Cape York–Laura – 26 July 2011

When we drove the Gibb River Road we had a nice itinerary provided for us by the Western Australian Tourist Bureau. Trish couldn't find anything like this for Cape York so this and the following posts give our driving itinerary, both up and back. We kept our mileage down to beneath 250 kilometres a day and this gave us a relaxing days driving and time to enjoy the route.

Our caravan and car will not do steep sided river crossings so the route through Daintree is inaccessible to us.

 
We took the Mulligan Highway and the Peninsula Development Road to Laura, our first campsite. This is a nice grassy site behind the Laura Hotel. There is limited water and power.

The road house has closed so one must provide ones own food. The Hotel is not excessively noisy but runs till late and by the time they have shut up the roosters are crowing, so Tricia did not get a very good sleep.

Laura was founded as a result of the discovery of gold on the Palmer River, but there is very little left of that now. Cyclones and Termites have a way of destroying history in the Far North. There is a little regional Park opposite the Hotel and a very good information centre at the Quinkan Regional Cultural Centre detailing the history of the area.