Cape York

Today we went off to do the 5 beach drive, where you drive along the beach and out through the bush and back down to the beach, visiting 5 beaches along the way, the views were great and the beaches completely empty.  Didn't see anther car the whole time we were out, and although the day was overcast and windy, with on and off rain, it didn't spoil the views.  The only downside was the rubbish on the beaches, it's all washed in from the ocean, from ships etc and its a big problem on the beaches up the cape.  

We were speaking to the owner of the Croc Tent and he was going to organise a weekend or something with 4WDers to head out and clean up the beaches.  It would be an ongoing problem, but even a yearly even would help things and I'm sure a lot of other people like us would be more than happy to join in.

These cute little piglets are living outside the Croc Tent

We did have a casualty today, one of the spot lights broke off, the corrugations of the last few days must have been too much for it!  We wrote a note on the back of it and left it on one of the 'thong trees' as a momento of our honeymoon!

The phots below are a few photos from the Pajinka Wilderness Lodge, which was abandoned years ago. The owner walked away leaving all plant and equipment behind, apparently the bar was left stocked, linen on beds, tv's ..... Everything! There isn't much left now, it's very overgrown so we didn't walk around, but it's definitely in ruins now.

Apparently it once offered very upmarket accommodation, located in the rainforest, within 400m of the 'tip' of Australia. A boardwalk took you through the rainforest to the tip.

Seems like it would have been a beautiful place (and a great business to own), so to think that it closed and owners just walked out is really strange. Not too much information around about what actually happened, but we can say that there is this really strange eerie feeling being there.

Today we also took a drive around all the other communities, we drove out to the Aboriginal communities of Injinoo and Umagico. Found a great Aboriginal owned and run caravan park at Unagico, right on the water. Very low key compared to Loyalty Beach and Punsand Bay, but quiet and great view.

Called in to the Bakery at Bamaga for lunch and fed this poor little stray pup. She was a mum, but she was so young, little and skinny. She was very timid and any sudden movement or noise scared her, but the poor thing was so hungry and was taking the food so gently from our hands.

It's so sad to see the amount of dogs roaming the streets, we've never seen anything like it, they are all so skinny. Just want to put them all in the car and take them home with us!

And wild horses every as well, it's a whole different world up here. While driving today we say a horse eating out of a garbage bin, with dogs playing under it. It blows your mind how different things are up here.

There is so much history up here, photos of one of the crashed planes below.

Below is a photo of temains of the fire outside the caravan park - last night it actually headed into the end of the caravan park.

Lots of smoke around and fairly sore throat today after it being so think last night.

There has actually be quite a few fires up here, one place we drove past yesterday had flames quite close to the road, we drove fairly quickly past that one!