Can’t think of a better day to take the ferry to Thursday Island. It takes about 75 minutes to get across to the administrative centre of the Torres Strait Islands. They used to have the hub back at Somerset on the mainland, but after they worked out the land was a dead loss and the locals were hostile, they moved the magistrate and the rest of the local administration to Thursday Island in the late 1800s. Aside from that, it’s was once a hub for the pearl diving industry long before they ever heard of the bends. That would account for the large number of graves of Japanese divers from that era.

Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful place.

View from Thursday Island

Thursday Island is just 3.5 square kilometres and has 3000 permanent residents. So there’s no chance you’ll do big mileage on your car. There are 274 islands in the Torres Strait, with some residents on just 14 them. The total population of the Torres Strait is about 5000.

We decided to walk our way around the small number of features on the small island. Up at Grass Hill there’s a fort that was created during WWII. No need to say why. There’s a wealth of information around the fort including an underground maze of rooms, formerly the magazine of ammunition, housing more information than you possibly read in a visit. But the views are good…

Thursday Island

And Harry had a close inspection of the canons.

Are you sure there’s nothing in there Harry?

We had lunch at the Top Pub, which is at the bottom of the street. That’s about all there is to see on Thursday Island. I reckon you’d go nuts here if you weren’t into fishing.

We’ve been really impressed with how clean and tidy the towns and communities have been so far, including Thursday Island. It’s a stark contrast to what we saw in the Territory and WA. And a pleasant surprise. But…..the east coast where we drove along the beach from Somerset was a disgusting pile of litter from fishing boats. There was an enormous array of plastic everything – small to large. If everyone who visited here just took one bag full of rubbish that has been washed up from the oceans, then we might get ahead. Heaven only knows how you deal with the fishermen.

I guess going to the most northern point on the Australian mainland is a bucket list kind of activity. Nonetheless, that’s our goal for today. But there’s a lot of beautiful country and a heap of history to see on the way.

Cape York Peninsula

We took the back road (of course) from Seisia (on the west side of the Cape York Peninsula out to Somerset, where you can look out to Albany Island. About five years ago John paddled to New Guinea across the Torres Strait and this is where they left the mainland. They spent their first night over on Albany Island. The road out to here changes from open wooded grasslands to thick rainforest in a wink. We found ourselves driving through tunnels of trees, just like the Daintree rainforest. And then suddenly you’re on the coast. This area is called Somerset where the Jardine family established a settlement and refuge for passing ships in the 1800s. They also attempted to make a go out of farming the land. It is hard to believe anyone actually thought this was possible given the thick forest. It is virtually impenetrable. Small wonder they failed.

We visited the ruins of Somerset, and some historical graves at Somerset beach.

Somerset Beach

From there we followed the lesser used track (you’re getting used to the way we travel now) and popped out of the bush onto the beach.

East coast of Cape York Peninsula

We helped a family pull their Landrover Discovery out of the sand (no amount of shopping at ARB was going to save them from their bog) and continued south along the beach. The coast was rugged and speckled with pandanus palms. And windy. Really windy. Blow a dog off a chain windy. We found our way back to the main road and then headed north – as far as we could go!! The road winds around through one of the prettiest rain forest areas until we found the rest of humanity in the car park. But this is where a bunch of 4WDers just make their own rules – we all just parked on the beach.

Getting some credibility with our red dust by now.

I was obviously pleased it was low tide, which made a very picturesque setting looking out at the Torres Strait.

Not a croc to be seen.

We wandered around the point at the low tide, and there it was – Cape York. It was windy and you could see the ferocious current scooting through the gap between the mainland and York Island just 150m off the coast. There’s a polite passing around of cameras so everyone gets their group photo. So here’s ours….

Cape York – with the footy.

From here we took the “impassable when wet” road given that it wasn’t wet (although I’ve heard it’s still raining in Cairns). Both Fergus and Harry had a go at driving (sitting in front of John) off road, and Ferg negotiated a creek rather well. I remember sitting on Dad’s knee and steering the car as a kid, but maybe the streets of North Balwyn were easier than this!

We stopped at Punsand Bay where the camping ground is about 200 times better than the one we are staying at in Seisia. If you ever come this way – stay at Punsand Bay Camping Ground. We treated ourselves to an ice-cream and a dip in their pool (we don’t have one in Seisia). We stopped at Wroonga Point where we could see Possession Island. That’s where Captain Cook put a flag up and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain. There were some campers there who had seen quite a few crocs in the water below where they were camped. So far our trip is croc free. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one

We camped not too far from the ferry so we could be in the queue near the front. Good decision. We crossed in the first load and at the other side there were already 15 cars waiting to go south at 8.30am. Like I said in the last post, move over Donald Trump. They only get three or four cars on the ferry at once, so it can be a long wait. And they stop for an hour at lunch, so never arrive near that.

We decided to stay at Seisia (pronounced Saysha) which is right on the coast about 30km from Cape York. You know, the Real Thing. This is where you catch the ferry to Thursday Island and they say it’s a good spot for feeding the fish fishing from the jetty. We did a towny. Didn’t take long. Then headed off to see a plane wreck. Now that doesn’t sound like your biggest tourist attraction, but this in Far North Queensland at the pointy end of the peninsular, so let’s not be getting too fussed.

ooops.

This is a DC3 if you’re into planes. I’m not. But I’m definitely sad they crashed in the jungle here. No one survived. We also stopped at a Beaufort Bomber, but I didn’t bother with a photo. Surfice to say, they were ready for anything up here during WWII. Horn Island, just off the coast was bombed eight times, and we came across numerous stacks of drums of fuel buried in the jungle here near the airfield.

The last obstacle on the trek north is the Jardine River crossing. It’s crocodile infested and backed up with the (true) story of the bloke who was taken by a croc swimming across to the ferry with a spare part. The old vehicle crossing was treacherous at best. The Jardine has a strong current and is a wide crossing. Not for the faint hearted. There has been many a mishap over the years. So the crossing is officially closed but I’m hoping that the beer drinking red necks we shared the last two days on the Telegraph Track with decide to try it. So, it’s the ferry for us. This particular ferry is run by the local community who may soon knock Donald Trump off his financial perch. It cost us $149 for the 80m crossing. Sort of up the top end (no pun intended) of the range for ferry crossings. The Daintree crossing was a paltry $18. I guess they call it a captive market. And guess what? “him eftpos machine no workin’ today. You gotta pay cash”. And just in case you have any cash left, you could also fill up the car……for $2.50 per litre.

We were pleased we filled up in Weipa.