5 May 2013 – Bound for Cape York (Jardine River to Loyalty Beach)

We woke and packed up the tents early again today so that we were one of the first onto the Jardine River Ferry.  There was only a truck in front of us also waiting to cross so the kids climbed up to check out the cabin.  Perhaps they might like to be truckies when they’re older?  When the ferry actually opened (about half an hour late) we paid our hefty $129 ferry fee and crossed on over.  I guess it’s better than swimming across and getting eaten by a croc!  There were no difficult roads today so we took our time and headed towards Bamaga and Seisha via Injinoo and Umagico.  We were surprised to see so many horses and dogs just roaming around the streets.  There was even a small house block with half a dozen horses in the front yard – what the?  We stopped in at Bamaga where there was actually a decent little supermarket – just not as cheap as around the traps of Kurmond but we expected that seeing as though we were so far away from anything.  We decided to pull into Loyalty Beach which is just a bit further north on the western coast of the Cape.  They were only just setting up for the season so we found a nice spot looking out to the water and set up our camp.  We had decided to base ourselves here while we were exploring the tip area.  Our tents were under a shelter and out of the rain for this period and we had a sink with running water as well as two little ensuites to ourselves.  It was the perfect spot to set up the hammocks again, swinging away looking out at the Gulf.  The guys took the kids to the beach for a bit of fishing and then for a drive to the nearby towns to see what was around.  Josh got chatting to a group of young aboriginal kids hanging out at the Bamaga supermarket to find out where we should go and what we should see.  They had a good chuckle at us as they told us not to go swimming at Jackey Jackey Creek – would have been eaten by crocodiles.  This afternoon we went for a drive to the site where there are a couple of old WWII aircrafts that had crashed.  Upon reading the plaque of the DC3 crash site we realised that this plane had in fact crashed on this day, 5 May, 68 years ago in 1945.  It was a little sad as these sites are really overgrown and not well maintained and don’t have much information about the aircrafts or those that died.  Early this evening, the kids went into Ben and Jenna’s van with Cedar and they were preparing a surprise for me for my birthday tomorrow.  Josh and I were lucky enough to get cleaned up and head down to the bistro area for a few quiet drinks watching the sunset together.  Everyone else joined us not too long after and we enjoyed the Fish and Chip night in fantastic company and with a glorious view.  It really felt like we were at some remote tropical island resort looking over the clear blue water and watching a little tinny fishing out there – yes crazy (we wouldn’t go anywhere near the water up there).  After heading back to camp and getting ready to retire for the night, we had a visitor slither through the grass.  It was a black headed python – lovely in colour and not harmful at all, he just headed on his merry way as we snapped a few pics.