Australia Lesson Activities - Geography

Cape York borders the Coral Sea to the east and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the west, jutting northwards into the Torres Strait in the far N/E of Queensland.

By road and track, the shortest route from the main city Cairns, to the tip of the peninsula is 952km.

The region is vast and sparsely populated. It is a patchwork of tropical savannah, with numerous streams and rivers along the eastern coast running from the Great Dividing Range to the Coral Sea. Some of the largest tracts of virgin tropical rainforest in Australia are found on the York Peninsula, with several beautiful and rarely visited national parks found in the forest areas.

The Great Barrier Reef stretches offshore for 1000 km to the east, protected as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Some of the best scuba diving in the world is found along the reef.

Today x360 traveled from the mouth of the Starcke River southwest towards the interior of the York Peninsula. We cycled through deep forests along a sandy track for the first 30 km. As we left the coastal area and came out of the forest, the track turned to brown, hard-pack soil. The countryside opened-up into large grasslands and river valleys. We crossed through several rivers keeping an eye-out for crocodiles, and are camped this evening along the banks of Tiger Creek, in the deep rainforest.

Jim

We slept last night at beautiful Lake Emma, a volcanic crater filled with beautiful, to our tired eyes and dusted bodies, blue and clear water. The elevation at the lake was 145 meters…. (How many feet is that, for those of you operating in the standard system of measurement?)

Our route took us through dry savannah, Eucalyptus forests, and an endless road of bull-dust and corrugation. After several hours of flat grazing lands, we descended a quick downhill to the Laura River crossing near the Old Laura Station. The homestead was established back in the 1870’s along the track from Cooktown to Laura and the Palmer goldfields. Before the road was improved, the station was completely self-sufficient during the wet (the rains) for months at a time.

We left Old Laura and rode through more flat country, thick with Eucalyptus and dry grass. In one dry tributary we rested in the shade and ate our midday meal, and pedaled the remaining 16 kms to the town of Laura, also located on the Laura River. It is a small town, with enough water to support a store, post office, several nice houses, a row of large shade trees along the main road, and a campground where we’ve settled for the night.

So, today was relatively flat but hard going with the road surface as it is. Tomorrow begins the first of 250 kms of far-rougher riding. We’ll pedal along the Maytown track for two days, which has a reputation which basically says ‘don’t use the track.’ The first day will be sand, and then rock up and over two ranges of mountains. The geography is about ready to change for us.

No doubt, we will not be camping by a river or enjoying showers in a campground for a few days.

Jim