Brilliant Adventure’s Adam and Briohny are no strangers to travelling Australia. Now there’s a new member of the family (Ruby) to initiate into the ways of Australian exploration, so they started (relatively) close to home in Cape York, Queensland. We’re delighted they shared their adventure with us.

There are many wild places in Australia and Cape York is one of them. Like anywhere there are busy periods and places that all the tourists (mostly Australian) go to but there are also numerous places where you can find solitude and not see a soul. To some people Cape York is a hot, dusty, dangerous, inaccessible, savage place. To us Cape York means ‘adventure’.

The Peninsula Development Road

 

Near the top of mainland Australia

 

First, a bit about us. We are Adam and Briohny, a couple with a seven-month-old daughter, Ruby. Together we are Brilliant Adventure. We love to travel Australia, to experience and to explore anywhere we can.

As we live in Cairns, Cape York in Australian terms is only up the road (1000km to the top on corrugated dusty roads). So we travel there a bit.

 

Punsand Bay

 

We have only just returned back from a trip there. The purpose of the trip was to introduce Ruby to camping, as she will be doing a lot of it with us. She was a trooper and did really well.

 

Little Adventurer Archer River Roadhouse

 

We left Cairns and drove to Port Douglas, which is known as ‘Port’. It is a well-known tourist town. Port has nice hotels, great restaurants, a cool marina and a beautiful relaxing beach. There is something there for everyone.

 

Sugar Wharf Port Douglas

 

We left the civilisation of Port and headed to the Palmer River Roadhouse for a refuel. Then to Lakeland turning on to the Peninsula Development Road known as the ‘PDR’. At Laura we stopped to look at the Aboriginal cave paintings (below).

 

Aboriginal Cave Painting

 

From Laura we made our way to the Archer River Roadhouse for the night. There are many roadhouses and campgrounds along the way for fuel, food, accommodation and most importantly, beer! If you’re looking for work in Australia, these places also offer seasonal jobs for tourists in the busy season, which is from approximately May to October.

 

Cape York Camping

 

You will notice along the drive that some of the roadhouses are called ‘Telegraph Stations’. This is because originally the road was a service road for the first telegraph line going up the Cape, all the way to Thursday Island (just off the mainland of Northern Australia). There is also a section of road called ‘The Telegraph Track’ which is a proper 4WD track!

 

Musgrave Telegraph Station

 

We had a good night’s rest and then made our way to one of our favourite places in Cape York, which we call ‘The Falls’. This includes Fruit Bat Falls, Eliot Falls, Twin Falls and many more little waterfalls. It’s the oasis of Cape York and no crocodiles. Gotta love that!

 

Fruit Bat Falls

 

The water is so refreshing and is great for a morning shower. Good to drink too.

Refreshing Morning Shower

 

Speaking of crocodiles…Yes there are crocodiles in the Cape, so you have to be careful where you swim. In fact there is an abundance of wildlife in the area. There are dingos, emus, birds, kangaroos, other marsupials, turtles, insects, fish, feral pigs, lizards, bats, frogs, butterflies, snakes and spiders to name a few.

Golden Orb Weaver Spider (not poisonous)

 

After chilling at the falls for the night we made our way to Bamaga. But first we had to cross the Jardine River on the ferry, which is probably one of the smallest crossings with the biggest price tag you will ever come across (cost $99 return or $129 with a trailer).

Jardine River Ferry

 

Once across the river, we made our way to Bamaga/Seisia for some supplies and then to Punsand Bay to camp (we stayed at Cape York Camping). From here you are close to the northernmost point of the Australian continent (better known as ‘The Tip’), which we visited the next day.

The Tip of Australia

 

This is one of our many adventurous trips to Cape York and you can be assured there will be plenty more. There are so many places to go and great things to do. There are the townships of Cooktown, Weipa and Bamaga, just to name a few. There are beautiful beaches like Captain Billy’s Landing and Chilli Beach.

There are several cultural communities and islands. There is plenty of adventure, fishing and hunting. Last of all, the sunrises on the East and the sunsets on the West are amazing!

Cape York Sunset

 

You can be guaranteed that if you visit, work or live in Cape York it will forever be with you. It will keep you going back even if it is only in your thoughts. Hopefully you will make the trip to this stunning wild part of Australia too!

Cape York Road Signs

 

You can explore more of Adam and Briohny’s brilliant photos of Australia on their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts:

Instagram: brilliantadventure
Facebook: Brilliant Adventure
Twitter: Brilliant Adventure@frooktraveltrio

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*All material by Adam and Briohny featuring Ruby of Brilliant Adventure.