Cockatours
This Cape York camping tour is a 15-day overland adventure starting from Cairns, taking you to Pajinka, the northern-most tip of Australia! Enjoy two weeks of camping, relaxing, exploring the outback, observing rare wildlife and learning the unique culture and history of Cape York.
Each year we refine our tours more and more! In the past couple years we have built an itinerary with many exciting new tours and activities, with a few special tweaks by Rossy, based on his experience as an Ecologist and local in Cape York. We head up inland and make our way back home through the coastal roads of Cape Tribulation. You will visit the most iconic, well-known places of Cape York including a full-day experience of Thursday Island with Peddells (includes Ferry ride over plus Air-conditioned Bus Tour), a night in Coen to receive a welcome to country and partake in cultural activities, jump on a boat tour to spot crocs and birds with Western Cape Eco Tours in Weipa, swim in the most refreshing waters at the beautiful Fruit Bat Falls and of course, to top off your adventure, celebrate reaching Pajinka, the tip of Australia, with our unforgettable true blue sunset sausage sizzle at the Tip of Australia!
Ensure to read each itinerary to choose the perfect Cape York Safari for you. Remember we are limited to 19 seats and WE SELL OUT every year!
All itineraries are subject to change due to weather, road conditions, unexpected circumstances or driver’s decision based on what is best for the group. This itinerary is ONLY a guide. Whilst an itinerary is important, at Cockatours, we believe being flexible and having the ability to explore and deviate is also incredibly important.
Cairns
How do the payments work?
2025 Cape York tours are currently on early bird special! Prices may increase after July 1.
As inflation and the cost of goods and services increases, we have had to adjust our prices. We have always tried to keep our prices low for you, however, prices have risen across the board and we must keep up. Fuel prices have risen significantly, increasing the prices of food and other resources in remote areas due to freight costs. Many of our accommodation and tour providers have doubled, and sometimes tripled in price. Since 2023, all dinners out have also been included in your tour price.
We also pride ourselves in maintaining our vehicles impeccably and paying our guides well. Our staff are up there with the highest paid tour guides & cooks in Australia. And despite what you may have heard, road conditions in Cape York and the Top End are as bad as they always have been, and there is still a LOT of bad dirt.
We have recently conducted research on all other companies going to Cape York (& a few Gulf Savannah), including motorbikes, tagalongs and tour trucks. We found that we are still the best value in Cape York, whilst maintaining our 5-star rating.
We are just outlining this as we believe in being transparent and we hope you can appreciate the immense value of these remote, outback tours. We hope you will continue to support us, our staff and our dream.
Cockatours is a family-owned business who aim to create unforgettable experiences for everyone. We would love to share our experience and knowledge of the remote top end of Australia with you and show you places, experiences and wildlife you never thought existed! We run smaller tours with a maximum of 15 (Isuzu) or 19 (MAN) people so it still feels private and we expect everyone to be friendly, considerate and work together as a team to create a positive experience for all.
As a small business, we have the ability to be flexible and use this as an advantage for creating great experiences and adventures. Tours are subject to change due to weather, road conditions, unexpected circumstances and the guide’s decision to best suit the group.
If you decide to join us on an adventure, please note the following:
Please note!
In 2024, our ‘Best of Cape York’ tour will have two different itineraries. As Rinyirru (Lakefield) NP often doesn’t allow camping until late June, due to the wet season, we have included the Iron Range as our wildlife days option. Iron Range NP is famous for its incredible wildlife, boasting many endemic species and is an exciting new addition!
We call them…BUS-TRUCKS! You will either travel on our 19-seater tour truck, Herc, or our new tour truck (yet to be christened).
Both trucks are setup specifically for the hard conditions in the outback and the rough dirt roads. They are both very comfortable trucks. The air-conditioning works extremely well and the tinted windows in the cab help keep the glare & heat out!
Herc is a fully contained unit, with the storage and kitchen incorporated into the body. Our new truck is like our smaller tour truck and tows a trailer with our kitchen and gear in it.
On camping tours, we take a maximum of 19 people and there is a small client fridge for your own drinks!
We are very particular about a few things that make a trip comfortable; good food and sleeping gear are two of those. We do our best to maintain our gear to a high standard and turn over our camping gear frequently.
Our single or duo tents are 6.5 ft high, very spacious and easy to put up. The fly can also be removed, making it a big mozzie dome, for those starry nights so you can watch the stars go over head!
The mattresses are high-quality, high-density dunlop foam mattresses that stack (not rollable) and are comfy! We have sheets and micro-fibre blankets (NO yucky sleeping bags) for bedding and a mattress case as well. The pillows are real pillows and are covered with hygienic pillow covers as well as a standard pillow case. We even supply bath mats for the front of your tent! The chairs and mattresses vary between trucks due to storage space.
We highly suggest reading through our Frequently Asked Questions before sending through an enquiry or making a booking.
We have provided a handy camping checklist for you to help with your preparations. This list was built from suggestions from past clients!
I highly recommend this company and their tours. It was an extraordinary privilege to travel, camp, learn, laugh, story-tell with Rossy, Kat, and many fellow travellers on the June-July 2024 Cape York adventure. Rossy’s generous sharing of his incredible ecological and historical knowledge was sensational making this so much more than any other camping trip.
He has a gift for being easy-going and fun and yet ensuring maximum safety as he adeptly led us along some challenging roads, while rewarding us many times each day with countless, beautiful experiences of some of the best nature Australia has to offer. Kat kept us magnificently fed and watered, made the few shared ‘chores’ easy, and had some great stories of her own as well as brilliant music playlists.
Heartfelt thankyou to Cockatours for so many memorable moments, too many to mention, so I would urge anyone to give it a go. I loved it!
We travelled with Cockatours to Cape York in May 2024.
After much research and not owning a suitable vehicle to traverse this remote region, we decided on a group tour. Camping wasn’t a deterrent as we envisaged a more comprehensive and immersive experience knowing that the environmental aspect was an integral part of the tour.
Rossy was an encyclopaedia of facts on the flora, fauna, history, culture and geology of the area. Having lived most of his life in the Cape York area, Rossy kept us entertained with many interesting and insightful facts about life in this remote part of Australia. His genuine love of the Cape York region and his wealth of information and experience was evident throughout the trip. This in turn gave us a deeper appreciation of the area which I am sure we would not have gained with other larger tour operators. Many entertaining and enlightening stories were told whilst sitting around the campfire and watching amazing sunsets whilst eating dinner on the beach. This created a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere where everyone was included.
Tents were very easy to erect and were sturdy enough to withstand some strong winds as well as the proverbial rain whilst camping in the rainforest! Meals were always interesting and varied and offered vegetarian alternatives. The organisation of setting up and packing up camp was well thought out and ran extremely smoothly without stress. Rossy’s driving ability was amazing from traversing some very rough roads , crossing multiple river crossings and manoeuvring the truck into some tight camp spots.
There were many and varied highlights on this tour from swimming at Fruitbat Falls and in the Coen River to seeing crashed WWII planes, a dead taipan on the side of the road whilst returning from Pajinka, the crocodile cruises at Weipa and Daintree and the amazing botanical gardens at Cooktown.
So if you’re considering travelling to Cape York, leave your vehicle and troubles behind in Cairns and travel with a local, small business operator. The wealth of first hand knowledge and experience gave us a real insight and appreciation of this remote and isolated region.
Thank you Rossy and Kat.
Rossy and his team are amazing. The knowledge he has about the Cape and all its creatures great and small is excellent. The meals were fantastic and his setup and friendliness for all makes for a great trip.
WOW……What an amazing tour. I’ve always wanted to go to the top but as a solo traveller was a bit hesitant in doing it by myself. After a bit of research i am so glad I chose Cockatours to help me cross off this bucketlist item. Rossy and Cat were so knowledgeable and it’s hard for the enthusiasm Rossy has for the area and animals not to rub off. I’ve even come home and taken my headlamp out spotlighting, discussed George Rosenthal and the search for Taipan venom and the amazing communities I’ve seen with my whole family. Great group of tour mates, tour guides and amazing sites. Can’t wait for my next tour with Cockatours.
Our Cockatours trip to Cape York in early June 2024 was such a fantastic experience. Over 15 days, our expert leader Rossy took us to incredible places in a totally authentic style, with the benefit of having deep connections to Cape communities, and being a professional ecologist. Lots of local yarns and history we’d never have learnt about if going on our own.
Campsites were often off the beaten track, food was delicious and fresh (thanks Cat), and we were always very well looked after. A challenge getting our tents up and down, with some early starts, but so worth it and great fun.
A memorable experience in one of Australia’s remote areas, with some wonderful new friends.
