My Cape York tour was amazing… I had to admit my husband was right, this hurt…

It is not often that I fess up to my mistakes, especially when it involves also admitting my dear husband was right.  In all our forty-two years of marriage, I would imagine this has only occurred a couple of times, so this revelation is BIG!!!

We are the kind of couple who spend way too much of our time bickering about the small things, so when we disagreed about going to Cape York, it was no big deal, just the way we ‘rolled’ – as my daughter Kylie would term it.  However, this time felt different.  Normally I could outsmart him with some real facts, and where necessary, some slightly twisted facts.  Combine this with some emotional outbursts and I’d come out getting what I wanted.  This time he seemed to have done his research and even pre-empted my response and gathered enough facts to combat me.  I was totally out of my comfort zone here.

Our discussion, bordering argument, about a trip to Cape York arose a month in to our trip up north.  We were just lazing about the beautiful Lake Placid Tourist Park when a bus arrived to take a group of guests from the park to Cape York.  The excitement in my husband’s eyes, as he began to tell me that he had discovered the Tourist Park could book us on one of these trips to Cape York, in just a couple of days, was quite infectious.

Having said that though, my image of Cape York was 4WDs going through lots of water, then driving up steep rocks only to nose dive down the other side.   I figured this type of travel was for the adventurous at heart, and definitely not for a sixty-three year old woman who had freaked out on a chair lift at the Melbourne Showgrounds only a few years prior.

I started with what I thought would be a definite road block, “we can’t leave the caravan and car, too costly to store.”  Immediately he fired one of his prepared facts – Lake Placid Tourist Park would store this for us, free.  Ummm that didn’t work so I proceeded by expressing my concern around us getting bogged off the beaten track in the middle of nowhere.  Surely he knew that I would not cope with that AT ALL!!  He then spent much effort assuring me that the tour bus drivers were all experienced and that being bogged would only be a problem if we attempted it on our own, which we both agreed was not an option for us.  After a few more unsuccessful attempts on my behalf, to convince him that Cape York wasn’t for us, he ended with a new tactic….he strategically brought up that my upcoming luxury spa booking was something I had wanted and how he had been happy to go along.  It was only fair that I accommodated his needs as he was doing for me, that’s what couples do apparently, it is called compromise.  I couldn’t argue with this.

So there I was two days later, savoring every last sip of my delicious coffee at the Croc Café in Lake Placid Tourist Park, reluctantly awaiting our bus to Cape York with my overly excited husband……..

And here I am now, passionately wanting to share with everyone, how much I genuinely loved our trip to the northern most tip of Australia.  It was such a unique experience enriched with history and natural beauty.  I felt more connected to nature than ever before in my life.  The land is unspoiled and diverse and the wildlife and bird-life seemed to follow us up close the entire trip.  It felt spiritual.  Actually walking out to the sign that says ‘YOU ARE STANDING AT THE NORTHERNMOST POINT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT’, where the oceans meet and overlook the unspoiled Torres Strait Islands, was definitely something I will never forget.  The WW2 ruins were my husband’s favorite experience and mine would have to be the breathtaking Fantastic Fruit Bat Falls (shown in image).  Thank you to my dear husband for taking me out of my comfort zone and making me realise, I too am an adventurer at heart.  Cape York is now the beginning of many more of these types of adventures for us….that’s not to say that I am not also looking forward to my upcoming luxury spa experience, it’s all about balance hey!

Make the decision to go there, you won’t regret it!