Cooktown

Saturday 6 July

After some great teamwork in packing up our gear we contemplated going for a kayak but it was too windy so decided to depart Cape Tribulation for Cooktown via the Bloomfield Track. This is a graded unsealed road taking in beautiful views of the coastline. It is a fairly easy drive with a few river crossings but we still managed to see a couple of cars that had left the track probably due to high speed. There was a couple of steep inclines where I had to engage low gear on the 4WD to get the camper trailer to the top of the hills but otherwise it was a good run.

At the end of the Bloomfield we came across Wajul Wajul Falls and so stopped to have a look. After a short walk we found the falls with a massive amount of water pouring over them even though it is the dry season. You can only imagine how much flow there would be in the wet season.

Wajul Wajul Falls

Black Mountain

As we travelled we saw a peculiar mountain made up of black granite boulders. Black Mountain rises up out of the middle of a forested area and is the home to rock wallabies and the Amethystine Python, which can grow in excess of 5 metres. Fortunately we didn’t see any of them.

Arriving at Cooktown we set up the camper trailer and headed into to town to look at some of the sights. The site for Cooktown’s Lighthouse is the point at which Captain Cook came to see a possible passage back out to sea while repairing the Endeavour. It provides a magnificent view of the coast as well as over Cooktown itself.

Cooktown Lighthouse

View from Cooktown Lighthouse

Cooktown’s Botanic Gardens are not a bad size considering the size of Cooktown. They house a good variety of tropical species and have a creek water feature running through the middle of the gardens that was built in the 1800’s and restored by the community in the 1970’s.
From there we took a short drive to Finch Bay which is beautiful. There are however many warnings in this part of the world about recent saltwater crocodile sightings. We had a quick look around before heading back to our camper trailer for the night.

Finch Bay

Sunday 7 July

This morning we woke up and took off to the Captain Cook Museum, which we all enjoyed. The beautiful old building was built as a convent and once WW2 started the nuns were evacuated and American soldiers used it as their base. After the war the nuns did not return and the building was converted to the James Cook Museum.

James Cook Museum

Declan in front of one of the Endeavour's anchors and cannons

The museum has a large wing at the back of the building for the display of Captain Cook stories and artefacts including one of the Endeavour’s anchors and cannons that were thrown over board when his ship hit a reef. The main building houses historic pieces and stories that pertain to the area. The boys enjoyed the treasure hunt which involved finding a list of historic artefacts scattered throughout the building.
After leaving the museum we walked along the main street of this sleepy town to discover more of it's history. Unfortunately as it is Sunday there really is not much open.

Declan and I headed down to the wharf after dinner to see if we could catch some fish but it started to rain and we came up empty. Since we have been here it has been very windy and it is a strange wind. You can hear a massive gale coming through the trees and it sounds like a train. It is extremely strong and you need to brace yourself - 10 seconds later it is reasonably still. The next massive gale will appear about a minute later. It does make sleeping min a camper trailer a little difficult!