Tender at the Top End

The Lotus Bird Lodge is home to hundreds of species of birds.

In the far north of tropical Queensland, the pioneering spirit of the Outback lives on.

Never mind the heroic endeavours of early explorers, parked in Weipa's camping ground is a Saab sports with a trailer. It's a remarkable sight given that the mining town of Weipa is a gruelling 800km from Cairns over deep-rutted roads which even 4WD vehicles find tough going.

One of the regular visitors to the camp and I are marvelling at this little beauty. "Look at that those soft city tyres. How did that car get up here? It must have been bottoming out all the way," she says.

Baffled, we shake our heads. Although we never exchange names, we start chatting. She and her Dad have been coming to this camping ground for many years and she tells me about the time they saw a young jabiru (a black-necked stork) with a fish hook stuck in its throat and a rusty lure in its foot.

They tried to catch it but couldn't. While they watched and waited they fed it fish stuffed with antibiotics. Eventually the rusty bit worked its way out - the hook, though, would be a permanent piercing. Two weeks on and the jabiru was on the mend but soon they had to leave. It was then that a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy offered to care for the bird until it was well enough to feed itself.

The staunch love of this land and its wildlife that shines through in this story is pretty typical of the people I met on my journey to Cape York, the Top End of Australia.

Four days earlier I set off from Cairns with Wilderness Challenge, a family-owned tour company that has been running camping and accommodated safaris for 16 years. I took the soft option - the seven-day safari that includes resorts, swimming pools, lovely dinners and a bar.

There are eight of us - a handful of Australians and an American couple - plus guide Mark Kelly.

Our first stop is just a few minutes away at a dairy to make sure we all have water. Mark is carrying plenty of water, plus a satellite phone, first-aid gear and equipment to winch us out if the vehicle, a tank-like bus, gets bogged down. But the message is clear: this may be a guided tour but we're still going into a remote and unpredictable region.

After the sugar cane fields and pristine beaches we're into the world heritage listed Daintree rainforest. It is hard to appreciate just how precious this place is. At 200 to 300 million years old - the Amazon is only 7 million years old - the Daintree is possibly the oldest rainforest in the world. Of 19 primitive flowering plants on earth, 13 are found here.

Just after the Daintree ferry crossing, and what would be the first of many signs warning us of crocodiles, there's a Portaloo stop and we're talking about the ruthless ecosystem of the rainforest. Mark explains about something called speargrass, common across the savannah, and how little bits get in your socks and irritate you because the speargrass reacts to moisture and grows. Then if the socks go in the wash with the jocks ... Ai Yi Yi.

Back in the bus and we're headed to Cape Tribulation where, apparently, the rainforest meets the reef. However, on the day we arrive we're halfway along the track to the look-out when a couple of tourists tell us it is closed for painting.

We have, though, gone far enough along the track for Mark to spy some gympie bush. It's a deceptively innocuous looking plant - its heart-shaped leaves and serrated edges within hand's reach.

But just brushing against the fine hairs on the leaves can cause poison to be injected into the skin leading to burning and itching for weeks. It's at times like this I'm incredibly glad I'm not doing a self-drive tour.

Although we can't see the view from the top, we do get more time to wander along this stunning beach while Mark gets a billy on.

Then it's back on the road and over the rugged 4WD Bloomfield Track where, on the way to Cooktown, stunningly beautiful blue butterflies about the size of my hand flit in front of the bus. They're Ulysses Blue, quite common up here, but look particularly dramatic against this stark red road.

Late in the day we arrive in Cooktown, a frontier town born out of calamity. In 1770, Captain James Cook's barque Endeavour hit the Great Barrier Reef off Cape Tribulation. He and his crew found refuge here and in so doing - they had to spend almost two months while repairing their ship - founded the first European settlement in Australia.

It would, though, be another century before the discovery of gold turned it into a boom town with a fearful reputation. Ships often preferred to throw their cargo of horses and stock overboard rather than dock, so eager were they to leave.

It was a veritable hellhole and cannabalism was not unusual.

Today, Cooktown is a somewhat sleepy but pleasant tourist port where the biggest row seems to be from the rainbow lorikeets feasting on the mango trees. It's Day 2 and we're on the Battle Camp Rd to Lakefield National Park. I'm in the navigator's seat and Mark, a former airforce pilot who knows this land well from both the ground and the air, is explaining the challenges of this seemlingly endless deep-rutted, red road.

He's looking for subtle changes that may indicate dust holes - they're bad news because you don't know how deep they are and it's easy to break an axle.

Well into the ruts and "ski jumps" there's a sign that shows the humour is as dry as the land: Rough Road. Yeah, worked that one out already.

We're also in big croc country so we deviate to check out the watering holes. Sitting up front gives me an advantage and I spot one - all of 4m sunbathing on a log. For a few minutes it eyeballs us and then slips into the water with barely a ripple. Backtracking a little later we spot a smaller estuarine crocodile lying in the shallows. All of which makes you wonder about camping and getting water for the billy.

So I'm more than glad to be checking in to Lotus Bird Lodge. This 64ha lodge is home to 270 species of birds including the red goshawk and the golden shouldered parrot, of which there are thought to be only 200 pairs left in the wild.

We're greeted by owners Gary Conners and Sue Brown, who used to run the camp and fishing lodge at Punsand Bay at the Top End for a dozen years. Over tea and freshly baked scones we're warned not to walk near the billabong which is also home to Conan, a 4m croc.

Gary, a fair dinkum Aussie and proud of it, tells us how he unintentionally remodelled the kitchen while Sue was away in Sydney. He was sitting outside having a quiet beer when his dog Zoe, a Harlequin Dane with a bit of Bamaga cross, made that distinctive "it's a snake" growl.

Gary wandered in, shone the torch around but didn't see anything to worry him. And then he turned and saw a 1.52m King Brown draped across the screen door of the kitchen. King Browns and taipans are not the sort of reptiles that you gently guide out the door and let slither back to the bush. This calls for weapons of mass destruction or at the very least a gun. To put it mildly, there wasn't much left of the screen door after the shooting spree and the kitchen sounded as if it had been modified in a Jackson Pollock sort of way.

This is by way of a lead-in to ask if we have torches to get from our pole-style cabins back to the dining area. I give him a desperate Tourette's syndrome loaded look, which politely translated says: "Never mind the torch mate, gimme the gun".

Alas, the torch (minus the gun) comes with Gary's succinct advice: "If you see a snake, yell. And Sue will come running." And, you know what? I think he's only half kidding.

After a swim (in the pool) we gather in the dining room which has verandahs from where we can watch the locals. A group of wallabies come close and give us that "strangers in town" look but soon settle back to their evening ritual and their supper courtesy of Gary and Sue.

Then we're fed, and well - pea and ham soup, roast and pud courtesy of Gary. After his kitchen chores Gary weighs in with a bit of Kiwi- and Victorian-baiting (thank God there are three Victorians on the trip).

Next morning, as the spoonbills hover and pelicans glide over the billabong, and scrubbers (wild Brahmin cattle) scour the water's edge blissfully unaware of Conan, a pair of whistling kites suddenly get our attention.

Another ritual is taking place. As Sue puts it: "The whistling kites have trained Gary to feed them." Sure enough, on cue, they swoop in to take their breakfast.

It's clear Gary and Sue love living here and because of that you really feel you're being welcomed in to someone's home. So, somewhat reluctantly, we wave them goodbye and set off on the next leg to the bauxite mining town of Weipa.

Driving along through this rough, tough terrain you can't help thinking of the pioneers, who against all the odds, opened up this land.

Then in the middle of nowhere everything changes. It's at Archer River Roadhouse, 600km from Cairns, I learn that my mother has died. For me the journey is over. I will go on to Weipa and make my way home leaving the others to conquer the Top End where, touchingly, they will also raise the New Zealand flag on my behalf.

* Barbara Harris was a guest of Tourism Queensland, Wilderness Challenge, and The Lakes Cairns Resort & Spa and Qantas.


Checklist

* Getting there
Qantas fly daily from Auckland to Cairns via Sydney or Brisbane. For more information check out  the Qantas website link below.

* Accommodation
The Lakes Cairns Resort & Spa is at 2 Greenslopes St, Cairns 4870 Queensland, Australia
The four-and-a-half star resort has spacious modern apartments and is ideal for families with a babysitting service available and a kids' club. It is next to the botanical gardens and close to the city and airport. It has a good range of dining facilities, four swimming pools, tennis court and a day spa. Visit the website link below to the Lakes Cairns Resort and Spa.  

 Lotus Bird Lodge is 480km north of Cairns in Lakefield National Park. Accommodation is in pole-style cabins and it costs A$230 ($248) each a night, including all meals. Ph (00617) 4060 3400 or click on the Lotusbird link below. 


* Guided safari
Wilderness Challenge
After Weipa the tour heads along the Telegraph Track to Resort Bamaga on the shores of Torres Strait and ends with a walk to the top of Australia, Cape York, and then a cruise to Thursday Island.

The seven-day accommodated safari costs $2795 each on a twin-share drive-fly basis, or from $5045 twin-share including 7 days' cruising on the Coral Princess. Ph (00617) 4035 4488 or visit the Wilderness challenge website link below.  You can also contact the Wilderness Challenge through the email link below. 

* More information is available through the Tourism Queensland website link below.