Cape York

Well, today’s the day. Just over 30klms to go. We saw the cape from Loyalty Beach when we arrived. There was no way we weren’t going to make it our first order of business the next day. Up till this moment, the landscape had been pretty much open savannah or sub-tropical woodlands (pandanus palms and gum trees). We had barely left the caravan park and the canopy started to close in over our heads.

It had rained the night before and the air was cool and alive with birdlife. The morning sun dappled the rainforest and the road was as I had imagined – firm and compressed like concrete…..well most of it any way. We had one little challenge, a creek crossing befitting any adventure ride, probably deliberately, just to keep the adrenaline pumping.

Impressively deep and rugged, it was our last ‘test’ before we arrived at the carpark ten minutes later. While we left early for the cape, we were by no means alone.

One of those all-terrain 20 seater buses had beaten us to it, not to mention the fifty or so tourists who had been zodiaked off a nearby cruise ship. It wasn’t planned, but the low tide made for an walk around to the tip an easy option to clambering the walking track over the last ridge.

After the obligatory victory photos, I climbed that ridge track to get a better view.

The high clouds were moving fast across the blue sky and it was heating up -fast. There was more to explore on the run back and we first tuned off to the to what was the historic hamlet of Somerset.

There wasn’t anything left save some rusty tin sheds, a tiny graveyard and a memorial. Five minutes further on the dirt road emptied out onto small cliff top and the ocean to the horizon . At Somerset Lookout, there was plenty of room to park a rig and fortune will favour the brave, The entrance to the channel was roiling as current and tide fought for supremacy.

A quick look at the map and we were off to Larau Beach. We bumped a 4WD enthusiast who thankfully advised to NOT turn left at the fork, but the fork in the road was on the headland itself and we were happy enough to look down on the beach and the rapidly incoming tide.

There were dirt tracks leading off in all directions today, but we figured we seen the essentials and a bit more. Now that was off the bucket list, we could spend the next few days doing a bit of fishing, a bit of exploring and a bit of not much.