Pajinka,(The Tip)

 

The track we wanted to take to the main road to the Tip was impassable due to a washed out creek crossing, so it was back to Bamaga and on the main road from there.

When you get about 20k from the top, the country you pass through alternates from savanna woodland to large pockets of tropical rain forest, you wind through tunnels of towering trees surrounded by palms and ferns, with vines twisting their way amongst the foliage. Orchids are poised in the canopy and on trunks of ancient looking trees. A magical journey through a natural wonderland.

As we rounded the last bend, before the car park at the top, we passed the remnants of a once 5 star resort. The cabins and larger buildings, lay, decaying, the rain forest slowly reclaiming the ground they occupied. In years gone by, Ansett Airlines owned the resort, hoping to capitalize on the tourist trade coming to Pajinka (the Tip), but, for some reason the venture failed to be profitable. So eventually the government of the day bought out the owners and the resort was handed to the indigenous councils of the area, but they also failed to make it profitable. Today it is abandoned, laying waste, waiting to be reclaimed by the environment. It seems a shame, but there are enough tourists wandering about without commercializing the place even more.

Around the bend, the car park for the walk to the edge of the continent came in sight. Din talked to a local sitting on a four wheeler in the shade while I did the obligatory walk to the tip. At low tide you can walk around the beach to the rocks, but you still have to scramble over a couple of hundred of meters of rocks to get there. Din couldn’t do the rocks, even though the local offered to take her on the bike up the beach, she declined his offer

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Pajinka

Once at the tip, a group of people asked me if I would take their photo at the sign, in turn one of them took mine. Making your way back you can go over the rock to the car park, which I did. Panoramic views await you at the top. It was the middle of the day and hot, I was glad to be back at the vehicle, about an 800m walk.