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Chris and Sue: Retirement – This is the Life

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G’day to all at Mollymook! 

Well, after we returned to Far North Queensland we left the trusty motorhome in Cairns and headed up to “The Tip”, Cape York, in our eldest son’s 4WD and rooftop camper. Roughing it, with no shower and toilet, fridge, etc etc but SO much fun! The road was actually pretty good most of the way, having been graded for the school holidays. Nevertheless, we were glad we had not taken the motorhome as it may have turned into an IKEA flat pack given some of the corrugations and sudden dips in the road. 

From Cairns to The Tip is about 2000kms return, and has some of the most isolated and vast, dusty outback in Australia. We really enjoyed the red red dust and sense of vastness, yet pulling up to a station for the night and finding heaps of other intrepid travellers. And when I say station, I mean old telegraph stations or working cattle stations, not Central Railway! 

Most of the rivers and creeks are bone dry at this time of year, but there were a few croc free swimming holes which were wonderful. Water temp was 24 degrees, nice! 

We spent five days at the top, camping right on the beach, looking across to the Torres Strait Islands. The sunsets were divine, and nightfall is after 7pm, so it feels like a glorious summer day, albeit over 30 degrees most days. Surprisingly the nights can be quite cold…12 or so. Wild horses frequent the campspots up there and they have become quite clever, opening bins and getting into people’s food supplies. I heard noisy rustling one night, then loud chomping, and discovered in the morning that the young guys next to us has been raided, with raw spaghetti on the horses’ menu!!

We did a day trip to Thursday Island, going past a number of other Torres Strait Islands, and learnt a lot about its role in WW11 and the Japanese pearl divers who regularly lost their lives here. The mix of Torres Strait Islanders, Melanesians, Polynesians, South Sea Islanders and Aboriginal culture was interesting. Australia is so close to PNG, only about 120 kms I believe. 

Weipa was also visited on our Cape adventure, but we were disappointed that the advertised tours of the Rio Tinto Bauxite Mine had been cancelled. We will check out Mt Isa instead. Despite this, we enjoyed our stay there, again they had the most glorious sunsets over the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea. Good fish and chips too! Barramundi is plentiful up there!!

We returned via Cooktown and the Bloomfield Track to the Daintree, but Chris was very disappointed that the “notorious” Bloomfield Track was a doddle. I guess it all depends on the rainfall and the amount of churning traffic…

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From a dry arid Savannah to a literal oasis, Adels Grove/Lawn Hill NP

So, Cape York was a lot of fun, but it is nice to be back in the relative comfort of our motorhome. Following Ken’s advice, we are now at Adels Grove/Lawn Hill National Park, which is a literal oasis in the desert!! One minute you are travelling through the dry arid Savannah of the Queensland Gulf country, next minute you are at a cool jade green creek with cabbage palms and pandanus everywhere. Crazy!! 

Okay, time for a dip in said oasis. We both send our love, keep swimming to the Reef; haha.

Miss you all, Sue and Chris