We just completed two weeks in Far North Queensland (FNQ) ending at Cape York. There is a lot of good information online, and most of what I watched from recent years is fairly accurate. Here is our experience from September 2025.
When you go matters for off-roading. Why September? Because that is as far from the wet season as you can get, so water crossings are low, yet before Cape York closes up business at the end of the school holidays, so everything is still open and available. If you want absolute chaos and mayhem off-road, then May and June are your best months, and you will get exactly chaos and mayhem. As the months progress in the dry season, tracks get easier to travel.
In all honesty, don’t be afraid to get off the beaten track. Our best camping was when we went places the majority were not going. Stop watching Youtube and the popular stops, where the really good stuff is not on Youtube because people just adventure and enjoy, where Youtubers visit with the intention to tell you about the same popular spots that everyone else is telling you about, in some attempt to put a new spin on it because those places get the clicks. We found amazing places by exploring tracks and roads towards rivers and ocean.
This brings me to maps. I use ExplorOz Maps, which you will need the high resolution version to see all the available tracks on offer. I paid for offline maps, which you will want, even with starlink, because when you’re within a canopy of trees along tracks for 20kms, starlink is not going to help you load your map as you drive along. If you’re going remote, be prepared and have offline high resolution maps available, regardless the software you use. We came across a young family using paper maps, and they were lost because the tracks change year to year, sometimes just meters, sometimes 100m or more. I pulled up ExplorOz maps in detail for them on the iPad, showed them the difference between the reality of the tracks versus what their outdated paper map contained, and they immediately understood they needed real-time mapping.
Where to visit. Our best adventure was within the National Parks North of Cooktown to Coen, everything within that area to the East of the Peninsula Development Road (PDR), that is where you should honestly focus most of your time. Trip out to the coast, travel through Battlecamp road, head North within the aboriginal lands and parks and don’t exit before Coen. You will find amazing camps in that area. Avoid the Youtube popular stuff, it isn’t all its cracked up to be.
We went off the beaten track and camped beside croc infested rivers, literally. We sat and watched crocs stalking us, having a beer (and rum). So many people who have done Cape York said they didn’t see any crocs, which means they did all the popular, lazy, camping. Crocs were in most places we went, and readily viewable. Didn’t catch a fish though… end of the season. We threw everything at that task, no result. Yet weeks earlier, lots were being caught in the same locations. So I guess when you go, also matters for fishing.
If you have a boat, then my recommendations below would change. Cape Tribulation has amazing camping. The CREB track is an easy drive in the dry, and just amazing. Lots of good swimming along that track in croc safe creeks. Cooktown is OK, but nothing special. Stay within that NP area as long as possible. Coen, best for fuel as everything further increases significantly, where Coen is still around the $2 a litre range. Weipa? If you need to do shopping to continue North, then visit Weipa, otherwise, there is nothing there. No town, no little shops to visit, nothing much at all.
Frenchmans track is pretty easy to do in September. Moreton Telegraph Station is ok, but nothing special. It used to have an amazing food van during the season, but is closed to lack of staff, so really, you’re best to stay at Bramwell Station. Bramwell Junction also has toilets and showers in their camping. Honestly, if you aren’t interested in the tourist park restaurant for an evening or two, it would be more convenient to stay at the Junction. The OTT is demanding, even in the dry season. We put both our vehicles down the smallest drop-in at Gunshot, and that is still higher than the vehicle length, which went into mud, yet was the best of the entries and least mud, but had a tree out front to winch easily from. Made Gunshot easier and not risk breaking our vehicles.
We started the OTT around 8am and finished the first half about 3pm. There was nobody stopping us at any point, it just takes that long. The second half is easier, just river crossings, but you won’t be doing the OTT in a day with any ease. It would be a significant struggle. There are many great camping spots along the track you can book, and with a bit of prep, you can do. For example, we stayed at Bramwell and returned their, making for a big day out, where you can book into the Fruit Bat / Elliot Falls camping ground and leave your camper / caravan there instead, and it would be better to start from there, drive the hour and a half back to the junction, do the first half to end near your accommodation, then the second half the following day, shorter drive back to accommodation, then continue on to the Jardine.
North of the Jardine has good camping locations, again, don’t be afraid to explore tracks out to isolated areas. Punsand Bay has a good camping park, but again, you will find amazing places if you’re just willing to explore a little and not follow the traffic.
My best piece of advice for Cape York is, don’t have a plan. You will find amazing places and adventures along the way if you’re willing to look. We planned leaving Cape Trib and head into the NP North of Cooktown, and we made it to the Lions Den, loved the atmosphere and grabbed a couple of powered sites for the night, had drinks, good food and enjoyed ourselves. We had plans on entering the NP above Cooktown, and when we got to places we decided to explore other places, as the knowns were not that great, and we found amazing camp sites. Starlink makes booking easy… as we found something, we got online and booked.
Another problem you will come across, is that people book ahead for NP camping, but don’t turn-up to use it, because they find the same thing we did, you find cool places to visit, and most camping is $7 a night per adult, so people just pay and forfeit the fee. Good if you turn-up at sites which say are all booked, explore them, and you will find empty sites to use for a night.
Honestly, there is so many camping sites in the NP’s, you will always find camping if you understand the system being used.
The roads honestly weren’t as bad as people said years earlier. There is a lot of bitumen, still lots of corrugations, but if you let all your tyres down to a compromise for dirt and bitumen (I did 32 PSI car and camper) and set the shocks to the softest setting, we sat around 80-90kph on dirt to get on top of the corrugations, and 100kph on bitumen. Saying that, some of the bitumen roads are also corrugated, meaning exactly that, it is no different than driving on the dirt corrugations. Thin bitumen I guess!