Cooktown - nearly to the top

Excuse there being no photos on this blog. I am working on it, but for some reason tonight the capacity to add photos is being very 'elusive'!!  I don't know what I have done but, ...i know can have photos! Yay! (must have just needed a rest). 5/7/2011



A few of the people we have met on our travels  didn't get as far as Cooktown, but after talking to others we thought we would like to. However, we would save the rest of Cape York for another trip. It's funny, because you feel like you are so far north and yet the tip of Cape York is another 800 kms north! (What a vast country we live in).


Cooktown 'Harbour'

Again, the weather has been fantastic, and although one local told us that Cooktown is the windiest place in Australia, it wasn't too bad. There are 4 or 5 caravan parks in Cooktown, but we decided to stay at a Farmstay type campground about 15 kms to the north, as it was recommended to us as a 'good thing'.

Homestead at Endeavour River Escape

We had a fantastic time at Endeavour River Escape Campground, named for it's location, adjacent to one branch of the Endeavour River - named by Captain Cook. This was a working farm that bred a few clydesdale horses, but it's main enterprise was growing passionfruit! (with a camp ground thrown in for a bit of a sideline).

Monty, the Clydesdale stallion

Stella & Diablo, young clydesdales

Passionfruit

The wife of the partnership was a Curriculum Project Officer, with the Qld Education Dept. She was flown in and out to Cairns weekly, from the Cooktown 'Airport', which happened to be just down the road from their farm. Terry and Lyn were gorgeous, hospitable people, that enjoyed showing guests around their farm, with a ride in the specially rigged out "suzi". We were also told to use the 'cages' if we went fishing at the river because they didn't want "anyone else" taken by crocs!!? Evidently, a 60-70 year old was taken by a croc from their place, a couple of years previously. He had gone to check his crab pots, prior to leaving the campsite that day and never returned. They caught the 'rogue' croc a bit later - which wasn't the usual one that lived in that bit of the river.



A very 'short' fishing excursion, on the banks of the Endeavour
 River - note the fences!




Water lily covered lagoon - view from the Homestead front verandah

 Jon & Jed braved it, briefly, but didn't feel very comfortable! (Neither did I when I went to check it out!) It wasn't tooooo bad until Jon said, "what's that floating past?", and if a crocodile could float on it's side I would have sworn it was a single round croc eye, just cruising past! However, I'm presuming they usually show 2 eyes, if any, and we decided it must have been a big gumnut, or something!!??

Cooktown itself has, by Australian standards, an early history! Cape Tribulation, was so named because according to Cook it was where "all the trouble started", as they ended up by doing damage to their ship, the Endeavour, on a reef and limped into the mouth of the river at Cooktown, (that they named the Endeavour River) to undertake repairs. And they ended up being there for a couple of months. This gave them plenty of time to investigate the land, local fauna and flora and have a few interactions with the aboriginal population. This was  Cook's third stop on the East Coast of Australia, after Botany Bay and 1770, and he landed in Cooktown on the 17th June, 1770. And as a coincidence, we were in Cooktown on the 17th June, also - 241 years later!

The "real" anchor of the Endeavour,
located off the coast and restored

The museum in Cooktown, great history about captain Cook's landing and time around Cooktown, the interaction of the aborigines at the time and the Anglican and Catholic missions and schools. This building used to be the Catholic school, and home to the nuns.

One of the cannons found at the
dive site of the Endeavour

I don't think Cooktown was really settled by those of European descent until the 1860's or 70's, and the earliest grave in the cemetery is from 1874! At this time there was early agricultural settlement, various religious organisations including a Lutheran Mission for the local aborigines and a Catholic School. The Aboriginal population has a convoluted history in the area, as it was interacted on by the 'whites', and it's all a bit hard to follow. However, there are still a lot of aborigines in the area. Shortly after the white settlement gold was found at nearby Palmer River and there was a great influx of 'treasure seekers', particularly Chinese to the Goldfields. And now, inland from Palmer River there are mining companies making huge dollars from the minerals found in the rocky, ridgey, 'hard-looking' ranges.

Looking up the Endeavour River



Cooktown from Lookout




from lookout



Cooktown Lighthouse

We took the coast road, including Bloomfield Track, back down to Mossman, on our way back to Cairns, after a couple of Cooktown locals had assured us that we would be able to tow the Jayco down the Bloomfield Track "no worries"! There were some very steep sections of track as we went up and over ranges and we certainly wouldn't have been wanting to tow any more weight than what we were, but we made it safely to the other end, with another "to do" chalked up!

Fishing off the jetty - the same old story of the "one that got away"!
Jed nearly reeled in a large Spanish Mackerel', but it jumped off the hook

Spanish Mackerel - shop variety!

Northern end of Bloomfield Track

River crossing

A local landmark evidently - but it was a bit early in the day
for us to partake of a glass of the amber stuff!