25 August 2011 - Cooktown Orchid Travellers’ Park, Queensland

A flash name for a very ordinary but nice park in a delightful little settlement. We are well settled in here for a couple of days and have excellent internet hence I have been able to upload photos on to this blog and to my Facebook page.

We were also spoilt this morning with an excellent road across from Lakeland Downs, all sealed and in good order. Here in Australia a sealed road does not necessarily mean a good road. In fact our experience with most roads here in Australia is that, apart from the major motorways in places like Brisbane and Sydney, they are totally crap. However one of their redeeming features is that there are generally very good rest areas at regular intervals for tired drivers to pull over and take a break, something that is greatly lacking in New Zealand.

The Mulligan Highway connects Lakeland Downs with Cooktown, just 82 kilometres through some lovely country. There was frequent evidence of cattle stations, not just the odd beast grazing in the roadside bush but yards, homesteads and fences. There were still many signs warning of cattle grazing unfenced by the road and of roos crossing. We had left Lakeland promptly and did in fact encounter quite a few roos either waiting to cross or bounding daringly across ahead of us, before it became too hot for such exuberance.

We stopped at the Black Mountain, an imposing pile of black granite boulders, black because of the lichen growing all over them. There is an abundance of birdlife all about them but fewer wildlife of a different kind. There are great crevasses under and through this boulder mountain which have swallowed up careless beasts and men.

We soon arrived at Cooktown, tracked down the Information Centre to ascertain the cheapest camping ground and made our way here. This camp while still more expensive than that stayed in at Cairns, is centrally located and has a nice ambience; before lunch we walked up to the superette to purchase some fresh produce. Chris found a pork pie in the deli section and having been deprived of this delicacy all year, indulged. Fruit here is still at a ridiculous price so raw carrots were the order of the day, and probably just as healthy a close to lunch as any fruit would be.

At the newsagent we were pleased to be able to buy an Australian, just one day old and at only $1 more than the normal retail price. We are now aware of the progress that has been made in Libya with Gaddafi on the run and resolution looking more possible and within our life times.

Capt. James Cook, for whom Cooktown is named

Back in the late nineteenth century, Cooktown was the through port for those who came to plunder the Palmer River Goldfields, gold discovered by William Hann (immortilised in the naming of the Hann Roadhouse on the Cape York road north) in 1872, becoming a service town of 3,000 for the 15,000 to 20,000 miners, a greater proportion of Chinese over any other nationality. Apparently by the end of 1875, of the 15,000 miners on the Palmer, 10,000 were Chinese. There were once numerous hotels and stores here, but after the gold dried up, the settlement here died with it. Back in the 1950’s an entrepreneurial chap saw the potential of Cooktown as a tourist destination and the rest is history. It is however, because of its relative isolation, still a back water, albeit a charming one. The bulk of travellers who pass through are those who do the Cape as we did but come on through Cooktown and up through Lakefield National Park, making the whole experience just that much more than we did.

Cook's landing place, going nowhere

After lunch we drove along the river front stopping to view the various historical monuments. This is where Captain James Cook landed and settled for 48 days, making him the first white settler here in Australia, while his ship, having run aground on the Great Barrier Reef, was repaired. There is a statue of the Captain, a plaque marking the landing place and a musical ship made from polythene pipes. There is also opportunity to take a river cruise or two, croc spotting. We have however decided to do this when we arrive in the Daintree National Park, the brochures suggest they offer the same thrill for less, however the proof will be in the paying.

  

Views from Grassy Hill

Cooktown has several features in common with New Zealand’s Wellington; situated on the water, of great historical importance as far as white settlement, but most of all, the wind. While the temperatures have been very pleasant, the wind has been such that we have decided not to bother with the awning from here on. We drove up to the top of Grassy Hill, to the lighthouse which was built in England and shipped to Cooktown in 1885, and from where one can enjoy panoramic views of Cook Town, the Endeavour River and the Coral Sea. It was so very unpleasant there, we spent only enough time to acknowledge it did offer all those views, captured them to the best of our ability on camera and left forthwith.

We have decided to extend our stay here in Cooktown mainly because here we can receive television coverage of the next Tri-Nations Rugby game being played in Brisbane on Saturday.  I am sure the management will oblige.