Cape York- 7 to 9 August 2011

We had done a lot of driving and decided to have some down time.
The local Year 7's were having a fundraiser car wash so they could travel down to Brisbane visit the museums and university. Their teacher wants to expand their horizons.. We had our car washed and for a while had a very clean car. Since there is about 15 k of bitumen it didn't last long. So much bad stuff is written about these kids but they are just normal children doing normal things. 

We went to look at some of the plane wrecks from WW2, a DC3 and Beaufort bomber. The most touching was the DC3 which went down killing all six on board just short of the runway. It is still largely intact including the rubber on its rear tyre. It must have been a horrible place to fly especially during the wet and many planes are lying peacefully rusting among the vegetation. We saw large numbers of fuel dumps. There were more than 10,000 men here with very little to indicate their presence now.

One of the things we wanted to do was take a helicopter flight over the region. This was a magnificent trip and worth every penny.
We flew over the mouth of Jardine River and over the Jacky Jacky Creek.  We crosssed both the Old Telegraph Track and the By Pass Road.

We flew over Somerset and up the tip then down to Punsand Bay.

Then we went out over the Torres Strait. We saw Possession Island where Captain James Cook planted the Union Jack on the 17th of August 177o and claimed the whole of the Eastern Coast,naming it New South Wales, for Britain before sailing away into History.

We flew over Horn Island, Thursday Island, Prince of Wales island and many others before returning to Red Island and Seisia.

It was a great trip.
We pottered around the town, rested, enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the sunset.