To the Tip - Cape York Adventure

We have just completed a fabulous trip to the very northernmost part of mainland Australia - the tip of Cape York.

We started from Cairns in our kitted out Nissan Patrol and drove to meet the rest of the convoy in Townsville.

Then we started a 20 day odyssey along some of the toughest 4WD tracks in Australia.No Peninsular Development Road for us - it merely sends you crazy with the corrugations!

The first of these tracks was the Old Laura Coach Road, a track through the Palmer River Goldfields region built in the days of the 1800s goldrush in Queensland.The track has not been maintained and was challenging to say the least.One stretch took 7 hours over a distance of about 70km.Washaways, deep ruts, creek crossings, steep hills with sheer drops alongside, deeply rutted and steep descents were all par for the course.Once that was accomplished, we felt we could handle anything.

And we did.The next challenge was the Old Telegraph Track - narrow roads, in many places along the top of the Great Divide, deep creek crossings with interesting entry and exit points, narrow half-missing log bridges. Rocky track, sandy track, dusty track, steep track, simply washed-away track - we had it all.

So on and up through Lakefield, Coen, Musgrave and Morton Telegraph Stations, Archer River and Bamaga.

At the tip, we relaxed for three days in the one place at Punsand Bay camping ground.Up till then we had put up our tent every night and packed it away every morning - we needed a break from that.A boat trip to Thursday and Horn Islands, with some fishing on the way there and back, was a great change from the driving and the dust.

Then it was back a different way.A visit to Lockhart River, Chili Beach and Portland Roads (yes, the name of a very small settlement, which had, of all things, a café!) and on to Lakefield again.Through to Cooktown the hard way via the coast road, a track that has been "improved" by a dozer, but which in fact had been ruined by this attention.

From Cooktown the last big track was the Creb Track through the Daintree.In the dry, it is s serious 4WD track with the most incredible ups and downs, but in the wet, the clay top of the track becomes so slippery that vehicles lose all traction and the road becomes positively lethal.Knowing this, we watched the distant rain clouds with singular interest while we were carefully negotiating some parts of the track that were damp from a shower a few days before.

But all went well and we finished a great 20 days in Daintree Village.All thanks to our tour leader Dave Olsen who made the whole trip a truly memorable one.