Cape York Frontier: Cape York to Cairns

Your adventure toward the very top of Australia starts on a high – literally. All aboard your plane bound for Horn Island; but first a twirl over the Great Barrier Reef. Your ferry transfer from Horn takes you to Thursday Island, the capital of the Torres Strait Islands, and an archipelago rich in Aboriginal culture, history and natural beauty, Time might stand still here, but you won’t – you’re on a guided tour of Thursday Island, ringed by some of the bluest water you’ll ever see, before transferring to your base and one of the northernmost settlements in Australia.

Not many people can say they’ve stood at the very top of mainland Australia, just a few hundred kilometres of water separating you from Papua New Guinea. Closer to home is Somerset, a long-abandoned settlement of the larger-than-life Australian pioneer Frank Jardine, who came here in 1864. This was the first European settlement on the Cape York Peninsula; all that remains today are bits of masonry, rusted cannons and a handful of tombstones, including that of Jardine and his wife. Lunch is served on palm fringed Anchorage Beach overlooking the Albany Passage. If there are prettier places to soak up the serenity, we’re yet to find them.

Cross the Jardine River and you’re well on your way to one of Far North Queensland’s coolest attractions: Fruit Bat Falls. Linger here over lunch, with time to dive in, splash about, cool off and unwind. You’ll be happy to hear the waterhole you’re swimming about in is croc free. Continuing south along the Old Telegraph Track, you’ll soon reach Bramwell Station, Australia’s northernmost former cattle station and your base for the night.

How do you want to spend your pre-lunch hours? Perhaps on a Weipa Wildlife & Eco Cruise around the harbour and up the Embley River to Hay Point, revealing Indigenous culture and the abundance of animals that call this part of the Cape home (own expense). Or dig deep on a bauxite mine tour (own expense). How these rocks (the world’s main source of aluminium) are pulled from the ground is head-scratching. Wherever you wander, be sure to catch a blazing sunset over the Gulf of Carpentaria.

More of Far North Queensland’s mining history awaits in the historic gold town of Coen – small in size, but with plenty of country swagger. And lots of cold beer, which is essential in these steamy parts of Australia. Your base for tonight was once the Musgrave Telegraph Station, a slice of Aussie history dating back to 1887. The Martian landscape that surrounds is all red dirt spiked with green shrubs. You could be forgiven for thinking you’re on the set of a Mad Max movie.

Nature looms large today, your expedition beginning in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park (weather permitting). In Queensland, there’s only one expanse of wilderness that’s larger, and that’s and that’s the Simpson Desert. The area is big in more ways than one, from its enormous waterlily-covered billabongs to its unfathomable number of birds. We continue through Lakeland before arriving in the old gold port of Cooktown. We make our way south passing the mysterious Black Mountain, sometimes dubbed the Bermuda Triangle of Australia, to the historic Lion’s Den Hotel. We’ll make sure you arrive safely at your next destination, where your Cooktown tour explains how this is the site of Australia’s first colonial ‘settlement’

Your Far North Queensland tour has unfortunately arrived, but before returning to Cairns, your journey involves going off-road along the rugged, 4WD Bloomfield Track (weather permitting). Steel yourself for this epic ride, which crosses the Bloomfield River near the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal. From Cape Tribulation to Cairns, you’re hemmed by two World Heritage-listed sites: the Wet Tropics of Queensland rainforest on one side, and the Great Barrier Reef on the other. What a way to end a week, road tripping from Cape York to Cairns.