Cooktown to Mission Beach

Cooktown to Mission Beach

We finally arrived on the east coast of Queensland on 6th August, nearly four months after leaving Sydney, to stay at Cooktown, at the base of Cape York Peninsula. The town is situated on the mouth of the Endeavour River where it meets the Coral Sea. It has quite a deep harbour and before road access, served as an important port. For 20 years it serviced a big pearling industry, but it was wiped out by a huge cyclone. Captain Cook beached his ship “The Endeavour” there in 1770 for repairs and stayed in the area for approx. 6 months. There are many monuments to Cook and his crew. Many people moved into the area to search for gold in the late 18000’s. The weather was fine but very windy while we were there, which apparently is quite normal. We thought it was quite a pretty little place and a lot of effort has been put into preserving the history of both the indigenous people and white settlers.

The old buildings in the main street have been kept in good condition and there was no doubt we were in the tropics, with lots of palm trees and tropical plants, including very large frangipani trees which were just coming into flower. We spent some time exploring the foreshore where the council have constructed a footpath which is called the River of Life and depicts the history of the town and the surrounding area, past and present, with groups of mosaic tiles, each group telling a different story. There was also an impressive sculpture in a curved shape with mosaic tiles telling the stories of the aboriginal history and involvement. Unfortunately it was difficult to photograph unless you climbed up a tree to get a good perspective. A “musical ship” where you can play the drums, bells, and other keyboards, provides children and adults with lots of entertainment Along the foreshore were a couple of nice casual restaurants and one night we had dinner watching the sunset

The second day we drove over to Finch Bay and put a toe in the Coral Sea, but we were told there had been crocodiles sighted in the creek coming into the sea, so didn’t linger in the water. Also the wind was so strong it made walking difficult and our legs were sand blasted. Called in on the way back to the botanical gardens (which includes the original cricket pitch) , looking for a specimen of the famous Cooktown orchid, but they were not in flower and the only orchid we saw was a swamp orchid which had just started to open up. A drive in the afternoon took us up to Grassy Hill lookout, a very steep hill behind the town. Apparently Cook had climbed it on a couple of occasions to try and work out the lay of the land.

The next part of the trip took us down the coast to Cape Tribulation in the Daintree National Park. We drove down the Bloomfield Track which was about 110 km long, marked as unsealed and part of it nominated as 4WD drive only. The road was very interesting as we drove through the rain forest, over several mountains which were steep with sharp bends and rutted tracks, through some creeks and rivers. We also went through a few of the aboriginal communities where alcohol is not allowed. They seem to be doing very well. It was probably the most challenging of the gravel roads so far but the Kluger handled it very well. We noticed the degree of difficulty when the petrol consumption was the highest at 16.7 litres/100 km.

The clouds ahead were very dark so when we arrived at the camping ground we were able to change to a safari tent, which would offer better protection in the case of heavy rain. As it turned out it didn’t rain at all and the next day the clouds cleared. The beach was only 20 metres away so we spent time walking and enjoying the tropical vegetation. On one of the walks we saw the green ant nests in the trees. At low tide some of the coral reef is exposed. We also did the Dubuji boardwalk, very close to the beach, which took us through the mangrove swamps. At every turn the vegetation changed, from tall mangrove trees, to palms of many types, especially the fan palms, and tall paper bark trees with large buttresses. We hoped to see a bit of the wild life but only saw the swamp turkey

On the second day there we drove down to the Daintree River through the rain forest, calling in at Thornton Beach and then a lookout overlooking the river and we could see as far as Port Douglas. We crossed over the river by ferry and then drove to the little town of Daintree for lunch. We passed lots of sugar cane and dairy farms and with the steep mountains as a back drop, it was a very pretty drive

We started off early the next morning to drive to Mission Beach. Near Daintree we did a board walk through a rain forest, with huge trees and lots of palms and ferns. One of the inhabitants is the Cassowary bird (about the size of a small emu) and at the outset of the walk there were warnings on how to act if confronted by one of these as they can become quite aggressive. Warnings included “walk backwards slowly, put a tree or something solid between you and the bird” etc. Not far into the walk Jean noticed one walking towards her on the boardwalk. Fortunately it walked off the boardwalk into the forest and from there on Heinz walked in front!

From there on we had a leisurely drive down the coast road to Cairns, stopping off at some lookouts on the way. The windy road followed the coast quite closely in places and it was a very pretty drive. It was a bit of a shock when we reached Cairns to see our first traffic lights since Darwin and three lanes of traffic. We decided not to stop off there and to leave Cairns and Port Douglas for another time. From there on we drove through lots of tropical vegetation, many sugar cane and banana farms. In Babinda the sugar mill stacks were emitting large quantities of black smoke which didn’t look too good for the environment. We stopped off in Innisfail to have lunch and get a few supplies. Heavy clouds ahead looked like we were in for some rain, which was to be expected as we were heading towards Tully, which has one of Australia’s heaviest rain falls. However, as we headed towards the coast the weather lifted and we arrived in Mission Beach mid afternoon to meet up with our friends Chris and Wendy Fenton from Sydney and John & Faye Blake from Melbourne. We had all been on the road for several weeks and it was great to meet up with friendly and familiar faces.