Day 20 – Somerset Day Trip (Sun May 13^th)

Happy Mothers day to all you mummies out there.  The sun is trying to come out which is great. I enjoyed a yummy bacon and egg breaky cooked for me by Damon and his little helpers.

This is my little Oasis - looking out from our Camp

Looking down Loyalty Beach towards Seisa

Today we decided to go to Punsand Bay Resort for lunch, then take a look at Somerset on the way home.

We topped up our fuel at Bamaga BP @ $2.20/L for Diesel.

Punsand Bay is on the way out to the Tip, on the west coast of the Cape. On our way we came to Laradeenya Creek which had been up over night with all the rain we had yesterday. It was flowing pretty fast, and about knee deep when Damon walked across. It probably would of been fine to cross, but we decided to give it a miss and try again tomorrow.

So it was then onto Somerset Beach, which is on the east coast of The Cape. The road to Somerest was a little washed out and muddy, but easy enough if taking it slow. The beach is nice, and overlooks Albany Island, where there is a fishing lodge. 

Somerset Beach

Albany Island and fishing lodge

You can free bush camp here, there is a big shelter shed and drop toilets.

Somerset has a lot of history with the early pioneers, mainly the Jardine’s and the Vidgeon’s, they farmed cattle and copra. Their graves are around the beach at Somerset and up on the hill where the old homestead once stood. The graves were interesting and a little eerie at the same time.

The resting place of Frank and Sana Jardine

One of the things we’ve noticed since our first day on the Cape, is the amount of cans and bottles that people stick on the branches of the trees. It’s really weird, i call them bottle trees. It’s a shame to see them though, as we don’t like seeing rubbish, in any form, in such a beautiful place. We saw more of these bottle trees on our way back to camp.

Back at our camp the sun had come out and it was nice eating lunch looking out at our view.

Lunch time views

After a quick lunch we drove out to the airport to see our friends Jen and Ben. They have moved up here from SA to work for a while. They live in a great little house at the Airport. Ben maintains the airport grounds, slashing, refuelling planes etc and Jen is a nurse at the Bamaga Hospital. 

The horses at Jen and Ben's at the Airport

They had some little visitors, some local horses which roam free all around the region. The kids enjoyed giving them a pat. The horses are everywhere here, on the sides of the road, and even walking up the main street of Bamaga.

For dinner tonight, we tried the beach restaurant at loyalty beach where we are staying. It was beautiful sitting there, eating yummy fish and chips with the kids and watching the sun go down.

Off to Mummies day dinner

The lodge and restaurant at Loyalty Beach

Fine Beach Dining

After dinner we sat back at our camp and watched the end of the sunset, it’s a hard life we’re having at the moment!