Heading for Pajinka

The wet was more a damp this year it seems with places in and around the Gulf really suffering but it meant the road was ‘fairly’ dry which was good for us. Even so, and disappointingly for us, most national parks were still closed with wash outs, road repairs and other maintenance needed before the high tourist season started (around end of May).  We could have ventured in to a few but the grass was very high (1-2m) adding a little extra danger with croc and snakes aplenty. Death adders are in the area and they are not nice! Needless to say we were a bit nervous to get out and explore too far from the car.

Coen, the halfway mark to the Tip, is an interesting place and a good stop over on the PDR between Weipa (as well as the Tip) and Lakeland the beginning of the PDR. Once a huge mining town (and site of some bloody wars with the local indigenous), Coen now provides a great stop for supplies - if the truck has arrived with the goods! When we were there many of the shelves were bare. We camped at Charlie’s mine.  It is a gold mine, but its heyday has passed.  Charlie is a wonderful character with a story for every occasion and topic.  The spot is quaint – Charlie-art everywhere.  Floors of the toilets (named ‘Tony’ and ‘Julia’) and showers, one of which is delightfully open to the stars, are decorated with faux rock and precious stone art.  His ‘house’ is a little Whitecliffs crossed with the cave houses of Guadix - he’s Maltese and Maltese Crosses decorate many things or are woven into the artwork. We spent a couple of days there exploring – going to the coast, to Archer River etc and scratching at bites – mozzies, ants and spiders. The itch can drive you mad but it’s worth it to be outside under the velvet darkness of the night sky lit only by a few candles.  We went to sleep to the calls of a pair of bush curlews and woke well before dawn with their raucous cries accompanied by a cow calling somewhere in the darkness. It was a bit reminiscent of our stop over at Musgrave Station where we were kept awake by a crazy rooster calling almost all night and being answered each time by a cow mooing – super weird duet!  

At Coen, we were serenaded daily by a myriad of birds and animals and witness to the daily affairs of a family of sunbirds – they are very small ~11cm and are brilliant yellow, the males have a royal blue bib. The feed is lush in spite of a less than ideal wet and cattle were our companions much of the way – on the road, in the bush, in the creek gullies - beautiful creatures.  A short drive along the Coen River bought us in earshot of what we thought was a mass of birds only to discover hundreds of flying foxes in the trees along the banks of the river – they looked like plump purple fruit dangling high up in the branches – but didn’t smell all that good.  The verge of the road was fringed with flowers of all sizes and colours and of course we had to stop for a closer look.  At one spot the smell was heavenly - a smallish herb thing which smelled like lemon verbena.  I don’t think most people appreciate how stunningly beautiful and fascinating our country is.  Two days later we were within cooee of Pajinka - the Tip.