heading south along the coast ............Cairns (again - 4th visit ) .......then on to  Bowen.

Cape Tribulation - Bloomfield Track to Cooktown - Archer River

Without power for 2 weeks . I have a bit of catching up to do.
Before we left Wonga Beach we had a visitor that made the rounds of the rubbish bins ........ it gave us quite a fright to stumble across him.

Well, we headed out with great expectations......at every opportunity we spoke to travellers about the trip to Cape York.......we were getting responses of  "great adventure.......it's a different world up there......you'll love it ".  We now think that the people we spoke to were possibly on drugs or there is something in the water that is making them delusional.
Reflecting on the 1600 klms of  dirt road, bad corrugations and red dust, it's not a trip that we will be doing again ..............but, it is something that we can tick off our bucket list.............We reached "The Tip". 
On one of our pre trip discussions with fellow travellers they were telling us about the 35 klm trip on a narrow bumpy road from Seisa to the tip.............I was thinking to myself  "gosh these people are very environmentally aware to be going to all that trouble to get rid of their rubbish" .............fortunately I didn't say anything as I would have looked like a real dill as they were talking about Cape York , also referred to as "The Tip".........I wasn't on my own, Mark was also thinking along the same line as me.
Our first stop was Cape Tribulation, a lovely caravan park right on the beach (another beautiful beach with lovely warm water that you can't swim at because of the crocs) our first night in the tent..............we are very pleased with our 30 second Oztent  .....it really does take only 30 seconds to put it up !

Next stop was Cooktown via the Bloomfield track , a good drive through the rain forest , a few creek crossings and steep mountain climbs. On this road we came across a cyclist who waved us down, he had broken his chain , him and his mate were riding from the southern most point to the northern most point of Australia in 38 days fundraising for prostate cancer. What a gruelling ride, they certainly need to be commended on their dedication...... their blog www.upunder2011.com

On the way there were some nice boardwalks through the rainforests.

Cooktown was smaller than we expected and as we were there on a Sunday most tourist destinations were closed ( tourism in FNQ leaves a lot to be desired ) The James cook Museum was open and we found it very interesting, it is housed in the original mercy convent , a beautiful building that has been restored.

Next destination was Kalpowar crossing via Battlecamp road ..........our first creek crossing took us to Isabella falls a very pretty spot.

The Old Laura Homestead was an interesting stop, living in such isolation must have been tough.

Our camp spot for the night was a national park bush camp, dust and cold showers and lots of little rocket frogs , we were tempted to paddle in the nearby waterway until the rangers came along and told us some horror stories about croc attacks........a cold shower to cool down was a much better choice.

The rangers suggested fishing from behind a tree as it would give you some protection if a croc came at you.................fishing at this location wasn't exactly relaxing !

On our way to the next stop Archer River Roadhouse we came across White Lily Lagoon.

Archer River Roadhouse have a good grassy campground but they let the cattle graze there to keep the grass down so before you can set up the cow pats have to be shovelled from the area ........ahhh the joys of camping.

Archer River