“You are standing at the northernmost point of the Australian continent.”

The Germ of an Idea – In Winter 2017, we were caretaking at a caravan park in Tasmania. Fed up of howling winds, torrential rain and the biting cold, we started dreaming of warmer climes. Many of the guests at the park were from Queensland but they were trying to escape the heat! We had driven to the southern most point of Australia, Cockle Creek in Tasmania. Therefore why not drive to the northern most point of Australia, Cape York in Queensland. So began the initial research into achieving this goal.

In October 2017, Jude had a phone call with Sue, a friend from Perth. They discussed Cape York and that led to the idea of Sue and her husband Doug joining us.

In November 2017, we had to return to Perth for Jude to have knee replacement surgery and Cape York was put on the back burner. However recovery was quicker and easier than expected so Cape York was back on!! The end of May, beginning of June 2018 was chosen to head up and hopefully beat the crowds

Planning and Preparation – We decided to leave our caravan at Mount Carbine Caravan Park and head up in our Nissan Patrol and sleep in our Oztent RV-2. The caravan park had a deal where you could leave your caravan for free as long as you stayed there, the night before and after doing Cape York. Many other parks charged between $6 and $12 per night. That was money better spent on fuel as we were facing much higher prices in the Cape. Ray had the car fully serviced and checked out to make sure it would survive the many gravel and corrugated roads we would encounter. We bought a roof rack luggage bag so we could store our tent and other equipment.

Sue and Doug were driving across from Western Australia and visiting various friends and family along the way. We met them in Cairns at the Big 4 Coconut Caravan Park.

Now the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that there were 6 of us in the picture taken at the tip…….well read on McDuffs!

On our journey to Cairns we spent a night camped at the back of the General Gordon pub in the middle of the cane fields near Mackay. There was only one other van there. Whilst having a drink in the beer garden, the chap from the van joined us. His name was Shane and he too was travelling around Australia. We enjoyed a couple of beers, much laughter and shared tales of our travels. The next morning we went our separate ways.

A few days later, Jude found a message on her phone. It was Shane and he was asking if he and his friend Kerry could join us on the trek to Cape York. Shane had been as far as Weipa but never to the tip. Ray and I discussed Shane’s request and sent a message to Sue and Doug. We actually managed to catch up with them in Ingham later that day and decided, why not, the more the merrier! Unless of course Shane was an axe murderer!! Well you are reading this story so some of us must have lived to tell the tale!

We all met up in Cairns where we spent a few days sorting out details for the trip. Shane was also going to leave his caravan at Mount Carbine. The day before we left Cairns and civilisation, we all decided to go on the Kuranda Scenic Rail and Skyrail. Wow, what an amazing experience and the town of Kuranda is beautiful. We went up on the train and down on the Skyrail. The Scenic Railway rises from sea level to 328m, passing spectacular waterfalls including the stunning Barron Gorge. The Skyrail is a 7.5 km scenic cableway running above the Barron Gorge National Park, in the Wet Tropics of Queensland’s World Heritage Area. Highly highly recommend doing this trip.

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO – THE JOURNEY TO THE TIP/TOP!