Diary of an aviation nut: The northern most point of the Australian continent and beyond

Cape York with York & Eborac Islands beyond

Woohoo. I’ve made it to the top of Australia – the pointy bit on the east coast that represents the most northern point of the Australian continent.

It was a big day today that started with looking out the window at steady rain and low cloud. Uh oh. However, the forecast said it would clear at Mareeba airport at 10:00am and that’s pretty much what it did.

We were airborne at 11:10am and tracked out to Port Douglas on the coast. Strong SE winds of ~20kts have prevailed since we left Brisbane on Sunday and they’ve been pushing warm moist air onto the coast where it’s lifted and forms cloud and rain. We picked our way around rain showers and low cloud all the way from Mareeba to Cooktown where we stopped briefly for fuel.

We had booked tickets on the ferry from Horn Island where we planned to land, to Thursday Island where we're staying at 3:15pm and, with a long sector to Horn Island in front of us, our refuelling needed to be quick. We landed at Cooktown 12:02pm and took off again at 12:30pm and, in addition to re-fuelling, we had time for a banana. What a team!

The weather gradually improved as we headed north along the coast and we climbed up to 8500’ to pass over cloud and for some of the longer over-water stretches. However, the tail wind at that altitude wasn’t as good as it was lower so that cost us a bit of time.

It was a long leg (exactly 3.0hrs) from Cooktown to Cape York and then the 15nm crossing to Horn Island. We chatted away about a range of things and munched on Minties. Our route took us over some lovely islets, reefs and sand bars nestled in an azure sea. There was always something to look at.

From Cooktown there’s an 860km dirt road to Cape York which we crossed several times and saw in the distance from time to time. As we approached the Cape we could see a number of cars and campers parked a bit south of the Cape and as we overflew the Cape there were quite a few people clearly visible at the lookout on the northern most point of the continent. Some even waved.

After doing several orbits around the Cape, we set heading for Horn Island just 15nm away.

As we were flying toward the Cape we were listening on the frequency that serves Horn Island and I was amazed at the number of aircraft coming and going from the airport. It’s quite a busy place.

Our approach into Rwy 14 at Horn Island was a bit of a wild ride in 15kt winds that were gusting to 25kts. I had to work hard but managed to put the aircraft down gently.

We’d missed our 3:15pm ferry but nobody seemed particularly bothered. “Just catch the next bus to the wharf” they said. We didn’t have to wait long for a bus and the ferry to Thursday Island arrived 10mins after we were dropped at the wharf.

Thursday Island is one of the 274 islands in the Torres Strait that runs between the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea. It’s only 80nm (148km) to Papua New Guinea from Cape York and it was tempting to keep going!

With a population of 2,085 people Thursday Island is the administrative centre for the Torres Shire (council) and the administrative and commercial centre of the local government area of the Torres Strait Island region. Walking around we found many empty shops and crime must be a factor as most business had bars over the windows. However, the locals we’ve spoken to are all friendly and welcoming.

Reaching Horn Island marks the halfway point of our trip and we start to head south tomorrow down the west coast of the Cape York peninsular.

Leg Summary
Mareeba (YMBA) - Cooktown (YCKN)
Distance: 99nm (183km)
Time: 0.9hrs
Alt: 1,000 - 2,000ft

Cooktown (YCKN) - Cape York - Horn Island (YHID)
Planned distance: 342nm (633km)
Time: 3.0hrs
Alt: 2000 - 8,500ft