The slow road to Chilli Beach, Cape York

Our Cape York adventure started with a drive from Cairns to the small settlement of Coen where it being a Saturday, everyone was at the pub, so we paid there too for our pitch beside the river behind the pub.

Next day we took the Peninsula Development Road or PDR north on intermittent dirt and blacktop sections through Musgrave and Archer River before turning off onto the tongue twisting Portland Roads Road.

En route we got too cocky with a dirt section and bounced badly in a bull dust hole - lesson learned to drive slower. A wrecked car on its roof was a timely reminder.

The next section took us four hours, through the Wenlock River and numerous creeks across bush roads before entering completely different she oak country with a view of Mt Tozer, kind of reminiscent of Tasmania. 

For termite enthusiasts, it is worth noting that Cape York has both the magnetic and cathedral termite mounds.

Next we crossed into the Kutini Payamu or Iron Range country, the roads now dry, but still rutted on the sections flooded only a couple of months ago. At the three way intersection we take the fork to Chilli Beach, 30 km of fun, twisting and turning through big heavy ruts, diving into long mud sections enveloped in thick rainforest.

Once at the beach we had a great campsite in the palm forest sheltered from a strong wind.

The beach stretches far into the distance, just right for afternoon pics.

We then lit the campfire for shank of lamb with rosemary and a bottle of chilled white wine. Bliss. Brush turkeys accompany us at the table.

Next morning after a night with nuts raining down from the giant tree limbs above, we catch a glorious sunrise behind Restoration Island, which is where Captain Bligh landed in a tiny boat after the mutiny on the Bounty.

Flocks of waders, plovers, and the occasional reef heron feed in the first rays of the sun.

We drive a few kms on the dirt to the tiny settlement of Portland Roads, population 20, plus a croc or two.

Then we head in the opposite direction to Lockhart River, an Indigenous community. The local airport just outside Lockhart, is the reincarnation of what was Gordon airfield, a massive WWII US/RAAF forward airbase against the Japanese who were at the gates of Australia in Papua New Guinea. Appalling weather conditions made airbase life hell with plenty of crashed bombers.

The community of Lockhart has the amazing Quintell Beach, studded with boulders of all shapes jutting out of the sea.

A bloke stops to chat. He is the director of roads, stays a month here, then goes home to Townsville for a week. He says the local croc is over four metres long, fiercely territorial, but lets the local kids alone when they swim at the beach. He also warns about the local sand flies, too small to see, but they pee on your skin and munch away to produce nasty infections.

Back at our campsite we check our tent where we have left our booze. Many of the Indigenous communities, including Lockhart have a total alcohol ban. If anyone, local or tourist is caught with alcohol there are huge fines, jail time, and confiscation of the vehicle. Tourists can stick to Chilli Beach and the Portland Roads Road, but nowhere else is alcohol allowed. So when you go to town, booze stays in the bush or the tent - luckily for us and our tent no one had helped themself.