To Cooktown.

Posted on 18 Jan, 2009 5 comments

August 2nd 2007, Paul’s birthday and we are on our way to Cooktown. Cooktown is a small historical town on the coast of Far North Queensland, where we decided to go for some relaxation after the busy weeks of househunting, contracts, lawyers and all those boring but neccessary people you have to deal with when buying a house. But for the next 5 days we were going away from it all to relax.
We left around 9 am with sunshine and around 23 C. A good day for driving the 320 km’s. Within reach of Cairns we received several phonecalls for Paul’s birthday, but the last one was repeated at intervals, yet soon impossible to receive. We were heading for Port Douglas and just before we got the phone ringing again with some messages. And that was all communication for the next 5 days. We are with Vodafone, which has no towers up there, only Telstra and Optus do.
Just after Port Douglas we turned West into the mountains towards Julatten. A winding road with so many bends I nearly got carsick. The scenery was fabulous, rainforest, tree ferns and other greenery. Once in Julatten, which is just an area with one Pub and then you know you’ve reached the place, the high climb was finished and rolling hills followed. On the side of the road was a resting place right next to a creek. It was lower than the road and save to let the dogs have a run. Here we had some coffee and cake.It seems strange going North whilst looking at the compass of the car reading West, but such is the shape of Australia. For a long time after the right turn off near Mt. Molloy we were heading West into the direction of Lakelands. Now this was just the same kind of country we had been travelling through in the Northern Territory, dry Savannah land, yellow/brown grass with here and there a white, stringy and barkless tree. Still, it made a nice change after the evergreen rainforest.However, there were no dead kangaroos on this stretch of the road. After passing through Lakelands we aimed at Palmer River, the oldest goldmining area of Queensland, but now no longer in use. We stopped at the road house to buy a sandwich and let the dogs out. We were high above the Palmer River, now almost dry in the “gardens” of the roadhouse. The gardens doubled as caravan park and there were also some huge safari tents, slightly elevated on a wooden platform on stumps. I asked a girl, who was sitting in front of her safari tent what it was like to sleep in it. She said: “Pretty cold at night, but we have some extra blankets now”. So yes, the centre of the Cape York Peninsular is very cold at night. But in the day, and this day too it was 26 degrees.
On the road again and we were heading North West now and finally North. The countryside was interesting, Savannah land again, but mainly farming and we drove over many cattle grates. Some farmland was fenced off, but the cows didn’t seem to take any notice and you really had to watch out for them. Elsewhere there was a sign: Watch for cattle, no fencing. We did see about 10 poor heads of cattle who had not stuck to the rules and had copped it on the road. Cows were mainly grey Brahma’s. Big bulge on top of their neck, longish ears. O yes, and we also saw two dead boars, later on dead kangaroos and of course the eagles and brown hawks who got run over whilst feasting on the beasts. We were driving through the hills, mountain ranges, some bare and hostile looking, others more vegetated. Little rivers and creeks to cross with fantastic names and horrible names like “Dead dog creek”; some with, others without water, made up for interesting driving. And of course not all bridges fit for two vehicles at once…..But there was very little traffic of which half were caravanning holiday people.
As soon as we came closer to Cooktown it was greener around us, more vegitation, higher mountains. We drove through the Black Mountains, which is a National Park, but all it is, is a number of mountains covered in black ironstone boulders and rocks. A real special sight. We took a picture of them on the way back, as the lookout was on the other side of the road.
Around 3 pm we arrived in Cooktown and after some searching we found the Shell petrol station where the owner of the accommodation worked. She took us there, showed us the premises, gardens and even the pool ( we didn’t bring our bathers! ), handed us the key and took off again. When we booked we had understood it was a bed and breakfast place, but no, it turned out not to be. There were only tea and coffee making facilities, not even a microwave. At least there was a decent fridge! The accommodation was very good, freshly painted, nice cane furniture and big window, which looked out onto palm trees and bushland. Our car could be parked right next to the unit ( just like a motel unit ), but the veranda had no roof, nor a fence around and I was worried about the dogs, but they were fantastic and stayed close by. It was in fact more a terrace than a veranda, but all neat and surrounded with palms and tropical plants. So, after unpacking we headed for the local supermarket to get some forage. Ah yes, there was a barbecue which we could use, so we bought steak for Paul. I had some meat for the dogs with us ( we have a car fridge ) and by 5 pm I started cooking, only to be pestered by blowflies, which I hadn’t seen since we left W.A. 2.5 years ago. So there we were, me cooking meat, onions, potatoes etc. and Paul waving to the flies! That was enough for one night, so we decided we’d have take aways the rest of the time. We enjoyed a beer though on the terrace whilst the temperature stayed well above 20C. At last some tropical warmth. Here I saw this gorgeous white lipped frog, an icon of the rainforest, sitting on a leaf of a bananatree, right in front of us.

We had brought the baby gate though, and had strategically positioned it between a bedside table, which we had dragged there for this purpose, and the door opening of the bedroom, so the dogs wouldn’t come in the room, but could be in the passage and bathroom. Those were tiled, whilst the bedroom was carpeted. They were happy to be with us whilst we watched tellie. The dogs slept in the car and were happy to go to bed too after such a tiring day.