Travelmarvel: Cape York and Tropical North by 4WD

Leave Cairns early this morning for an Insider Experience. Afterwards, arrive in tropical Cooktown and check in to your hotel.  

Insider Experience – Bloomfield Track 4WD Adventure

Journey along the Bloomfield Track, one of Australia’s most iconic outback roads. From here, journey through dense sections of rainforest, tackling steep climbs and several challenging creek crossings.

Staying Cooktown, The Sovereign Resort Hotel

You will take a flight from Horn Island to Cairns on this tour. 

Following your Quinkan Country visit, continue to the heritage-listed Old Laura Homestead. Later, drive into Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park, where you will find a range of animals, including crocodiles and wallabies, as well as plentiful bird life.  

Insider Experience – Quinkan Rock Art Tour 

An Indigenous guide takes you through Quinkan Country, which UNESCO ranks as one of the top 10 rock art sites in the world. Visit Split Rock, the most famous of the Quinkan sites, where illustrations of spirit being figures, native animals and totems were painted between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago. 

Staying Musgrave Roadhouse

Explore the old gold mining town of Coen, where the precious metal was first discovered in 1876. When the Great Northern Mine was established in 1893 Coen underwent a boom period, but by 1916 the mine was closed and the town resumed its quiet existence. Afterwards stop at the Archer River Roadhouse for lunch, halfway along your day’s travels. Then resume your journey to the town of Weipa, the largest community on the Cape York Peninsula. 

Staying Weipa, Albatross Bay Resort

Today you can enjoy a relaxing boat trip from Weipa (additional charge), learning about the area’s ecology, mining industry and Indigenous culture as you look for saltwater crocodiles. Afterwards, travel to Bramwell Station. 

Staying Bramwell Station

Check out Bramwell Junction’s imposing termite mounds before heading to Fruit Bat Falls, where you can enjoy a cooling swim in the clear waters of the Elliott River. Take a ferry across the Jardine River, then head north through the traditional land of the Injinoo people.

Staying Two Nights, Cape York Peninsula Lodge

Today, celebrate being among the most northerly landscapes on the Australian continent as you wind along a 4WD track to Frangipani Beach, on the western side of Cape York just below the tip. Later, continue to historic Somerset Hill, the site of a station established by John Jardine in 1863 – the first European settlement on Cape York. From Somerset Beach there are fine views of Albany Island, just offshore. Here, learn the stories of ‘Jackey Jackey’, an early Indigenous guide, and Frank Jardine, the son of the station’s founder, who became the local police magistrate and was involved in numerous killings of Indigenous people.

Insider Experience - Reach the Tip of Cape York Walk to the tip of Cape York Peninsula this morning and revel in standing at the northernmost point of the Australian mainland. The views over the turquoise sea and offshore islands of Torres Strait are sublime.

Enhance Your Journey - Helicopter Flight over Cape York Take to the skies as you embark on a scenic helicopter flight over the tip of Cape York (own expense).

Take the ferry across the picturesque Endeavour Strait to fascinating Thursday Island. Once a pearling centre, Thursday Island became a major defence post during World War II. The labyrinth of tunnels and rooms at Green Hill Fort now house the Torres Strait Museum. You’ll then take the local ferry to Horn Island, where you will board your flight to Cairns, enjoying the magnificence of the Great Barrier Reef from a bird’s-eye view en route. Your journey ends at Cairns Airport.