Cape York – Weipa to Loyalty Beach

Stranded for five days at Weipa could have been slow roasting in a convection oven, but the Weipa Camping Ground made it almost fun. A camping ground/caravan park, it had not only the usual suspects, but a pool, an on-site takeaway and ocean frontage complete with palm trees and sunsets. It’s very much a mining town, a mix of temporary housing and enclaves of up-market residential.

We had been warned that there wasn’t much to do in Weipa. When a single lane bridge over the Mission River is a ‘must see’, then they weren’t wrong. Admittedly, it is the longest single lane bridge in the world, with a couple of give way signs and a ‘first on best dressed’ approach. Used mainly by miners, it would be along wait going against the after work conga line heading back to town.

I’m not sure there’s a colour called Bauxite Red. Unlike say, coal or precious metals, bauxite deposits are usually only between one and twenty metres underground. Because it involves basically scraping it up, environmental degradation is total.

Five days in one place and you can’t help but make a few acquaintances. We reconnected with a couple of parties we had met back at Gregory, who were also cape bound. That, and some transactional alcohol under the shade of a mango tree and the time passed quick enough. Woolies was like an oasis in the retail desert and the pricing was exactly the same as the capital cities.

Ken got his car fixed on the Wednesday morning and we left just on lunch time. The original plan was to get as far as Bramwell Junction then lay up till the next day. And so, the road trip resumed. We had been recommended a short cut back to the PDR via Batavia Downs. The road is well maintained as it provides a link to workers coming from the eastern side of Cape York to work the mines, a distance of only 200klms. There was only one hill to climb and we were able to look back across the sub-tropical savannah before heading inland once again.

Thanks to copious YouTube clips, the sweet siren’s call of Fruit Bat Falls became louder the closer we got to Bramwell Junction. That short cut had saved us an hour and when we arrived at the roadhouse, we still had two hours of daylight left and the falls were only another 120klms further on. Ken had put his money on a large free camp about 10k south of the falls, but the entrance was not sign posted and in the half light left us, we missed it and ended up in a gravel pit 15klms further on. We were up early the next morning. A short run back to the turnoff, five minutes down a dirt track and we were there.

This video clip is special because apparently, the falls are so popular with RV’ers and tourist buses alike, getting an ‘uninterrupted’ view is not easy. We had Fruit Bat Falls to ourselves for the best part of an hour before visitors started to trickle in.

Elliot Falls are also nearby, but the access is more challenging. The lurid description by a trucker of failed attempts to navigate the first creek crossing was enough to dissuade Ken from having a go, at least for now.

There is a certainty that things will break or malfunction if you bounce them around too much or attempt to run over things that should be avoided. The latter being the case this time as an Anderson plug powering the sway control on the caravan was emphatically removed from the rear of the Landcruiser by the wreckage of a tyre. Now with more time up our sleeve, and a renewed sense of urgency, we decided to push on across the ferry at Jardine River and onto Barmaga.

Never before in human history have so few, paid so much, for so little. $250.00 for a round trip 50 metre crossing! Ken had not even rolled to a complete stop before the boom gate opened at the other end. To add insult to injury, the main road after the ferry had been closed for about 15klm to upgrade and bitumen, so Ken was left to navigate a goat track. Eventually we reached Barmaga where repairs were effected for the princely sum of only $15.00. Loyalty Beach was only a few minutes away. Good time management will give us seven days here. Let’s see what we can find!