The trip to the tip.

This is a rather adventurous story of a flight I did a few years ago to the tip of Cape York. Cape York has the land mass the size of England with the population of a large town. You could call it Frontier country. A lot of it is either National Park or Aboriginal Land and a lot of it is untouched.

In the tropical North we have two seasons, a wet and a dry. To travel up to the tip you really should travel in the dry season as the wet season makes roads impassable, there is a high chance of monsoonal rains and cyclones which can cut towns off for weeks and the roads are just plain bad. Even in the dry season if you want to drive you have to battle the bull dust, millions of corrugations and washouts that will swallow a truck.

The month before I flew up to the tip, I had driven my six wheeler Landcruiser up there with a group of motorcyclists and towed a trike halfway up before I gave up as it wasn't doing any good for the aircraft. I left it at a small roadhouse called Musgrave Station where it would be secure before I came back to retrieve it.

After a quite eventful trip up and back I left the trike there and headed back to Cairns. Then one month later I would fly my Airborne Streak to Musgrave and pick up the Binnacle and continue up to the tip.

I had a South African instructor working for me then named Nigel and on a beautiful morning we departed from Mareeba airport and headed north for our first stop at Palmer River Roadhouse. It was a magnificent flight there with mountains up to 4500 feet to the east and relatively flat country to the West. We were basically flying up the edge of the western side of the Great Dividing Range.

We reached the Palmer River Roadhouse and after a good fly over of the area we decided to land on the old airstrip that is just beside the main road. I had landed there once before and knew Louie and his wife who owned the roadhouse. As we taxied in through the gate to the roadhouse, which is quite narrow, we had to drop 1 wing and raise the other so we could clear obstacles. Lucky we had a trike! We pulled up at the bowser and filled her up.

As per usual we got the dumb looks of the tourist as well as the dumb questions. After filling it up we then taxied back to the airstrip and headed for our next destination. Off we went down the Palmer River towards Maytown and to another airstrip at Palmerville. With all these big names you would think it is a thriving metropolis. It is far from it. You are now in real frontier country, the Real Australian Outback. The country is very rough and if you have a problem with the plane, you are in deep *%$9*.

We got to what we thought was Maytown as it is very hard to find as it is nearly all but disappeared as it ran out of gold years ago and most of the buildings have burnt down.

We arrived at Palmerville about 40 minutes after leaving the roadhouse and started looking for the dirt bike riders that we were going to meet up with. They had already left their camping spot so we headed north and found them up the road a couple of miles. There was an Airstrip further up at Fairlight station so we landed there and put some fuel in.

A couple of the locals came to see if we were alright as we were circling for a while to make sure the strip was ok. The dirt bike riders turned up and we had a bit of a chat and then off we went again.

The next stop was Laura. Laura is a small town on the Developmental Rd and we landed at the excellent airstrip but then had taxied up to the Post office/petrol station to get some fuel. I think everyone from the town came out to take a photo.

After filling up we went to the Ranger station at Lakeland National Park and had a good look around the local area. We were now well ahead of the bikes so we just took it easy. After a cup of tea with the Ranger we were off again.

The view here is fantastic as we flew alongside Princess Charlotte bay. The colours were amazing as well as the patterns that the rivers made as they flowed towards the sea.

As we tracked west, I noticed a very large airstrip which I thought we might as well land at and say hello. As we landed a couple came out and invited us in for a cuppa as well as cake. They actually ran a mini resort but had closed it down for reservations so one day I will go back and stay there.

I remembered driving up this way only a month earlier and I can tell you; it was a lot more comfortable flying the trike up there.

Our next stop was Musgrave station and if you blink at the wrong time, you will miss it. It only has 4 buildings and is surrounded by flat scrubby country. This is where I had left the other trike.

We landed at about 4 o'clock and were way in front of the bikes so we went and got the other trike and started sorting out all of our gear. Nigel was to fly the Streak back and I was going to continue with the bikes up the Cape.

After packing all of our gear and checking over the binnacle we then relaxed and had a good feed as well as some beers.

The next morning Nigel took of, heading for Mareeba, which took him just four hours. It usually takes a car at least 8 hours because of the road.

I took of later for my journey to Moreton Telegraph station. This was once a very busy place as the telegraph from England use to pass through here and was relayed to other stations north or south. Now it is a caravan park and marks the start of the official telegraph track. This track is as rough as guts and claims many good four wheel drives. My first stop was Coen airport. The weather was quite warm at about 35 degrees Celsius but it wasn't to rough yet. I stopped to refuel and a nice bloke who looks after the airport gave me a hand doing the refueling and provided me with some useful local knowledge.

I took of at about 1 and the wind was about 15 knots and I shot up like a bullet. The air was getting rough to so I headed up to 6000feet to get away from the thermals and you could see both sides of the Cape. The country did not have many recognizable features so I basically had to navigate by the road and via my map to ground.

I got to the intersection where the developmental road and Telegraph join and did a low run so I could get some photos. I tracked up the telegraph and as I stated earlier, it was a lot more comfortable in the trike than in a Landcruiser or motorcycle. The telegraph is basically dead straight with just a couple of deviations for creek crossings.

On reaching Moreton telegraph at 3 pm, I met the caretaker and his girlfriend. I needed more fuel so I did a deal with him. I would take him up for a look around so he could find all the pigs in the Area. This place is amazing as it is not easy to grow anything here as it is like a wet desert. The place has lagoons all over from it and these get filled by the Wenlock River when it floods in the Wet Season. When it rains up here it buckets down. The whole area is basically a big swamp. It is almost as if someone had drawn a line as it gets a lot wetter and the trees start to get greener and bigger and the road gets rougher.

After taking the two caretakers for a fly I got all my gear organized and waited for a few hours for the dirt bikes to turn up. When they arrived they all looked totally worn out and I was as fresh as a daisy. We had a couple of beers and a good feed, went to sleep and the next morning I was up at the crack of dawn. This day was going to be one of my more adventurous. I headed up the Old Telegraph until I reached the junction with the bypass. I then turned right and headed towards the ranger station at Heathlands. This is another amazing place as the landscape changes from thick scrubby country to grassland with smaller trees and lots of very large termite mounds.

I was going to land at the large airstrip but decided it was to far from the ranger station so I just landed on the drive and taxied up to the house. I needed some fuel so I emptied one of my jerry's into the tank and this gave me enough with a full jerry spare to make the last leg. No one was around so a quick look around and off I went.

The view was fantastic with all the bright white sand hills of Shellburne Bay in view as well as the water coming out of the rocks at the headwaters of the Delhunty and Jardine Rivers. These rivers flow all year despite not having any rain in the dry season. The Jardine especially as it has a huge amount of crystal clear water all year round. This comes from springs all over the great divide (this is where the great divide ends as well) Some people say that the water comes from the highlands in New Guinea and goes through an aquifer to Australia.

From here I tracked to Captain Billy's landing where I was going to land but the wind was a bit too strong and the tide was also in. Here I turned north and made my way up the coast and in all this time did not see another soul.

It was a bit daunting flying up here by myself as there was no one around if I got into some trouble. I knew that the trike was running great. I had enough food, camping gear and even a cask of wine that would see me through if I had any problems. Also I did have a Epirb and the base for the rescue helicopter was only a couple of hours away.

The coast up there was truly amazing with beautiful lakes and pure white sand all over the place with reef and crystal clear seas.

As I got closer to my goal of Bamaga airport I had to track over some real tiger country. It was all mangroves, swamp and crocodiles. It was quite difficult navigating through here as there are so many estuaries and little creeks that make it hard to pinpoint exactly where you are. Bamaga airport is hard to find as the land is quite flat and it gets hidden in the trees. As I got closer I found the strip and over flew it. The windsock was horizontal so it was going to be interesting especially with a Wizard wing. My final took ages and landed in about 10 metres.

I taxied off the Runway and a nice bloke named Carl who looks after the Airport came and to greet me. Carl could have not been any more hospitable as he let me stay at his place for a few days and showed me the local area.

Over the next couple of days I flew to the northern most point of the Australian mainland, landed on Punsand bay beach, Seisia beach and anywhere else you could put a trike. It was all good fun.

I could say this was an adventure as I didn't know what was going to happen next. The thing I new for certain, that I was well prepared and carried enough gear to let me travel nearly anywhere.