11 August – Monday
Yesterday evening saw the bocce championships held to determine who would have the bottle of wine won at the trivia night. It took nearly two hours of oohs, aahs and laughter to finally come up with the winning couple – US! The wine cellar now contains three bottles.
This morning saw us pack up with regret at leaving Cairns. The road to Cooktown travels along the coast past Port Douglas and turns inland shortly before Mossman. This is a very twisty and bumpy section (don’t know why the resorts at Port Douglas haven’t complained about it!) and with the caravan bouncing behind, the car quickly developed a pitching motion. This, combined with the windy road, didn’t make for very pleasant travelling, and I think someone else was quite pleased when I called for a halt before we reached the Port Douglas turnoff. After a rest, walk around and a bickie to settle the tummies, we headed inland towards Mt Molloy – entirely new country for us.
The road climbed fairly quickly, with some pretty good views over Mossman, before flattening out and travelling through rainforest before we came to Mt Carbine, an old wolfram mine. After this, it was tropical savannah – exactly what we imagine the bush/outback to be, red hills, low trees and reddish grass. Fabulous scenery, so different to what we have seen so far. The road was great, wide, good service and fairly flat most of the time – someone was noticed driving without using his feet at times! Given the large number of gullies, the size of them, plus the enormous culverts under the road, the rain must really bucket down during the wet. Of course, there is no water in the creeks, but one river did have a few water holes.
We passed a lot of cattle and a number of horses – no fences to keep them in. One cow had obviously had a meeting with a vehicle and was now keeping a large population of crows very happy. We stopped at a beautiful waterhole, complete with water lilies, and braved the local snake population to get a closer look.
Shortly before reaching Cooktown was the Black Mountain National Park. This mountain is very aptly named, being large granite boulders which look black because of an algae growing on them. Over the years, the clay which was between the boulders has washed away, and the rocks are now just sitting there. Very spectacular and definitely off limits.
Cooktown looks like it will be an interesting little town to wander about, with more than enough sightseeing to keep us amused for the next two days. The Cooktown Holiday Park is also very nice, with large grassy sites – we even have a couple of banana trees (complete with bananas) on our site. The amenities block is something different to what we have seen so far – no ladies’ and men’s sections, just individual bathrooms with shower, toilet and vanity.
The weather today – hot and clear, but a bit on the windy side at Cooktown.
Yesterday evening saw the bocce championships held to determine who would have the bottle of wine won at the trivia night. It took nearly two hours of oohs, aahs and laughter to finally come up with the winning couple – US! The wine cellar now contains three bottles.
This morning saw us pack up with regret at leaving Cairns. The road to Cooktown travels along the coast past Port Douglas and turns inland shortly before Mossman. This is a very twisty and bumpy section (don’t know why the resorts at Port Douglas haven’t complained about it!) and with the caravan bouncing behind, the car quickly developed a pitching motion. This, combined with the windy road, didn’t make for very pleasant travelling, and I think someone else was quite pleased when I called for a halt before we reached the Port Douglas turnoff. After a rest, walk around and a bickie to settle the tummies, we headed inland towards Mt Molloy – entirely new country for us.
The road climbed fairly quickly, with some pretty good views over Mossman, before flattening out and travelling through rainforest before we came to Mt Carbine, an old wolfram mine. After this, it was tropical savannah – exactly what we imagine the bush/outback to be, red hills, low trees and reddish grass. Fabulous scenery, so different to what we have seen so far. The road was great, wide, good service and fairly flat most of the time – someone was noticed driving without using his feet at times! Given the large number of gullies, the size of them, plus the enormous culverts under the road, the rain must really bucket down during the wet. Of course, there is no water in the creeks, but one river did have a few water holes.
We passed a lot of cattle and a number of horses – no fences to keep them in. One cow had obviously had a meeting with a vehicle and was now keeping a large population of crows very happy. We stopped at a beautiful waterhole, complete with water lilies, and braved the local snake population to get a closer look.
Shortly before reaching Cooktown was the Black Mountain National Park. This mountain is very aptly named, being large granite boulders which look black because of an algae growing on them. Over the years, the clay which was between the boulders has washed away, and the rocks are now just sitting there. Very spectacular and definitely off limits.
Cooktown looks like it will be an interesting little town to wander about, with more than enough sightseeing to keep us amused for the next two days. The Cooktown Holiday Park is also very nice, with large grassy sites – we even have a couple of banana trees (complete with bananas) on our site. The amenities block is something different to what we have seen so far – no ladies’ and men’s sections, just individual bathrooms with shower, toilet and vanity.
The weather today – hot and clear, but a bit on the windy side at Cooktown.
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