The Tip

Jardine River Ferry

Our four vehicle convoy were having too much fun together after concurring  the Old Telegraph Track together so we made a plan of where to camp to explore the tip of Australia. We arrived at the Jardine ferry just as they were opening up after the lunch break. A $99 five minute ferry ride, but the Jardine River had the cheapest diesel for the tip at only 2.10 per litre, compared to 2.24 across the river.  A quick stop over at Bamaga supermarket for some bread and fresh vegies which were surprisingly cheap, bread was $2.59 and bananas only $6 per kg – bargain.

We stayed at Loyalty Beach which is on the western side of the tip. No swimming in the ocean due to crocodiles but the sunsets were just beautiful. We got to see horses running up the beach and large green frogs took residence in the shower block.

Shopping at the tip

The was to the very tip took about 20 minutes over rocky headland, the kids had fun adding their rock to the many piles along the way. Then we arrived at the sign, excitment all around photos and celebrations that we were at the tip of Australia, yippee.



Walking to the tip






We made it!



A drive over to the Eastern side of the Cape to Sommerset was quite windy and we were lucky enough to watch two sailing boats tackleling the wind and the strong currents sailing to the tip. A big wave and clap when they made it around the point safely. We drove further along the beach, it was beautiful. We did find that there was lots of rubbish washed up on the beach.

Eastern coastline

Sommerset



After enjoying a few days at the tip with the convoy, we said goodbye to some of our group and travelled to the Jardine River Mouth with the Malpas family to do some fishing. We had the most wonderful time and cleaned up with the fishing. I caught my first Barra for the trip, it put on a good show jumping out of the water - a very exciting catch. We also caught 2 more Barra (Darrin), 2 mangrove jack (Ben and Darrin), trevally (Tobey), 2 cod (Darrin), archer fish (Ben) and a mud crab (Emma).

Sunset @ Jardine River mouth