Day 72 to 75 Cairns to Cape York

The next part of our trip was the 1000 km drive up to Cape York, the most northern part of Australia. 700 km of this drive is on unsealed road and is recommended for 4wd cars only. 

The last couple of days we had collected all the information we could get our hands on about this drive but still we didn't quite know what to expect. 

The trip takes at least 10 days and there are only three small ‘shops’ on the way. As you can guess the groceries are very expensive in this remote area. So we bought veggies in tins, vacuum packed smoked chicken and smoked fish, cans of soup and hotdogs and in case we couldn't buy any fresh bread along the way, we brought crackers and wraps. 

The first part of the trip brought us back to Mareeba. This is where we had visited the Coffee Works Museum and as the entrance tickets were valid for 3 months we decided to have some more free coffee and chocolates (hey, we are Dutch after all, right?!)

That night we camped at a free campsite just north of Mareeba. There were heaps of Grey Nomads around, but it seemed hardly any planned to go all the way to Cape York.

The next day we drove via Lakeland to Laura and from there the unsealed road started. We deflated the tyres and started our adventure, which Monique was pretty nervous about, mainly because we didn't know what to expect.

We had never traveled on an unsealed road that wide before. It felt like a freeway! Every few km we had to slow down as they were maintaining the road. The road was actually in great condition. After driving another 200 km we camped at Musgrave Station.

The next day we drove for about 350 km and camped at the Moreton Telegraph Station. The road conditions stayed similar most of the drive with an occasional couple of corrugated kilometers. Every now and then we had people passing us or overtaking us, leaving us in a big orange dust cloud but that was about all the excitement of the day. We also passed a few townships on our way up, which in most cases wasn't more than a Station with a fuel pump and a campsite at the back.

From Bramwell Station there are two options; you can either continue on the Old Telegraph Track or take the Developmental Bypass Road. As the track is not maintained anymore and involves a few very tricky creek crossings and some serious 4 wheel driving, we decided to take the bypass. From here the road got more narrow and corrugated. After about 150 teeth shaking kilometers

 we came to the gorgeous Fruit Bat Falls where we had a refreshing swim (one of the very few places that is safe for swimming in regards to crocodiles).

We only had to conquer another 50 km from here to the Jardine Ferry Crossing. After paying a whopping $129 it took only 3 minutes for us to cross the Jardine River by Ferry.

We had made it to the Northern Peninsula!