Right now we’re just about into the beginning of the Dry season up in Cape York, when tens of thousands of 4WDers and campers make their way north every year to experience Australia’s best 4WDing and camping. The Dry season generally starts around March and runs through to about December every year, with the most popular time being the winter months. We get asked the question a lot, as to whether it’s safe to camp in a swag up in the Cape. If you haven’t done much looking into Cape York yet, you might wonder why it possibly wouldn’t be safe to camp in a swag up there. The big question on everyones’ lips is crocodile safety, with the worry that if you’re in your swag down on the ground you’re going to get snapped up by a snapping handbag.

We’re here to tell you that yes, without a doubt, it is indeed safe to camp in a swag in Cape York! We’ve been doing it for decades, along with bucketloads of adventurers and campers. As long as you know a few facts about crocs then you’re perfectly safe camping in your swag. In fact, we reckon swag camping is one of the best ways to see Cape York for a number of reasons, which we’ll go into in a moment.

First, let’s really quickly run through croc safety. For the uninitiated, there are two types of crocs up in the Cape – saltwater, and freshwater. Salties grow much bigger than freshies, and are much more aggressive. Freshies typically get maybe 6ft max in size, and very rarely will they actively become aggressive towards humans. Salties on the other hand are much bigger in size, growing to three or four times that size easily, and they’re the ones that’ll happily have a munch on an unsuspecting tourist. The basic rules of thumb are camp at least 20m away from a saltwater river, creek or beach waterline, and never go anywhere near the water at night. If you follow those two main rules then you’ll be entirely safe camping in your swag in Cape York

So why are swags so suited to Cape York? First off, because they’re easy to setup. For so many of us, the Cape is a once in a lifetime experience so that means you naturally want to see as much of the Cape as possible. You don’t really want to waste two hours a day setting up and packing up camp. When you pull up to one of those perfect freshwater streams, you want to set up camp as quickly as possible and get onto the serious work of relaxing in the beautiful cool water. The full range of Adventure Kings swags set up in less than 2min, and will give you such a beautiful comfortable night’s sleep afterwards. Add a few extras like an awning, one or two awning walls and a mesh floor and you’ll have a really well setup Cape York campsite built around your swag.

The other reason swags are so suited to Cape York is that even in the winter months, it’s still bloody warm up in Cape York. The Adventure Kings range of swags all feature midge and mozzie proof mesh windows that let you roll your canvas back and enjoy the cool night’s breeze without being eaten alive.

One of our favourite things about Cape York is that regardless of how busy it gets, you can still usually find a hidden little bush camp somewhere. It might only be big enough for one or two vehicles, but there’s still the opportunity to explore properly and find that perfect little spot away from the crowds. When you’ve got a swag it means you don’t need to hunt for a huge space to camp in – all you need is some room to spread out your awning and throw your swag out underneath it.

If you follow these basic croc safety tips then there’s no reason at all that you can’t camp out of a swag in Cape York. Get a bunch of mates together, strap your swags to the roof racks, fill the fuel tanks and just go!