Cape York Frontier

Your Cairns to Cape York tour toward the very top of Australia doesn’t waste any time, immersing you in World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics of Queensland rainforest just moments after departing Cairns. Cross the Daintree River by cable ferry, and you’re well on your way to Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets another World Heritage Site: the Great Barrier Reef. But you’re not here to dive into the water – your journey involves going off-road along the rugged, 4WD Bloomfield Track. Steel yourself for this epic ride, which crosses the Bloomfield River near the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal. Exploring this outback is thirsty work – quench your thirst at the legendary Lion’s Den Hotel. More legends (and myths) await at Black Mountain, sometimes dubbed the Bermuda Triangle of Australia. We’ll make sure you arrive safely at your next destination, where your Cooktown tour explains how this is the site of Australia’s first colonial ‘settlement’.  

Nature rules today, your expedition through Lakeland taking you to Quinkan Country – home to one of Australia best-preserved rock-art sites – near Laura. In Queensland, there’s only one expanse of wilderness bigger than Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park, and that’s the Simpson Desert. Rinyirru is big in more ways than one, from its enormous waterlily-covered billabongs to its unfathomable number of birds, it’s a fitting entrée to this northern wilderness frontier.

The historic gold town of Coen may be small in size, but it’s got plenty of country swagger – and lots of cold beer, which is essential in these steamy parts of Australia. More mining (this time bauxite) was the reason the tiny town of Weipa was formed. Today, visitors on Far North Queensland tours come here for the blazing sunsets over the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Before you roll out of bed this morning, decide how you want to spend your pre-lunch hours. Perhaps on an optional Weipa Wildlife & Eco Cruise around the harbour and up the Embley River to Hay Point, revealing Indigenous culture and the abundance of animals that call this part of the Cape home. Or dig deep on a bauxite mine tour. How these rocks (the world’s main source of aluminium) are pulled from the ground is head-scratching. As is the size of Bramwell Station, Australia’s northernmost cattle station and your base for the night.

Your early start today, along the Old Telegraph Track, is worth it when you arrive at Fruit Bat Falls for lunch. Dive in, splash about, cool off, unwind. You’ll be happy to hear the waterhole you’re swimming about in is croc free… There’s not much now between you and Cape York; cross the Jardine River and you’re there. Seisia is the departure point for ferries bound for Thursday Island tours and fishing charters. It’s also the gateway to tomorrow’s adventures.

Not many people can say they’ve stood at the very top of mainland Australia on a Cape York tour, just a few hundred kilometres of water separating you from Papua New Guinea. Closer to home is Somerset, a long-abandoned settlement of the larger-than-life Australian pioneer Frank Jardine, who came here in 1864. This was the first European settlement on the Cape York Peninsula; all that remains today are bits of masonry, rusted cannons and a handful of tombstones, including that of Jardine and his wife. Lunch is served on palm fringed Anchorage Beach overlooking the Albany Passage. If there are prettier places to soak up the serenity, we’re yet to find them.

Rich in Indigenous culture, history and natural beauty, Thursday Island is the capital of the Torres Strait Islands. Time might stand still here, but you won’t – you’re on a guided tour before heading to Horn Island to board your aircraft, flying over the Great Barrier Reef back to Cairns. Wait, how did this week pass so quickly?