Do not pass Go. Go directly to 45:42

 

 

In this rare video you can experience the very best of the Cape York Peninsula from the delights of historic Cooktown to the mining giant that is Weipa. Travel to "The Tip" via the exciting challenge of the Overland Telegraph Line and marvel at the natural wonders of the region's national parks, the magic of the verdant rainforest of Iron Range, and the rivers and streams that are the everlasting images of Cape York.

However, if you want to see where almost fifty years ago I lived in one of the most exciting places I've ever been to and worked in one of the least challenging jobs I've ever worked in, then go straight to 45:42.

 

 

The upstairs window to the right of that big tree was my office from where I gazed across the azure waters towards Horn Island whenever what little work needed to be done had been done. A perfect tropical sinecure but not for a young man in his "Sturm und Drang" years with many places yet to go. Staying would have been fatal to my ambitions.

 

I took this photo in 1977. My office window is to the right of the big B in IIB

 

Robert Frost expressed it so well ...

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

 

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