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

OZ Blog #18 Cafe 64 Dimbulah, Macleod River, Hann. River Roadhouse & Moreton Telegraph Station.

Now I was heading north proper, I did however want to catch up with Owen Davies whose book I’d bought about his outback adventures with dingoes and working on the very remote NT station called Pungalina.

He had written 2 books one called “Walking with Dingoes" and the other called “Camp 64” about walking solo from Camoooweal to the Birdsville track through the Simpson desert, a journey of 1000 km using 9 goats as pack animals.

After having stepped back from station life he still has plans for further adventures.

Camp 64 is a cafe in Dimbulah, its set up as a mini Museum of an outback station.

I was lucky to call in at lunch time and was able to join Owen for a chat over lunch.

On I cruised towards Cape York and heading for Cooktown.

Here I am wearing a replica Captain Cook hat from the small museum on the Main Street.

This is the building which houses the James Cook Museum.



In the garden I spotted this amazing flowering plant.

Which then expands into this....

Quite a modern impressive building on the inside.

With Aboriginal artifacts upstairs.

This is a field radio used by the Japanese in World War 2, later used on a Cape York cattle station.

Unique playing cards from the early miners days.

Captain James Cook struck the Great Barrier reef quite a bit south of Cooktown. 

He had to jettison a lot of weight to get afloat and off the reef, and Cooktown was the perfect harbour to make the necessary repairs.

A visit to the “Top Pub” revealed an Australian Rules game about to start, so I took in the ambience...and the tattoos.

No “F” in Crefit.....yeah Mate!

Below is the Archer Point area south of the actual point.

I felt like Robinson Crusoe, on a desert island.

A valuable lesson learnt here....don’t sleep in an open air swag under a coconut tree, 

This coconut landed 10ft away overnight!

This is Archer Point, from the other side (north).



At Elim Beach an early morning walk up the beach to see the coloured sands revealed dog prints.

No other human feet along the beach except mine.

So I presumed these were dingo, I had heard two weeks before that a woman had been attacked by dingos on Cape York Peninsula.

So I picked up a stout stick just in case....

The dingo tracks lead up into the sands and I quickly headed in there to take these photos.

Anyway no actual dingoes spotted, which was lucky, I think!
Onward north to the Hann River Roadhouse, which had this very tame Emu hanging around most of the time. And what a fabulous sound they make.

Because of their knee joints, this is how they sit down and rest.

This was a free camping spot at Macleod River.

Howzat for a campfire meal....and toasted crumpets for afters.

Back on the road to the tip.

Some things stay the same ... some things change.

This was my near miss coconut.

I never thought I would be eating a coconut I picked up from the ground.

Here I am going into Moreton Telegraph Station, I’d had no Telstra signal for a couple of days.

And this was smoko time, Yeah mate, cell phones dominate where ever you go in today's world.

I happened to be wearing my NZ Unicycle tshirt...

and I was therefore challenged to ride around their nice grassy area.

This is the Wenlock River, definitely croc infested...I stayed well clear.

I asked after I saw these fresh grass shoots, if they had recently had rain. No was the reply, but when a low scrub fire goes through there are always some fresh grass shoots.

They had their own little museum displaying these early contraptions.

Steve Irwin’s Wildlife trust has a connection to this place.

Another Station called Bramwell just up the road was also another great place to stop for the night.

This is further up at a day visit only place called Fruit Bat Falls. 

The guys cooling off while they have a cold one!

A True Blue Ozzie and his hat are rarely parted,

 While the ladies do things in a more gentile way.

Ants are everywhere....nature doesn’t mind!

That’s enough photos for this Blog...on with the next one.

Till then, stay safe, have fun and be creative.

Still heading north for the tip of the Cape!

Cheers

Jimu