It was a long journey to the Tip of Australia, so it was gonna be a long journey down. This is one of those very special journeys where I've had to just roll with the punches. Regardless if I've had to sleep in a tent or give up after several hours with my thumb out, I have zero complaints about this journey. Many people don't realize how big Australia is, and even seeing one small part of the country can still require thousands of kilometres of driving. From Cairns to the Tip is more than 1,000 kilometres each way.
I stayed for an extra night at the campground but I had no way of paying for it because the reception wasn't open again; they only seem to be open when they want to be. I was advised by some other campers to not worry about it, pointing out that I leave a very small footprint due to not having a vehicle. GoogleMaps can be misleading and it led me to a road near the airport where traffic as extremely light. I ended up walking nearly 15 km until I got back to a road where people would be heading south from the Tip. Unfortunately I was running low on water at that point, and water on this journey is crucial. Before long, an elderly man named Tony driving a campervan would stop and offer me a lift. Fruit Bat Falls was one of my goals for the journey south, so he agreed to have a brief stop along the way. They're one of the rare places along the way where you can safely swim, but I opted not to swim becacuse I'd have to dry out my bathers afterward. The falls are gorgeous, and there was no shortage of people swimming today.
From there we continued to head south. Tony is from Christchurch but is here for an extended visit due to the Trans-Tasman bubble being suspended for the next two months. He drove to the Tip with a mate but that mate decided to jump on a flight at Bamaga and then rush back to New Zealand before he would have to quarantine for 14 days. We would make it as far south as Bramwell Junction where Tony decided to stay for the night. Since it was approaching 5 PM I thought I'd call it a day as well. The roadhouse stops serving meals early so I had to opt for a light dinner of soup.
Whilst the setting isn't too bad at Bramwell Roadhouse, they could use more toilets in the camping area. For such a busy campground, there are only four toilets, and there was a long queue this morning as everyone was having showers. The adventure south would continue after morning coffee, and we would stop at Moreton Telegraph Station, which is now a campground and cafe. I like it a lot better than Bramwell Junction with its lovely setting.
A geocache would inspire me to suggest Tony to stop here, and I'm glad we did. We relaxed with a coffee and a sausage roll, and soaked up the sunny day. The weather has been brilliant throughout this entire journey, and I've met some fabulous people up this way. It was time to tackle the red dust again as we headed south. Despite it being only about 1 PM by the time we reached Archer River, Tony decided to call it a day and camp there for the evening. I decided to continue my journey, but if I didn't get a lift by about 4 PM I was going to stay at Archer River and splash out with a burger and a few drinks. Though I don't usually put my thumb out for certain vehicles, an unexpected one stopped for me: a petrol tanker driver heading to Coen. It's only my second lift ever in a petrol tanker (the first was in Guatemala back in '12). Keith, the driver, said he was going slow but better slow than fast if he's carrying a flammable liquid. He would drop me at Coen where I was considering calling it a day, but then thought I'd try to get further south. Before long I was picked up by an off-duty police officer named Dwayne who lives in Aurakun. He said hitchhiking is officially illegal but he would never leave someone standing on the side of the road. Last week I met a man who is walking from Cape York to Tasmania, and we passed him along the way. Through the same rigmarole going down as going up, we drove through the darkness on roads made of both dirt and bitumen. By the time we reached Laura, we were all very hungry. Annoyingly, the only pub in town stopped serving meals already. It's extremely frustrating when places stop serving meals when they feel like it. Dwayne settled for a Coke and I had a glass of wine. Dwayne was driving all the way to Cairns with a lady who also lives in Aurakun but I plan to spend a couple more days in the area so I can go to the Lions Den Pub (which I've heard great things about). Dwayne would drop me at the pub in Lakeland where I set up my tent in the same spot as I did last week. The kitchen had closed so I opted for a few glasses of wine to finish off this fabulous journey!
As I sat with a glass of wine I met a man named Radu who has done some extreme cycling journeys. Perhaps his finest was from Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia. One of these days I still have to do my own extreme cycling journey. For now, another great one is in the books, and I wouldn't have done it any other way.
