OZ Blog #19 Thursday Island, Loyalty Beach, Cape York and heading south again!

You know you're getting near to the top of Cape York when you come to the Jardine River Ferry, it’s only a short journey but pretty essential as it is definitely croc country.

I think it’s a good earner for the local Aboriginal tribe who run it and it's a very quick service.

Onward to a Camp at Loyalty Beach, this was just after the school holidays, so the place was deserted.

Fabulous beach for walking and doing yoga, which I did.

Apparently the Great Barrier Reef is not so great these days because global warming and other factors are really damaging the reef,

These are washed up on the beach.

Sunsets and sunrises up here are great.

Amazing how these plants run across the sand and do their thing.





A seat with a view to die for....if you go into the water around here!

Some wild horses came browsing through the camp at night and

it was great to view them from up top of the ute as the sun rose.

Fishing off the Wharf at Seisia and this is also where I caught the ferry to Thursday Island.

So named reputedly by Captain William Bligh, as that was the day he first saw it. 

There is also a Wednesday and a Friday in the Prince of Wales Group, but no Saturday Island. 

Here we are in the queue for the boat to Thursday Island, shame it was a Friday.

It’s still a shock for us Kiwis to see armed police on duty.

This pup whimpered all the way across to Thursday Island, but sure got his share of little pats from passers by.

Quite a different feeling on Thursday Island.

This is home of the Torres Straights Islanders, people who are genetically very different to the mainland Aborigines.

These are Australia’s World War 2 defences on the lookout at Green Fort Hill. I took the local tour which was very informative.

 And the views from here were fantastic.

This is a special crayfish boat with holes.

It is towed behind the fishing boat and the crayfish are kept alive and fresh by the constant flow of water through the holes.

Just another dangerous animal to consider in Australia, these ones are small but no less nasty.

History on the footpath.







This sign is at the car park nearest the actual tip of Cape York.

It’s a scramble over a hill and rocks to the Northernmost point in Australia, Cape York.





Very windy, I was careful my hat didn’t blow north from here!

This was a family from Tamworth making the Cape York pilgrimage.

They enjoyed me playing Waltzing Matilda on my whistle.

 Rocks stacked up like playing cards.



The impressive rocks weather quite a lot, and are quite different from the inside, as this split rock shows.

Mangroves or should that be Person Groves on the beach just around the western side of the Cape.



From here the only way out is South, back across the Jardine River. 

I had been told by another friendly traveller of some different routes to take on the way home so I took these.

I saw this flier on Motorcycles Tours and later on I actually came across one of their tours, and this will be in the next blog..

Getting extremely close to home time now.

Catch you in the next Blog. #20

Till then Stay safe, have fun and be Creative.

Cheers

Jimu