Monday we headed up to Bamiga, by way of the Fruit bat falls on Elliot Creek. This was the first time we were able to swim in a water hole which was very pleasant on a 30 degree day.
On the way into Bamiga, we stopped at the old WW2 airfield. There were piles of rusted old 40 gallon drums all through the scrub. These were the fuel stores during the war and they hid them in the bush to protect from bombing. Our objective was the site of the war time plane which had crashed in the bush.
The next morning was an early start on our trip up to cape York peninsula. The 30 km road trip took over an hour, with the roads more like lumpy fire trails and lots of rocking and rolling in the bus. There are 2 options for the walk to the tip – low road was along the croc infested beach, while the high road involved a scramble across a series of rocky outcrops. We took the high road. The nice thing was everyone managed this walk as it was a real highlight. We celebrated by stopping off at the Croc Shed on the way back to buy our cape York tee shirts and other selected souvenirs.
At dinner we were entertained by a group of islander dancers. Bamiga is home to 5 different tribal groups. Some of islander origin, and some the displaced aboriginal groups including those who were shipped off from Weipa when the mining lease was granted. Our people were originally from Sarbai Island, which is the TS island closest to PNG. They original came to Bamiga when serving as part of the TSI battalion during the Second World War. At the end of the war, they settled in the vacated military developments. They were in mourning as they had just lost their second last WW2 vet. The dancing and story telling is completely different to the aboriginal version, strongly reflecting their islander background.
Round about 