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Destinations > It's A Long Way To The Top
It's A Long Way To The Top
Issue: April 2009
Words and photos by Steve Starling
Starlo tackles one of Australia's iconic 4WD treks in his quest for a memorable tropical fishing fix.
Somewhere out along the blacktop between Moree and Boggabilla, AC/DC reached out of the Toyota's stereo speakers and handed me the title for this yarn. It was obvious, really. No one could argue that it's a bloody long way from my home on the NSW far south coast to the very tip of Cape York Peninsula. About 4200km, to be exact... Each way!
I've been travelling to the top of Cape York at least once and often two or three times every year since 1991. I love it up there, and the fishing rocks. But, to my growing shame, I'd never driven to the Cape. I'd always flown. First to Cairns, then aboard smaller aircraft for the final leg to either Bamaga on the mainland, or Horn Island out in Torres Strait. On every flight (cloud cover permitting), I'd push my nose against the perspex, gaze down at all that khaki country unspooling beneath me and wonder. What would it really be like to do the big drive? How hard would it be? Would it be worth the effort?
These days of course, driving to the Cape is hardly frontier stuff. Every other old pop in a Pajero, granny in a Grand Cherokee or hoon on a Honda seems to have done it. In fact, I was getting downright embarrassed about admitting that I hadn't!
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At the end of July 2008, I finally set off to rectify that situation, and to tick what is arguably Australia's most iconic 4WD trek off my personal 'bucket list'. Six weeks later I was home, with a new set of wonderful memories that were even more persistent than the patina of fine red dirt that still clings to some parts of my HiLux many months and multiple washes later! The Cape leaves its mark on you in so many ways.
Hundreds of far more experienced bush drivers and rugged outdoor-types than me have done the Cape journey and written in detail about their experiences over the years, but I figured that Overlander 4WD readers might enjoy the first-time perspective offered by a very casual 4WDer like myself, piloting a bog-standard, non-tricked-up, automatic, petrol-drinking Toyota HiLux from the far south coast of NSW to the pointy end of Australia and back again, primarily in search of a few fish... So, here it is!
A Simple Plan
My plan was simple enough. Push through to Cairns in three or four long days at the wheel - via Goondiwindi and Miles, then across to the coast at Rocky and north from there - pick up my 25 year old son Tom, and 23 year old daughter Amy, from Cairns airport, then take a leisurely five or six days to reach Bamaga and Seisia. Once there, we'd use Seisia Campground as our base to explore the Tip and surrounds for a few more days before the kids flew south and I stayed on to spend two-and-a-half unforgettable weeks aboard Carpentaria Seafaris' luxurious mothership 'Tropic Paradise' with my old mate, Captain Greg Bethune. I'd be fishing and exploring the northern Gulf halfway between the Tip and Weipa.
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Words and photos by Steve Starling
Starlo tackles one of Australia's iconic 4WD treks in his quest for a memorable tropical fishing fix.
Somewhere out along the blacktop between Moree and Boggabilla, AC/DC reached out of the Toyota's stereo speakers and handed me the title for this yarn. It was obvious, really. No one could argue that it's a bloody long way from my home on the NSW far south coast to the very tip of Cape York Peninsula. About 4200km, to be exact... Each way!
I've been travelling to the top of Cape York at least once and often two or three times every year since 1991. I love it up there, and the fishing rocks. But, to my growing shame, I'd never driven to the Cape. I'd always flown. First to Cairns, then aboard smaller aircraft for the final leg to either Bamaga on the mainland, or Horn Island out in Torres Strait. On every flight (cloud cover permitting), I'd push my nose against the perspex, gaze down at all that khaki country unspooling beneath me and wonder. What would it really be like to do the big drive? How hard would it be? Would it be worth the effort?
These days of course, driving to the Cape is hardly frontier stuff. Every other old pop in a Pajero, granny in a Grand Cherokee or hoon on a Honda seems to have done it. In fact, I was getting downright embarrassed about admitting that I hadn't!
read on below advertisement
At the end of July 2008, I finally set off to rectify that situation, and to tick what is arguably Australia's most iconic 4WD trek off my personal 'bucket list'. Six weeks later I was home, with a new set of wonderful memories that were even more persistent than the patina of fine red dirt that still clings to some parts of my HiLux many months and multiple washes later! The Cape leaves its mark on you in so many ways.
Hundreds of far more experienced bush drivers and rugged outdoor-types than me have done the Cape journey and written in detail about their experiences over the years, but I figured that Overlander 4WD readers might enjoy the first-time perspective offered by a very casual 4WDer like myself, piloting a bog-standard, non-tricked-up, automatic, petrol-drinking Toyota HiLux from the far south coast of NSW to the pointy end of Australia and back again, primarily in search of a few fish... So, here it is!
A Simple Plan
My plan was simple enough. Push through to Cairns in three or four long days at the wheel - via Goondiwindi and Miles, then across to the coast at Rocky and north from there - pick up my 25 year old son Tom, and 23 year old daughter Amy, from Cairns airport, then take a leisurely five or six days to reach Bamaga and Seisia. Once there, we'd use Seisia Campground as our base to explore the Tip and surrounds for a few more days before the kids flew south and I stayed on to spend two-and-a-half unforgettable weeks aboard Carpentaria Seafaris' luxurious mothership 'Tropic Paradise' with my old mate, Captain Greg Bethune. I'd be fishing and exploring the northern Gulf halfway between the Tip and Weipa.
next page »
