A trip to Cape York can still be challenging ... especially if you are towing an off-road caravan.
To some, the march of the bitumen is taking the hard-core adventure out of a trip to Cape York … but there can be little doubt that it is also encouraging many more grey nomads and other travellers to take the ultimate trip north.
A Department of Primary Industries vehicle counter on the Peninsula Development Road last year measured about 25,000 vehicles heading up. Every year, an extra 1000 vehicles pass the Archer River, and the surprising lack of rainfall this summer looks set to boost numbers again, with people already travelling to the ‘Tip’ earlier than normal.
At the Archer River Roadhouse, which is located nearly 500 kilometres north west of Cairns, just 420mm of rain was recorded in the wet season, instead of the average 1300mm.
Tourism Cape York chief executive Trish Butler said she was aware of tourists who had made the journey north in January – something nearly impossible in a normal wet season.
“The road was pretty rough because there had been rain, there had been a washout, but you just drive to the conditions and it’s fine,” she told the Cairns Post. “Last year we had a bumper season, and this year is already looking pretty good.”
But the co-owner of the Archer River Roadhouse, Modena Allan, told the Cairns Post that it was the improving condition of the Peninsula Development Road, rather than the lack of rain, that was the main reason more people were aiming to stand on the northernmost point of the Australian continent.
The Commonwealth and State governments are currently spending $200 million to progressively seal sections of the road, and its condition is markedly improving.
“People are saying right, we can go to the Cape now and we won’t tear the vehicle up,” said Mrs Allan.
But she urged grey nomads and other travellers who like the rough stuff that the trip to the Top was still not for the faint-hearted, and that adventure was still very much on offer.
“To the sides of the Peninsula Development Road, there are a lot of good four-wheel-drive tracks which we will be promoting,’’ she said.
Despite the growing numbers of people showing themselves ready, willing and able to go to Cape York, not all of them are entirely happy about everything they find when they get there … as we reported earlier this month.
As one who grew up in the Eastern Wheatbelt of WA back in the days of impassable dirt roads in the winter, I for one don’t care if they tar all the major roads in Australia. If it makes it easier to travel then go for it. The locals would like a bit of comfort.