Trip to tip of Cape York on ‘must do’ list
ONE of Australia’s last great pilgrimages is the 1000-odd km road trip by 4WD from Cairns to the tip of Australia.
“It’s something every trueblue Aussie should do,’’ said local Lea-ann Mears.
“Like life, it’s about the journey, not the destination.’’
The Mears family, who own the Croc Tent store at New Mappoon about 15km from the tip, are among Australia’s northernmost residents.
Pranksters recently hauled an oxy-torch over the rocky headland at the tip to cutdown and souvenir a metal sign welcoming people, but it’s since been replaced.
“Some days there can be a queue of people lining up for a photo,’’ Mrs Mears said. “Other days, no-one.’’ For many, it marks the turning point on a four-wheelDEATILS drive odyssey into the vast, otherworldly, red raw beauty of Cape York.
True, there are hundreds of kilometres of corrugated dirt roads, invisible potholes, suicidal wildlife, river wash-outs and clouds of red dust from other traffic.
But there is also the golden hush when the sun dips in the late afternoon and the sky fills with that opalescent hue.
It is a road trip through the world’s most ancient rainforest, past some of the world’s oldest rock art and living indigenous culture, into one of the world’s last great savannah wildernesses, up to a new sense of self, time and space.
But be quick. There are plans to seal large sections of the Bloomfield Track and Cape York Peninsula Development Road by 2020.
It won’t be the same without all that red dirt.