I
t’s 6am and the shuttle bus
is here to take us to the air-
port for the first leg of our
journey to Horn Island in the
Torres Strait. After a short
flight, 2 hours and 10 min-
utes, we’re in the Horn Island airport,
a bus ready to take us to the ferry; a
four-minute water taxi ride across to
Thursday Island. A cold beer and a
feed at the local hotel awaits.
We did the bus tour of about an
hour and a half to visit the; hilltop
museum; the refurbished under-
ground tunnels of Green Hill Fort and
the Japanese Pearl Divers Memorial.
The views were spectacular and the
driver’s commentary was lively, you
can tell he’s passionate about his is-
land home. A final ferry ride, an hour
and 10 minutes to cover the 30 kilo-
metre stretch from Thursday Island
lands us back on the Australian main-
land, at Seisia.
We meet our guide Roy at the jetty.
Originally from Victoria, Roy fell in
love with the Cape after he travelled
around Australia solo on a motorcy-
cle in the mid-1980s. He moved to
Cairns and created Cape York Motor-
cycle Adventures.
“When I began doing this 25 years
ago, it was mostly goat tracks through
here,” Roy says. “Now we’ve got all
these wide comfortable roads.”
Wide? Maybe, but only a dirt-de-
mon like Roy could describe Cape
York’s road as comfortable. Our
guides are as diverse as the visitors
taking the tour, clean cut and quiet,
TRAVERSE
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diesel fitter Mark, contrasting with
the rough and ready support vehicle
driver, Westy, who lives for the tough
4WD trails and campfire cooking.
We land at our picturesque beach-
side camping spot at the Seisia Holi-
day Park, Loyalty Beach. As we down
a cracking green curry dinner, every-
one starts to get acquainted. Most of
the guys are so excited to sleep under
the stars for the first time, they all
drag their camp stretchers out of the
tents that have been set up for us.
The first riding day dawns and we
claim our bikes, practically identical
DR-Z400s, none more than 7 months
old as CYMCA changes them over
every year. Our destination is the
most northerly “tip” of Australia.
Mark leads us down a deep, sandy
4WD trail and it tests a few of the
guys, with a sand virgin among us
hitting the deck early. Though they
all get back up again thanks to the
encouragement of our very patient
guides.
The northernmost point of the
Cape itself is a 500m hike over rock
from the parking spots on the near-
by beach. Add the Queensland heat
and the group can’t get out of our rid-