Captain Billy's landing to Bamaga.

13th November!

We tried a short cut (Frenchman's track) from the Iron Range road across to the north bound highway. This required a crossing of the Pascoe River which Joe had heard was "a bit rough". Well that was an understatement! The road was very rough with washouts and deep ruts, but we managed by taking it steady. But the crossing was a different matter. Joe walked down the steep slope to the crossing and immediately realised that he wasn't prepared to drive it. The crossing itself was do-able but the steep rocky exit was more than he could face. So we backtracked, losing a couple of hours all up! Some short cut. But the view was nice. You can see from the photo that "the build up" (to the wet) has started!

By the time we got to the Captain Billy's landing turnoff it was late afternoon. There is lovelly rainforest in this track and it had all been freshly graded. Very soon after we got into the rainforest we twice saw a Buff Breasted Paradise Kingfisher flit across the road in front of us. 

This is migrant from PNG which arrives on the Cape in early November! It breeds here in low termite mounds. It is a spectacular bird with those long white tail feathers. So that made my day! 

We continued on to captain Billy's landing. This is a very wild place on the coast, with very pretty sandstone cliffs. The camping area was completely exposed to the wind and the sun. 

So after checking out the area for a bit we decided to go back to the rainforest for more bird watching.

As soon as we got into the edge of the forest area we started seeing birds- this time large tailed nightjars. They are widespread but I haven't seen them before. Here they were very common. We must have seen twenty of them.

Next morning I went for a bird watching walk and saw a Yellow Beaked Kingfisher! It flew across the road in front of me, and I also saw its nest, in a arboreal termite mound! Fantastic! 

Once again thanks to Morcombe's bird app for the pictures.

We left the rainforest area of captain Billy's landing track feeling that we had seen a few birds! 

Next stop Fruitbat falls! 

Fruitbat falls is a very popular stop on the Cape trip. It is very picturesque and one of the few places to swim on the Cape. It has many parking bays -maybe 50+. We have heard that in peak of the season cars line up waiting for a parking spot to get into the falls. 

But no such problem for us! We were the only ones there. How many people can say they have skinny dipped in Fruit. Bat Falls? This is apparently the time of year to come here! with such a superb place to ourselves.

The approaches to the falls have a constructed board walk, and along the sides of the board walk are a lot of pitcher plants. They are very unusual though. The pitchers are attached to the leaves of a climbing plant, by a long string. This means that there aren't hers hanging from trees! very unusual we thought! 

We reached the Jardine River mid afternoon. Last time we were here was Dec 1983, and there was no ferry then! What a Luxury to be ferried across. The cost for our vehicle was $128. The ferry iappears to be operated by the local aboriginal group. At 20,000 cars per year, between July and December, -well you do the maths! It's a lot of money! I hope they spend that well! 

Bamaga and the roads between the settlements are all bitumened now! In our day they were all dirt, even in the township itself. Bamaga is a much larger town now. We couldn't even find the hospital. The doctors house and the hospital were the first buildings on the road into town when we lived here in 1983/4. However we will see more of Bamaga when we come back in a couple of days. 

For now we will head straight to the Somerset beach where. Stuart and Nira are camped. The drive to the tip from Bamaga goes through lovelly rainforest! which we will come back to with Zef, for some bird watching and camping. Somerset Beach is magic! It has gorgeous clean water, a view of the resort at Albany. Island (fishing and pearl farming I believe), and camping right on the edge of the beach. And it's free!  I have been spending the days sitting under a beach almond with Nita, watching the tide come in and out and waiting for Stuart and John ( another camper with a Tinny) to come back with the day's catch. 

The brush turkeys here have purple collars rather than the yellow of the southern turkeys! it is a pleasant mauve colour. That was a surprise, but Morcombe's book (app) says it is another race -"purpuricollis". 

So we have reached the tip of Cape York, all the way from Melbourne, in our Earthcruiser. The distance travelled is 13,168 Klms.  And we are not bored yet!