Making it to the Tip.'

 We can't believe that we are almost to the very top of Australia. Six weeks exploring this beautiful country, we have almost completed our first goal of this journey. We decided not rush and spend a day or so camping at Patterson Creek, just a bit north of Loyalty Beach. Our fellow travellers joined us, and we spent a day relaxing and getting a few jobs done, well the boys fished and I got a few jobs done! Patterson Creek was a nice little spot but the crocs kept wrecking the crab traps. James heard later from a local that they never put their traps out there without letting off a few rounds off in the water to scare off the crocs. If I had known that I wouldn't have gotten out of the car!!

Setting crab traps..watch out for crocs!

 The following day we parted company with Sean and Kate, making plans to meet up at the top. We mucked around getting a few things in Seisia and then headed off. We turned on the GPS and it showed us a few tracks to take. We followed the first one and you all know how we prefer to take the road less travelled, well this one has never been travelled at least for a few years anyway. The road just veered away and started taking us away from the direction we wanted to go. Turning around was no easy feat in Ivan and in doing so we broke off the telephone aerial. We went back to where the track should have been but it had disappeared in all the over growth and Daniel had to scouted around and found very faint tracks. Now, maybe we should have turned back but we didn't, for what ever reason we kept going! The track was long ago gone,  and Daniel had to keep scouting trying to stay on course. We had to cut away fallen trees and James at one time had cut down a tree to allow us through! I decided it was a safer place to sit in the back seat while the boys worked their way through!! It took us over two hours to get through about 20 ks of bush! When we got back out we saw that the second track on the bloody GPS was now the main road through! Poor old Ivan got scratched and battered, we did more damage in those 2 hours than we did on the whole trip getting to the Cape! Well at least you can say that we are not scared of a challenge!
 Salvation was found when we pulled into our camp spot. Cable Beach, right near the water in a beautiful bay, just south of the Tip. It was beautiful and the weather was fantastic. Thank goodness!

Looking south from our camp spot.

You can see the tip from here!

After inspecting the damage to the car and The Tvan, which luckily was only superficial, we unhitched and continued on to the Tip. It didn't take us very long and there were quite a few people heading up and returning. The view was spectacular and as we climbed over the rocks, we could see the end, the very northern tip of Australia. We had some one take a photo of us, and then unlike everyone else, we found a little spot under a tree and spent about half an hour reflecting on our 6 week journey to get here. We didn't want to rush, and quickly the crowd left and we sat there right on the edge of Australia, just us , the Scarpias'. 

..almost there.

We made it!!

Reluctantly, we left, leaving the Tip for others to enjoy and headed back to camp for a well earned cold drink and to relax. It was time to stop and enjoy our beautiful spot at Cable Beach.

Cable Beach was in fact, too nice to leave, so we stayed an extra day. Daniel and fished, catching some queen fish and Daniel caught a strange looking fish that neither one of us had ever seen it before. We found out from Sean that it was an ramora, the sucking fish that hangs off the bellies of sharks, and judging by the size of the ramora, its host would be of a fair size. We quickly threw it back and decided not to chance our luck by not having another quick frolic in the water shallows like we did just before Daniel caught the romora!! Thats the problem up here, the water looks so inviting but you never know whats lurking just below the surface. James and I have had a few very quick, shallow dips but Daniel is too smart!

 

Creature from the sea..the fish, not Daniel!

 Our days here were fantastic, Daniel and James fished and I did some painting and reading, and in the afternoon, james set up the Cable beach spa...hot water at sunset with a view people pay millions for, just a fitting way to finish our stay here.

Too good...

 We didn't want to leave, but the boys were trying to get onto a charter and we needed to be in Seisia for that so we had to say our good byes to Cable and also farewell to our traveling friends. This time we stuck to the main road and got into Seisia in about 20 minutes!

Too beautiful...