We got away from the van park just after 8.30, having packed up lunches, morning and afternoon tea, swimmers and towels etc. We headed north the few kms that were left of the Cape Tribulation Rd and then turned on to the ‘Bloomfield Track’ which is the 4WD only section of road between Cape Trib and Bloomfield, (halfway to Cooktown). In the wet season, this road is sometimes impassable. There were about 8 or 9 river crossings, but half of them were dry creek beds at this time of the year, and the others were not very big. There were also some very steep ascents and descents which would have been trickier in the wet. The vegetation here was more like normal bush than rainforest. We passed through the aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal which is beside the Bloomfield River and we stopped there to have morning tea. A little further on we passed through a couple of pretty little localities called Ayton and Rossville. One had a campground. We then passed through Cedar Bay NP which was rainforest area again. We also went passed the Lion’s Den Hotel, which apparently is famous for its atmosphere. We didn’t stop though. Just after this, we turned right onto the Mulligans Highway which was sealed and which was the last part of the inland route to Cooktown. So there were more motorhomes and caravans driving along here. It was about 28km from this turn off to Cooktown. Along this section, we passed through Black Mountain NP, of which ‘Black Mountain’ was the feature. It was a strange mountain with black granite boulders making up half of it. We stopped and read the information signs and took photos. We drove into Cooktown at about 11.30.

We were actually quite hungry when we got to Cooktown so decided to have lunch straight away. We had brought our own sandwiches, but Michael suggested we also buy some hot chips. I thought a couple of milkshakes to share would be nice also. We stopped at a cafe in the main street to buy these and were glad we weren’t buying too much – the 2 milkshakes and a serve of chips was $14. We didn’t know of any particular parks to eat at, but I’d read about a lookout area at the top of Grassy Hill, so suggested we go there to eat. We drove up as far as we were allowed to drive and found a place to sit and eat which was in the shade and overlooked the main street of town and the Endeavor River. After eating, we walked further up to the very top and saw the wonderful almost 360 degree view. We read about how Captain Cook and Joseph Banks had climbed the hill a couple of times during their stay to view the surrounding reefs out to sea and determine how they were going to get safely back out to sea after the Endeavour was repaired.

We walked back down to the car and drove down to the town centre again. I had also read of a walking tour taking in most of the historic sights around Cooktown. We drove to the harbour area to start this. Here was a statue of Captain Cook, a memorial to the beaching of the Endeavour, a cannon sent to Cooktown in the late 1800s to protect against the considered threat of Russian invasion (hadn’t heard that part of history before), and some other monuments. There was also a ‘musical ship’ which was a ship structure intended for kids to play on and they could make all sorts of music from different ‘instruments’. The kids enjoyed playing on this, and, true to form, Hannah and Bethany wanted to pretend they were Captain Cook and the crew sailing in and having to repair the ship. They convinced Sam to join their play (Lauren was feeling unwell today and so wanted to rest in the car at this point) and asked me to be the narrator. Since I had been teaching them this part of history, I knew the story, so was able to narrate. They had a practice run and then Michael started to video it – unfortunately the batteries ran out before we reached the end, but we got through most of it – I’m sure they’ll enjoy watching that again later – and hopefully that part of Australian history will stick in their memory.

We then drove to the James Cook Museum which we’d heard was very good. It was housed in the old convent building which was the oldest brick building in Cooktown. It had a story all of its own. We spent about 45mins at the museum and I really enjoyed it. We saw the original of the anchor and one of the cannons from the Endeavour which had been thrown overboard and which they’d recovered in about 1969. We read the story of the recovery expedition. One of the most interesting things I read at the  museum was the first hand account of the meeting of Cook and his crew by the aboriginal tribes of the area – the story had been passed down through generations and was told and written down. There were other aspects to the museum – the gold rush which brought people to the area in the 1850s, the Chinese influence (many Chinese came for the gold) and other local history.

Our last stop at Cooktown was the Botanical Gardens which had an information centre and also a display on local flora and fauna. We had hoped to do the walk through the gardens down to Finch Bay, but after doing what we wanted to at the information centre, we realised we weren’t going to have time. The kids were keen for a swim and we asked about safe swimming holes in the Cooktown area and on the way back to Cape Trib. We were given a few options, one being a swimming hole out the back of the Lion’s Den Hotel. We thought this sounded like a good idea. 

So we started the trip back. The Lion’s Den Hotel was only 30 mins from Cooktown. We found the river, which had several nice swimming areas. We had some bikkies for afternoon tea and the kids had a swim for about half an hour. 

Then it was back in the car and another one and half hours back to Cape Trib. It was about 6.15 when we arrived back at the van park. We had found out yesterday that they make wood fired pizzas here every lunchtime and dinner time, so we had decided we would do that for dinner tonight. It was a nice easy and yummy dinner. Usual night time routine.