Cape York Adventure Part 2

Giant termite nest at Bramwell Junction

From Weipa we cut east on the Batavia Downs road to the Telegraph Road up to Bramwell Junction. From here the Old Telegraph Track, used by the 4WD adventurers, goes straight north, while the By-pass Road wiggles it’s way north to avoid the deep creek crossings. The road conditions deteriorated with corrugations and some sand so at times we zigzagged across the road looking for the least damaged surface. Sometimes this was outside the road-marking posts along the edge of the bush.

Fruitbat Falls

We camped one night in the bush on a track by the road. This gave us the opportunity to visit Fruit-bat Falls on Eliot Creek near the point where the By-pass crosses the Old Telegraph Track before continuing on to the Jardine River. The Falls are a wide curve of water cascading about 2 metres over a rock shelf with a large swimming hole below them. The water was around 22^o and very refreshing.

Jardine River Ferry

Northern most tip of the continent

We crossed the Jardine River by ferry and made our way to the small townships in the far north where wild horses wander the roads and through the camp grounds. We had got as far as we could go with 2WD vehicles.
We spent 3 days each at Loyalty Beach and at Seisia which are not far apart, and used them as a base to see the surrounding areas. Those of us without 4WDs clubbed together to hire a vehicle to do the last few kilometres up to “The Tip”. The road, winding through tall tropical forest, was narrow and had several deep waterholes which added to the fun.From the end of the road there was a 15min climb over the rocky hill and down to the tip and the famous sign. The view north was of small offshore islands, east was rugged and windblown cliffs & west was a sweeping white beach.
A short drive east took us to Somerset, site of an early attempt to establish a government headquarters in the far north – grand plans which failed but the area became the home of the Jardine family.
A day trip by boat to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait was a highlight of the trip with a tour of the island and a visit to Green Hill Fort est. 1891 with guns which gave coverage of the passages between all the surrounding islands. It is now a museum with fort and pearling industry exhibits. Because of the pearl shell diving, the local population has a multicultural background with many Japanese divers buried on the island. Pearl shell was used for buttons before the invention of plastic.

Some of the islands of the Torres Strait