Cape York Adventure - Part 1

When I started to write this page I realized that there was so much to tell, it would have to be done in several parts.

Seven vehicles with 13 people set off for the top

In early August we met up with some old friends and some new ones to start our big adventure to the tip of Cape York, the northern-most point on the continent. The trip was to take four weeks and on day 2 we were already off the sealed roads onto gravel only occasionally relieved by very short sections of seal which became more and more scarce as we traveled north.

Ancient aboriginal rock paintings

An early highlight of the trip was a stop at Split Rock to look at ancient aboriginal rock paintings up on the hillside above the highway. The paintings are quite accessible after a climb up towards the sandstone bluff and are in good condition with interpretive signage.

Roadworks on the Peninsula
 Development Road

Roadhouses occur at well spaced intervals along the route north, usually near a river crossing and they have fuel, food, basic supplies, and often a hotel licence. They usually provide unpowered camp spots and amenities blocks and some have basic motel rooms. There are no towns to pass through other than Coen, so the roadhouses do a good trade during the tourist season but have to survive the wet season when there is no traffic and they can be cut off by flood waters. They all have walls of flood photos interspersed with giant crocodile and wild boar pics.
Two nights were spent beside the river at Coen and one at Archer River and at both these spots we could relax in the cool river water as there were no crocodiles.

Archer River in the dry season

Fifty Kilometres north of Archer River, the Peninsula Development Road veers off to the north-west and the bauxite mining town of Weipa, while the Telegraph Road continues almost straight north to Bramwell Junction.

Bauxite mining- dirty, dusty work

We went to Weipa and spent two nights taking a bus tour of one of the bauxite mine sites which included a tour of the township and plenty of warnings about the local crocodile population. Bauxite is found in a layer 5 -7 metres deep just under the topsoil and is just scooped up and loaded into huge trucks and after minimal grading, is loaded onto a short rail track to the dock then transferred to ships to go to refineries to become aluminium. Bauxite is terracotta red – and so is everything else in the area because of the dust. Under the bauxite layer is ironstone – almost the same colour – and it is used to build and repair most of the roads on the Cape York Peninsula so everything on the roadside has a red coating of dust. Actually the western side of the road is red; the eastern side is green as the area receives the prevailing south-eastern trade winds most of the season.

Sunset at Weipa