Right at The Tip

It's certainly worth the drive.

We did it! We clambered to the northernmost part of Australia, stood beneath the sign, and were photographed by one of the many other people there. We’d battled over 34km of one of the worst roads we’d encountered, but finally reached Pajinka (The Tip) along with 2 4WD tour buses and a host of other vehicles.

Midway we started hearing a beeping sound which we finally identified when we stopped as an alarm from the power system. Basically, our solar charging system was sending out alarms all over the place and there was no power for anything.

After we’d done our rock clamber we hastened back to the campsite where a full investigation showed that one of the VERY expensive gel batteries used to power all the lights, fridges, water pump, toilet system in the motorhome had a crack in its top so unless we have 240V power plugged in, we have no power (unless we crank up the generator).

However, these things happen and we’ll manage until we get back to Cairns or Cooktown (whichever has a replacement battery).

Schoolkids swarming around the vehicle ahead of
us at the carwash.

Just after we returned to camp, some of the local schoolchildren came round touting for custom for a car wash they were holding at a nearby service station, trying to raise $50,000 to take 25 Year 7 kids to Brisbane on an excursion.

As the motorhome hadn’t had a bath for 7 weeks and was particularly filthy, we took it over there and they did a splendid job for $35.

Tomorrow we’ll set off south, hoping to make Cooktown in about 3 days.

Yesterday we were among 14 passengers on a small boat that took us to Thursday Island then on to Horn Island. We thoroughly enjoyed our day, even though the chap that showed us around TI (as the locals call it) was just a maxi taxi driver and like many taxi drivers, just wanted to air his opinions about the world and public servants!

We had enough free time to enjoy the town and its tropical atmosphere and soak up some of the history before we went across a channel to Horn Island, which is where the airport is, and the main maritime loading facility. Little ferries run between the two centres but of course we were in our own Cape York Adventures catamaran.

We had lunch there, then had time to enjoy the wonderful museum put together by a local woman, featuring a lot of the World War II history of the area, with a stunning collection of photos, as well as the general island group history.

The main part of Thursday Island town, from the hilltop fort
built by the British in the 1890s.

The boat trip took about 1.5 hours each way, with a slight deviation on the way over when the skipper, a young man whose Dad runs a local pearl farm, spotted seabirds diving on a school of mackerel, so he set two trolling lines from the back of the boat.  But the school moved away so he took in the lines eventually and we ploughed on through the many islands.

We’d already seen people using nets to catch bait fish (herring) off the Seisia jetty. The water was just teeming with these little fish and when we sit outside the van, right on our beachfront site, we see mackerel leaping all over the place.

Just on the sand behind us is a helicopter landing place where Cape York Helicopters have been taking tourists for scenic flights for some hours. They’ve now flown home to Thursday Island.

I’m writing this sitting outside watching the sunset and two of the local scrub turkeys have just wandered past. Yesterday one of the local horses wandered through the campground. While some places have stray dogs, Bamaga and Seisia seem to have stray horses. They live in groups by the road and all seem well-fed and happy.