Bamaga to The Tip

Thursday 19^th September 2013

Feeling refreshed after yesterday's rest day I set off for the Tip of Cape York, the northernmost point of the Australian Continent, known to the Aborigines as Pajinka.

Passing through Bamaga I took a brief detour to see a couple of WW2 plane wrecks nearby; first was a DC3 which crashed in May 1945, killing all 6 occupants:

Nearby there was also a Bristol Beaufort bomber, which had a tree growing through its tailfin:

The road up to the Tip was dirt most of the way, but in a reasonable state of repair and it didn't take too long to cover the 35kms up there. On the way I stopped off at the Croc Tent, the northernmost shop on the Australian continent, for the obligatory souvenir T shirt:

During the past 2 weeks I'd heard much talk of the feral pigs that are supposed to be a big nuisance on the Cape York Peninsula, however this little piglet, in an enclosure with a not very lifelike croc, was the only one I saw during my visit:

The final approach to the Tip was through rainforest and the road became quite narrow:

The access road ends abruptly about 500m from the Tip and you have to clamber over an ill-defined path through the rocks to get there. It was quite tricky manoeuvering the bike across these rocks but I had to get a photo with it:

The sign is a bit disappointing, you would think that they could have put something a bit bigger there:

Opposite are Eborac and York Islands, two of the many islands of the Torres Strait. Papua New Guinea is about 180km to the north.

                       
                                        View to the south, along the rocky access path

I then headed in an easterly direction to see the remains of Somerset, which was originally the administrative hub of the Cape York Peninsula but which was abandoned in favour of Thursday Island and subsequently left to fall into ruins. There was very little left to see there apart from some cannons, and a few gravestones along the rather nice beach, which faces east towards Albany Island:

So, mission accomplished, I then headed back to Loyalty Beach where I'm planning to spend a few more days. I want to visit Thursday Island, and am planning to return to Cairns on the freighter ship which runs weekly. Then I'm going on a ride around the Atherton Tablelands and also some rides around Townsville and elsewhere in Queensland, as I work my way back down south. Thanks for reading so far, please visit the blog again for further updates which will be posted in due course.


Distance today was 112kms, giving a final trip total of 1224kms.