The effort of getting to the northern tip of Australia is an adventure that comes with a sense of accomplishment.
After crossing the Jardine River on a ferry ride that lasts a minute and is arguably the priciest in the country, we’re finally on the home stretch to Cape York.
The northern peninsula area of Far North Queensland comprises five Indigenous communities and it’s from the town of Bamaga that our Outback Spirit group launches its assault on the place that locals call ‘Pajinka’.
We’ve comfortably driven more than 1,000km in a 4WD coach to reach this point, starting our journey in Cairns before travelling up through the Daintree rainforest to Cape Tribulation.
After tackling the Bloomfield Track into Cooktown, we carried on through the Rinyirru National Park to Musgrave, joining the Peninsula Development Road that continues on to Weipa.
By that stage, we’d merged with the dust-coated traffic travelling north to the Cape, though motorists on the road proved to be surprisingly few and far between.
At the Bramwell Junction Roadhouse, we opted to continue north along the Bamaga Road instead of taking the jarring Old Telegraph Track, pausing for a few hours before we reach the Jardine River to cool off in the crocodile-free pools beneath Fruit Bat Falls.
The crocodile-free Fruit Bat Falls. Photo Tourism and Events Queensland.
The roads up until this point had been agreeably cooperative and what’s become obvious is that many stretches have been recently graded, levelling the corrugations that can often plague this track.
But just at the point where I’d begun to daydream about attacking the drive in a Toyota Corolla – or perhaps in a Baby Austin, like the one driven by two New Zealanders when they became the first motorists to make it to Cape York in 1928 – the shuddering reality of off-road motoring jolts me back in my seat.
From Bamaga, the 33km, single-lane track to ‘The Tip’, as I hear it called throughout the journey, is arguably the roughest bit of road since we left Cairns.
That doesn’t stop one ambitious motorist from dragging a caravan along behind, despite there being no place to camp upon arrival. Most of those who have towed vans and trailers this far tend to leave them back in town.
The turn-back point for the less determined is at The Croc Tent, a roadside souvenir store stocking anything and everything related to the region, including crocodile snowdomes and novelty underwear.
Especially popular are garish fishing polos that are worn like uniforms in this part of the world.
From thereon in, the track deteriorates as it passes through pockets of rainforest inhabited by one of the last remaining cassowary populations in Queensland. But while we don’t manage to spot one of these rare, flightless birds, we do come across teams of wild brumbies, as well as the occasional stray dog. Both are common up here.
The tip of Cape York. Photo Tourism and Events Queensland.
After rocking and rolling through a tricky creek crossing, we pass by the decaying remains of the Cape York Wilderness Lodge that closed for renovations in 2002 then never reopened.
Unless someone has the fortitude and finances to resurrect it, it will slowly be absorbed back into the jungle.
The track eventually delivers us to a gravel parking area beside the sweeping sands of Frangipani Bay.
From here, there’s no alternative; to make it to the cape, we must walk up and over a rocky headland.
Two young bucks we pass along the way are already walking back. Each of them nurses an opened can of beer. We’ve barely digested breakfast.
After a 600m hike that affords stupendous views over a deceptively idyllic-looking bay that’s actually riddled with sharks and crocodiles, we reach a summit cairn containing a brass direction dial.
It tells me that I’m 3,020km from my home in Melbourne and just 160km from Papua New Guinea.
Hidden beyond a ridge somewhere, less than 200m from the cairn, is the northernmost point on the Australian mainland.
Taking in the view from the tip of Cape York (Pajinka). Photo Tourism and Events Queensland.
As I descend towards The Tip, three blokes in near-as-identical outfits cast lures into the water from a rocky shelf above the shoreline.
Nearby, a green sea turtle pops its head out of the water and three unhurried dolphins swim by. Crocodiles have been known to cruise past here on occasions.
I eventually reach a bullet-riddled sign, declaring: ‘You are now standing at the northernmost point of the Australian continent’.
I was prepared for this moment to be anti-climactic, but it’s a picturesque spot, right beside milky, turquoise-coloured waters and across from York and Eborac islands – two of several hundred islands scattered throughout the Torres Strait.
For me, the trip has always been less about reaching The Tip and more about the adventure of getting there, taking in the sights and savouring each experience along the way.
Of those, there were plenty.
Nearby, a green sea turtle pops its head out of the water and three unhurried dolphins swim by. Crocodiles have been known to cruise past here on occasions.
I eventually reach a bullet-riddled sign, declaring: ‘You are now standing at the northernmost point of the Australian continent’.
I was prepared for this moment to be anti-climactic, but it’s a picturesque spot, right beside milky, turquoise-coloured waters and across from York and Eborac islands – two of several hundred islands scattered throughout the Torres Strait.
For me, the trip has always been less about reaching The Tip and more about the adventure of getting there, taking in the sights and savouring each experience along the way.
Of those, there were plenty.
But I also don’t mind the fact that you have to work up a little bit of a sweat to get here. As far as I’m concerned, that makes it all the more worthy.
Regardless, I’m not about to miss the chance to take a selfie next to the sign – something that everyone else does, as well.
A few years back, I did something similar during a cruise through the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America.
At one stage, I stood at the point they call El Fin del Mundo, or ‘The End of the World’.
It’s not nearly as dramatic here, though it’s certainly emotional.
The author was a guest of Outback Spirit (outbackspirittours.com.au).