Discovery Tours Cairns to Cape York 9 Day Tour - Drive / Fly (Twin Share)

Map

DAY 1: CAIRNS TO CAPE TRIBULATION

Your guide collects you in Cairns and heads north up the coast in a Landcruiser. The first stop is Mossman Gorge, on Eastern Kuku Yalanji country, for a cuppa, a guided walk and, if you like, a swim where the Mossman River tumbles over granite boulders. After lunch you board a one-hour cruise on the Daintree River, scanning the mangrove banks for saltwater crocodiles and birds. Across the river the road winds through the Daintree Rainforest, World Heritage-listed in 1988 as part of the Wet Tropics, to Cape Tribulation. Captain Cook named the headland in June 1770, the night the Endeavour struck the reef offshore, after the troubles that began there.

Overnight: Cape Tribulation

DAY 2: THE BLOOMFIELD TRACK TO COOKTOWN

Weather permitting, today is the Bloomfield Track, the steep coastal 4WD road that conservationists blockaded when it was bulldozed through in 1983. Stops along the way include Bloomfield Falls, beside the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal, and Cedar Bay National Park, where police raided a hippie settlement on the beach in 1976. Lunch is at the Lions Den Hotel, a tin-and-timber pub built in 1875 for the tin miners. Further on you pass Black Mountain, a pile of granite boulders turned black by lichen and blue-green algae. In the afternoon you reach Cooktown and the Cooktown Museum, set in a convent from the 1880s, where the Endeavour's anchor and one of its cannons are on show.

Overnight: Cooktown

DAY 3: COOKTOWN TO COEN

Start the morning on Grassy Hill, the lookout Cook climbed in 1770 to plot a way out through the reef. From the top you can see the Endeavour River, where his crew spent seven weeks repairing the ship. Then you head west on the Battle Camp road into Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park, Queensland's second-largest national park, through river valleys and paddocks of termite mounds. At Old Laura Homestead, a slab-and-iron cattle station house, you get a feel for how hard pioneer life was this far north. The road then runs up the Peninsula Developmental Road to Coen, a small town that began with a gold rush in the 1870s.

Overnight: Coen

DAY 4: COEN TO LOCKHART RIVER

Today you turn east, climbing over the Sir William Thompson Range and crossing the Pascoe River into Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range National Park), passing Mount Tozer on the way. This is the largest stretch of lowland rainforest left in Australia, and much of its wildlife is shared with New Guinea rather than the rest of the country. Listen for the drumming of palm cockatoos and look up for the bright green of eclectus parrots. The road drops through the rainforest to Lockhart River, an Aboriginal community on the shore of Lloyd Bay. It's known far beyond Cape York for its painters, whose work hangs in galleries around the world.

Overnight: Lockhart River

DAY 5: A DAY IN IRON RANGE

With two nights at Lockhart River, today is spent in Kutini-Payamu itself, the country of the Kuuku Ya'u Traditional Owners. The park takes in empty beaches, rocky headlands, the heath-covered Tozer Range and the rainforest in between, so the day mixes short walks with time on the sand. Keep watch for the green tree python, which lives here and in New Guinea but nowhere else in Australia, and for the cuscus, a slow-moving marsupial that spends its life in the trees. In a small group your guide can follow what interests you most, whether that's birds, beaches or the history of the region.

Overnight: Lockhart River

DAY 6: LOCKHART RIVER TO WEIPA

You leave the rainforest behind and travel inland and north through the park, then west across open savannah country to Weipa on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Bauxite was found here in 1955, and the mine that followed is one of the largest in the world, its red earth running right to the water. Late in the afternoon you board a sunset eco cruise on the Embley River, with drinks and canapés as the sun goes down over the Gulf. Look along the mangroves for crocodiles, wading birds and the sea eagles that hunt the river mouth.

Overnight: Weipa

DAY 7: WEIPA TO THE TOP OF CAPE YORK

A big day north. You pass Batavia Downs cattle station and stop at Moreton Telegraph Station, one of the repeater stations on the line that reached Cape York in 1887. Conditions permitting, you then drive a section of the original Old Telegraph Track, the rough, creek-crossing road that follows the line. At Fruit Bat Falls on Eliot Creek, clear water spills over a wide sandstone ledge into one of the few pools on the Cape considered safe from crocodiles. Back on the Bamaga road, a cable ferry takes you over the Jardine River, Queensland's largest river by year-round flow, and on to Seisia, a Torres Strait Islander community founded by families from Saibai Island in the 1940s.

Overnight: Seisia (two nights)

DAY 8: SOMERSET AND THE TIP

This is the day you came for. First stop is Somerset, the government outpost John Jardine set up in 1864, where graves and a few old cannons stand among the trees above the beach. Your guide knows quiet beaches nearby where dugongs and turtles have been seen in the shallows. Then it's the walk of about 45 minutes over rocks and headland to The Tip, the northernmost point of mainland Australia, with Papua New Guinea only about 150 kilometres away across the water. Take your photo at the sign, then sit and watch the tide rip through the islands of the Torres Strait.

Overnight: Seisia

DAY 9: THURSDAY ISLAND, HORN ISLAND AND HOME

A cruise across the Torres Strait brings you to Waiben (Thursday Island), the region's main town, for a guided tour. Look for Green Hill Fort, built in the 1890s against a feared Russian attack, and the cemetery where hundreds of Japanese pearl divers are buried. A short ferry takes you on to Ngurupai (Horn Island), whose airfield was bombed by Japanese aircraft in 1942, for a second short tour. From the island's airport a Qantas flight carries you back over the whole of Cape York to Cairns, landing in the early evening, and a transfer drops you at your accommodation in the city.

Map

• One soft bag (no suitcases or hard cases), up to 10kg, plus one small day pack
• Swimmers and towel — accommodation has pools
• Lightweight clothing
• Jacket for cooler evenings
• Comfortable walking shoes
• Hat, sunscreen and insect repellent
• Water bottle
• Camera
• Cash or cards for drinks and souvenirs

• Experienced tour guide
• Pick-up from your Cairns accommodation
• 8 breakfasts, 9 lunches, 8 dinners and snacks
• Hotel or motel rooms, twin, double or single depending on the option you choose; most with ensuite
• Modern 4WD vehicle
• All national park entry fees and listed attractions
• All ferries and barges
• Cruise to Thursday Island with a short island tour
• Cruise to Horn Island with a short island tour
• Qantas flight between Horn Island and Cairns

Not included

• Drinks and souvenirs

Preparing for the trip

Private tours and families

Booking the trip

Who travels with us

Cost and Fees

Whilst on tour