In the Footsteps of James Cook

Sadly it is our last day in Cooktown today as we drive to Cairns tomorrow. Lucky for us the weather is still holding but the wind is picking up. It was a good day for driving and walking around the township and having a leisurely lunch by the water watching one of the cray boats loading up. The crew were all in their early twenties and when I asked about it I was told that they dive to hand catch crays - definitely a young man's game.

Our first stop was the lookout on Grassy Hill for views over Cooktown and the Endeavour River:

Finch Bay is the local beach - we were told to stay away from the river mouth because of the crocs. If you look closely in the following picture you can see a "slide" on the opposite bank - perhaps made by a crocodile:

The pathway to Finch Bay passes through paperbarks:

Some of the trees were stripped by the cyclone last Easter and the bare boughs and new leaves create a lacy pattern overhead:

Crocodile warnings are right on the Cooktown waterfront:

As are many plaques about Cook:

An anchor from the Endeavour is on display at the James Cook Museum which is housed in an old Mercy Sisters school/convent. It has displays relating to Cooktown's history and is not dedicated to Captain Cook alone. As promised when we visited Atherton Chinatown, The Brisbane office of the National Trust had emailed to say that I would be visiting and that I was a National Trust member and entitled to free entry. I mentioned this when I arrived and they immediately said "you must be Christine". So, a big thank you to the National Trust for going out of their way, especially since it was me who had left the membership card back in Brisbane.

The streetscape is tropical colonial in parts:

With boats moored on the river:

We bid Cooktown farewell tomorrow as we head to the big smoke, Cairns, the first city we have visited this trip. We've really enjoyed the last 3 days.

Down the Bloomfield Track

We took a full day tour with Great Northern Tours south of Cooktown along the Bloomfield track. The road was bitumen as far as the Lion's Head Pub but beyond that ranged from bitumen to gravel to washouts.

Our first stop was Weary Bay:

And then we continued further to the Bloomfield River for morning tea. We saw our first crocodile in the wild on the other side of the river:

We were lucky that the road into Bloomfield Falls had reopened and the walk to the Falls from the car park was around 100m, some of it over rocky, dry river bed.

I couldn't resist buying a painting at Wujal Wujal before we drove to the headwaters of the Annan River at Shipton's Flat for lunch. We saw some serious road washouts:

But were lucky to be in someone else's 4WD!

We were the only people at our lunch spot in the rainforest:

I'll never forget my first sighting of the beautifully, electrically blue Ulysses Butterfly which was nearly the size of my palm. Sadly I couldn't manage a photo, but we did spot other butterflies on the Shipton's Flat road.

Two orange footed scrubfowl were basking in the sun and we were told that this is a rare sight:

Before driving back towards Cooktown we called into the Lion's Den Bush Pub for coffee and cold drinks:

Normally the tour would return to Cooktown after visiting the pub, but David offered to take us to Archer Point for some fantastic views of rainforest covered mountains meeting the ocean:

The wind thee was blowing very strongly:

We had a great day with a new tour company just starting up and we were very impressed with our tour.

Just North of Cooktown

We went on a half day tour today with David from Great Northern Tours to vist the beautiful Elim Beach north of Cooktown. There was a fair bit of gravel road and no signposts so we are glad that we didn't drive the motorhome there.

Such a beautiful day, such a beautiful beach:

The drive back to Cooktown included a stop at Isabella Falls:

And to walk the swing bridge over the Endeavour River which was put in place so that people north of the river weren't cutoff during floods.  It is rarely used now as the main road bridge is much higer.

No crocs were visible today in the water:

But the signs warned of their presence:

Back to Summer

What a difference 300 km and 700m in altitude make. We've arrived in Cooktown and it is like an early summer's day in Brisbane. All the windows in the motorhome are open. I have a fan on and even Barbara said she is hot (albeit after she did a quick 2k walk).

We didn't do much other than drive today. There are 3 lookouts on the Mulligan Highway to Cooktown and we called into two them, leaving one for our return trip.

The Byerstown Range:

Black Mountain (black granite blocks exposed as the surrounding clays weather away):

The Cooktown Visitor Information Centre in the Botanic Gardens has a display of preserved snakes endemic to the region as well as paintings of Cape York plant life which is worth visiting. 

They are pretty casual in the Visitor Information Centre. When we asked what there was to do in Cooktown, the sole man in the centre gave us a town map and told us to study it and to visit everything marked. We then asked about tours, particularly to areas not suited to the motorhome. His answer was "there aren't really any tours". Thank goodness for the woman behind the counter who said "what about David?" David is a local who is just starting up and he has a selection of half and full day tours to choose from. We are now going on a half day tour to Endeavour Valley, Hope Vale, Elim Beach and Isabella Falls tomorrow with only 2 other participants and a private full day tour for just Barbara and me on Monday to Bloomfield Falls, Wujal Wujal, Shipton's Flat and the Lions Den Pub. Watch this space for details.

Remnant of Chinatown

Atherton used to have a thriving Chinatown which existed before Atherton itself. Sadly only the Hou Wang Temple has been saved. It is a mix of outback and traditional chinese architecture and one of a kind. The external walls are largely corrugated iron and the internal spaces are lined with cedar. Both Barbara and I really enjoyed the visit to the temple and reading about the history of Atherton Chinatown.

The lady at the entrance was extremely helpful. I did not have my National Trust membership card with me, so while we were in the temple she called National Trust offices in Brisbane who confirmed my membership and who also volunteered to email Cooktown so I could visit the James Cook museum for nothing!

The history of Chinese in Atherton is quite sad - the leasehold farmers were told to leave after WW1 as the land they farmed was to be allocated to returning servicemen. The museum has many stories about just how hard working the Atherton Chinese were.

Rock Hopping

We never thought the countryside around Mareeba would be so different to that around Atherton. Mareeba has green savannah and open woodlands whereas Atherton is lush and green with rolling hills and dense pockets of rainforest. We are glad we based ourselves in Atherton as it is more centrally placed to see all that the Tablelands have to offer.

Our first stop in Mareeba was Coffeeworks. It costs $19 pp entry (or $14 pp if you have a brochure that offers the $5 pp discount). The entrance fee covers all the coffee, tea, eating chocolate and liqueurs tastings you want as well as a coffee and tea making museum. Barbara even managed to run into an ex work colleague.

Coffee bean and cocoa pod:

We obviously hadn't overdosed on coffee because we went up to Skybury to try their brew and to buy red pawpaw and lady finger bananas for the amazingly low price of $2 a kilo.

By now we had more than enough caffeine in our systems to last out the day so we called into the Mareeba Wetlands Reserve which is noted for its Gouldian Finch breeding program:

The locals living near the wetlands obviously have a sense of humour:

After a brief lunch break in Mareeba, we decided to visit the Granite Gorge Nature Park. This must be privately owned as an entrance fee is charged if you want to do the walks. We decided on the short walk for $7.50 pp. I foolishly thought it would be easy! Much of the walk was a scramble over large granite boulders or sliding up and down steep granite inclines on my backside. Barbara managed most of it on two feet but had to use the sit down technique once or twice. It was seriously hard work - but the landscape was dramatic and I felt as if I had achieved something (making it out in one piece with an unbroken camera)! The park has many rock wallabys which are obviously well used to people as you could get very close to take pictures. They'll hug your leg if they think you have food.

Look for me on top of the rock by finding my red handbag - walking up this rock was one of the easier parts of the walk:

Barbara Attenborough: