Friday 21 June 2019

10 - Cooktown to Port Douglas 19/6 - 21/6/2019


Entry 10           Cooktown to Port Douglas 19/6 – 21/6/2019

Leaving Elim Beach we were thankful the 16 kilometres of dirt road was not as wet or frightening as our inbound drive with only a couple of slippery patches on the way out. After about 35 kilometres we stopped at Isabella Falls with the flow of water travelling over the road just above the falls.


Our drive across the waters of Isabella Falls with water spashing out from the tow tug sides.

Our drive across the waters of Isabella Falls
We drove into Cooktown obtaining fuel for the tow tug and food for our pantry. Our next planned stop was a free camp location about 25 kilometres south of Cooktown. Archer Point; we had been hearing some mixed comments like, it was a great setting, the road in was rough with lots of washouts, the wind is constant and lots of people congregate in the first camping area due to a bit of wind protection. Yes, the road in was a bit challenging but we didn’t experience any issues driving in an appropriate manner considering the road condition.

Yes, the first camping area looked much like an unstructured caravan park with caravans and motorhomes crowded together, nestled under coconut palms teeming with coconuts, for us, it looked uninviting.

The road/track was a bit on the narrow side (as it transpired for a distance of about 2 kilometres further on from the first camping area) and we were looking for somewhere safe to stop to the side of the road to assess our available options. As it transpired all the available pull over locations had road construction vehicles parked in them all with someone seated in the driver’s seat. As we travelled along the road, we put our tow tug into low range 4wd for our safety as the road condition was deteriorating with no-where to pull over or turn around. We were starting to get anxious about our predicament wanting to stop somewhere without causing embarrassment to others to assess the area.

The road suddenly turned into a steep climb and we were in need of keeping our momentum going keeping the power on hard. The road came to an end at a peak next to a lighthouse with a small parking area. Luckily there was only one other car there or we would have been snookered if another vehicle had been present. We assessed our options for executing a U-turn, admired the view and evaluated our terrain below for possible options we could set camp.
Hmm? Are we able to turn around. Hmm?
Hmm? Way down there looks like a possibility?
We spied below a possible location that may work for us and made our way down the hill. True to form another road construction vehicle had just pulled up opposite the entrance track at the same time as our arrival leading to our target location. Out of frustration we just pulled into the track without a prior assessment. GOLLY GOSH. There was a tight bend in the track with a big drop off to the side in the middle of the bend. The tow tug managed to get past the drop off but the caravan wheels tracked straight towards the drop off and we had to stop to avoid risking the caravan rolling.

We were finally out of the way, (possibly stuck) and we walked the rest of the track in with a look around for any other nearby suitable spots. Returning for another assessment of our snookered predicament the road gang supervisor approached us enquiring if they could assist if we were stuck. He offered to get the road grader in to smooth out the difficult bend. In disbelief of the offer, what could we say, yes please!
It doesn't look good.

Snookered

Hmm? Looks awful. When we started to reverse the tow tug slid sideways partly into the hole. Grrr!

Grader to the rescue.

The grader also struggled with the hole - ending up pushing a few loads of dirt forwards to partially fill it in.

What great people, grading the track all the way down to the camp spot.
The grader driver even continued along the track smoothing out the many pot holes making for an easy drive in. As it transpired all the road construction vehicles positioned in the available parking locations were providing a clear passage for the grader along the narrow track as we were driving in. We could hear them notifying the grader driver of our approach over the two-way radio who had also moved off the road providing us with a clear passage in.

Archer Point was an amazing location. It provided a stunning scenic setting with our own private bay. It was a free camping location and the assistance provided by the local Cooktown council workers was exemplary. We were initially stunned by our treatment, the opposite to our personal experiences of our local council at home. It was a wonderful way to complete our 2019 Cooktown experience.

After we set camp the roller came down compacting the new track helping with our departure.


When backing the caravan into its spot we ran over the only cow paddy in the paddock and it was fresh. Grr!
Our setting made up for all the Grr!
We spent the best part of three days at Archer Point gazing out of the caravan windows mesmerized with the beauty of our surroundings. It was rather windy making it a bit uncomfortable standing outside. We still walked up and down the roadway exploring all the other tracks leading to several other inlets. It did feel good returning to the confines of the caravan protected from the constant wind.
Views from the caravan window

Views from the caravan window
Watching the moon rise from the ocean from inside the caravan, gorgeous.
In the morning we watched the sun rising from the ocean



Orange arrow below the dot shows our location with lighthouse above
There were turtles regularly swimming in our private bay



The constant ferocity of the wind eventually thrust us away from Archer Point and we spent the next two days making our way to Port Douglas where we were planning to intersect with a couple from Adelaide (Judy & Jim) who were spending a week at Port Douglas with a tour group.

9 - Cooktown & Region 10/6 - 19/6/2019


Entry 9           Cooktown and Region 10/6 – 19/6/2019

Leaving Cooktown our targeted destination was a station stay – Endeavour River Escape promoted as Luxury Bush Camping. About 30 minutes later, after travelling around 15 kilometres we were all set up in beautiful surroundings. We sat outside gazing around at our soothing setting when we were delighted to see two Azure Kingfisher birds perched in the nearby trees monitoring us. They were soon accompanied by a couple of Spangled Drongos birds flittering about chasing butterflies.


Down the hatch with one butterfly


There were plenty of insect activity around us and we enjoyed walking around the property inspecting the rather large red ruby passionfruit with a few weeks of maturing time before becoming ripe for harvesting.




It was nice having the use of a camp kitchen where Mary cooked up a beautiful pork roast, which we stretched out to last over four meals.



With the weekend approaching we thought the Cooktown Discovery Festival, focusing on the landing of Caption Cook in the year 1770 sounded OK with plenty of organised activities, so we decided to relocate back in Cooktown. We considered it would be easier to retreat to the caravan if the weather deteriorated and in turn, simpler to get back out in amongst it when the weather cleared. True to the current trend, the weekly weather prediction was for up to 2mm of daily rain and as it transpired each day, we did get wet.
It was a Friday, with the program schedule starting at 2pm with a variety of activities into the evening. We woke to the normal overcast skies and a splash of rain providing a couple of wonderful looking rainbows.
Holding the caravan door, hoping for a pot of gold to appear inside the caravan door.


Ironically, a couple of hours later the clouds started to disperse welcoming some beautiful blue skies. It was the best blue skies we had seen in nearly two months. We drove into town assessing the location of different activities, strategically parking our 4wd nearby to the evenings opening ceremony and we caught the free shuttle bus back to our caravan where we had a bite to eat before catching the bus back to the activities.
We explored the main street, viewing some of the stalls and activities before making our way to the evening’s main entertainment.
This boat would have been almost in the identical location the Endeavour was beached.


The mountain peaks were regularly covered by interesting cloud formations
Cooktown sunset
We collected our chairs from the 4wd which happened to be in a nearby parking position, taking a seated spot near the stage to hear the last of the official speeches and then we enjoyed watching the entertainment provided by a solo singer, a march past of 17th century dressed soldiers who performed a gun salute, belly dancing, fire twirling and the Townsville Army Band put on a splendid performance of traditional music and later rock music into the night. At one stage a group of 17th century dressed soldier’s marched past the stage taking a position high up on a nearby building and fired off a gun salute. On hearing the loud bang, a dog from in the nearby crowd came running at speed towards us, pushing our legs apart and positioned itself under our chairs.

Smoke from gun salute.


Wonderful background sunset whilst the band were entertaining the audience.

Belly dancing provided by the locals

Fire twirling by the locals
We slept soundly probably due to participating in a different type of activity to our normal lifestyle. We woke early to the sound of our alarm and jumped on the week-ends free bus at 7 am (bus stop for the week-ends activities was about 20 metres from our caravan) where we travelled to the botanic gardens for a scenic guided bush walk with 3 botanists. We watched a street parade, checked out the markets again, spent time in the James Cook Museum with another general look around at available activities before catching the bus back to our caravan for an afternoon siesta.





We both made it in this picture of the original Endeavour Anchor and cannon

Lovely looking stairs. Note the plaque to the right side

It was worth the trip up the stairs

View of the building from the front



We learnt to appreciate the significance of Cook’s 1770 mission on the Endeavour named sailing ship. It was accompanied by Joseph Banks a botanist who was a wealthy man in his own rights. Banks had talked the British Admiralty into letting him travel to Newfound Land, Australia, with his party of botanists and other scientists totalling 10 people whom Banks paid about 10 thousand pounds to the admiralty. It was the first-time a botanical collection of Australian flora and fauna had been recorded with a wealth of information obtained about Australia making for historical Australian history. The Endeavour had struck the great barrier reef suffering significant damage, requiring immediate repairs. It was beached for 7 weeks at a river mouth now known as the Endeavour River at a location now known as Cooktown. Banks whom has some various plants named after him of the likes of Banksia, collected over half his specimens whilst repairs were being conducted.

We were back on the bus travelling to the evening’s activities with a title of “Indigenous Showcase.” It was another superb experience.




Some great story lines, if you did'nt do the right thing the evil spirit will hunt you
It was another good night’s sleep, we were up early, driving ourselves into town for an 8 am start where we participated in titled, “Laughter Yoga,” another different, interesting experience primarily focusing on good breathing, improving one’s endorphins inducing good feelings. Next it was a re-enactment of “Captain Cook’s Landing,” at Cooktown with its 61st year of re-enacting Cook’s experience.




The first kangaroo shot by Cooks men for research & probably food


The actors 
We restocked our pantry and were on our way to our next destination about 75 kilometres north by mid-afternoon. We had pushed ourselves to experience as much of the festival activities as we could, needing to move on after staying our permitted three nights at the race course free camp - as pointed out to us by the council inspector who recorded our caravan and tow tugs registrations each evening at around 5 pm.
We travelled north through the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community lands setting camp at Elim Beach. We were in bed by 7.30 pm almost instantly sound asleep waking around 7.30 am. It appeared our bodies were in need of some R & R.
Elim Beach camp ground was run by one of the elders (Eddie) of the Hope Vale Aboriginal Community. It had a nice setting with tall paperbark trees near the beach front, further back some open grassed areas which was surrounded by more tree covered camp areas. The amenities consisted of a couple of flushing loo’s and a couple of cold showers in a building structure that possibly wouldn’t be legal anywhere else. It was a nice setting and we were in need of a few quiet days, or a more appropriate description, a few quiet hours, sort of.
There were many slippy patches driving in

Viewing our setting

Looking towards the coloured sands in the distance

You can see the coloured sands in the distance between the tree trunks
The sort of, refers to the mid-afternoon waves of new arrivals that would start to arrive with mud-covered vehicles full of hyperactive, self-focused people returning from “that must do iconic trip to the tip of Cape Yorke Peninsula.” By 10 am the next morning they would all be gone leaving us with a serene peaceful environment. One of these people spoke to Steve describing our setting as peaceful unlike the upper Cape Yorke Peninsula with their words, “it was pandemonium.”



Much nicer with the mob gone
There were some coloured sands on the nearby beach providing an enjoyable walk. Though the high humid conditions made for very damp and weary bodies after our walk. We both tried the cold showers to freshen up after our walk, finding it to be refreshing but rather chilly for us.




Great sunset above the coloured sands
We liked Elim Beach enjoying many a stroll along the endless beaches.

We saw plenty of coconuts sprouting


For 2019 this was as far north in Queensland, Australia we planned to travel. It was time to execute a U-turn and start heading south with our planned next location for exploration the Daintree region about 350 kilometres via road. We allocated 5 days travel time line for arrival at the nearby Daintree region.