It is a long way to “The Tip” of Australia, Cape York – approximately 1.000 kilometres north of Cairns. Nice trip for us, beautiful national parks on the way, like Iron Range or Lakefield.
At the Bramwell Roadhouse you have to decide if you take the Old Telegraph Track (OTT) or the Bypass Road further to the cape. We originally planned to take the OTT, one of the hardest 4WD tracks in the world, but all people we talked to, who had just tackled the OTT, recommended us not to do so with our car. Well, at the first river crossing I had to accept that it would not be possible with our car, so we had to take the Bypass Road.
The river crossing as such was not the problem, but the entry was a really heavy drop off and the way out was only possible by winching the car, and as our car is a bit top-heavy, this was the end of the plan to tackle the OTT.
Here some “nice” photos from the first crossing at Palm Creek. Way in…
…and the way out!
Still, somehow I believe I need to come back once in the future if destiny allows and tackle this one. Would be really fun, but also a huge challenge. What to say? Guess “men and their egos” fits maybe well. 🙂
But we had some nice surprise on the Bypass Road instead, something we were hoping for, but never expected to see one, a Taipan! At least we are rather sure that it is a Coastal Taipan, bit nervous, the little one and really fast. Or to use Karin’s words, “the first time I saw you taking such a distance to a snake”. 🙂
Yanneck: Hier ein Foto vom Taipan, zumindest sind wir uns ziemlich sicher das es einer ist. Wir waren auch vorsichtig… 🙂
Also otherwise the Bypass Road was presenting some more wildlife to us, no idea what this one is, but will find out later on.
And also some beautiful waterfalls, like the Fruitbat Falls.
Before reaching the cape, the landscape was again getting greener and the road more and more narrow, so we had a least some 4WD fun, before reaching Australia’s Northernmost point.
And then the surprise came, being alone for a while, you reach the parking area at the cape and you start to wonder where all those people are coming from.
And why all this? Because everybody wants a picture of, and with this sign, so we had to queue like all other people to get one. Somehow crazy… 🙂
But after all this, we are now hanging a bit around on the beach, enjoying the nice weather, before heading South again tomorrow. Roughly 3.700 kilometres to Sydney…
So in that sense, to be continued… 🙂