How to Ship Motorbikes from Cape York to Cairns
We had an important decision to make after reaching Cape York - do we ride back down the Peninsula to Cairns or ship the motorbikes down and fly back? We discussed it with Arnie and Franco and together we decided to go with option number two.
Riding from Cairns to Cape York was a long hard slog for us, we were buggered and needed a break! 🙂
So with the decision made to ship the bikes back to Cairns, we cleaned the red dirt off Arnie and Franco as best we could with a garden hose, dropped them off at Seisia Wharf for an emotional farewell, then headed to Bamaga Airport to board a little prop plane for the bumpy flight back to Cairns.
How we shipped our motorbikes from Cape York to Cairns
We shipped the motorbikes back from Seisia near Bamaga in Cape York down to Cairns with the shipping company Sea Swift. The voyage for the ship from Seisia to Cairns only takes a few days, however we booked last minute and all of their motorcycle racks were in use, so they advised us it could take up to six weeks for the motorbikes to reach Cairns. This wasn't an issue for us as we had work to catch up on down there so were happy to wait.
In the end the bikes took a little longer than expected to get to Cairns, arriving eight weeks after we left them in Cape York. We called Sea Swift two weeks earlier to find out if they'd arrived yet and got the feeling they'd been forgotten about. So maybe if we'd called earlier they would've arrived earlier, it's something to keep in mind if you're waiting on a vehicle being shipped in North Queensland.
The total cost to ship the two motorcycles from Bamaga to Cairns was $1,575.31. The shipping cost was based on total cargo weight and allowed up to 500kg for both motorbikes. We estimated each bike to weigh around 230kg including panniers and luggage.
You can contact Sea Swift at https://www.seaswift.com.au/.
Flights back from Cape York to Cairns
We flew back from Cape York to Cairns on Rex Airlines. It was a two hour flight departing Bamaga Airport at 4:30pm and landing in Cairns Airport at 6:30pm. The total cost for two tickets was $514.
Rex has daily flights available between Bamaga to Cairns, you can check their schedules at https://www.rex.com.au/schedules/.
Videos of Our Cape York Adventure
- Cairns to Cooktown via The Bloomfield Track and Emmagen Creek
- Cooktown to Musgrave Station via Lakefield
- Musgrave to Bramwell Station via Archer River
- Bramwell to The Tip via Fruit Bat Falls
- Our Toughest Day in Cape York - The Hard Part Wasn't Over
- Cape York back to Cairns The Easy Way - Shipping the Bikes
Aug 26, 2023
