I departed K9 River Retreat on the Atherton Tablelands in drizzle. Not ideal when my route had me descending down a steep, windy and possibly slippery road through the rainforest to the coast. Luckily there was little traffic and by using low gear l managed to keep my speed right down and stay mostly off the brakes. By the time I got to the bottom the the rain had stopped. I was heading north to Daintree Village just over 100km away. The trip was a pretty one through cane fields with the tropical rainforest covered mountains to the west and ocean to the east. I arrived around midday. The small caravan park was quaint and quirky. I took a powered site for $22/night as my van battery was low due to no sun on the solar panels whilst up at K9. The lovely grassy area where I set up abutted the boat ramp and jetty area, but was not so close that the crocodiles could visit.
The village is tiny. Aside from the van park there's a nice pub with lovely outdoor area overlooking the river and a couple of shops. There was a river cruise departing at 3.30 so I booked in for James and myself. There were very few tourists around so I figured it would be pretty quiet, which it was - only a handful of us on the flat bottom barge. We cruised slowly up and down stream for an hour and were lucky enough to spot a good sized croc.
Late afternoon four caravans arrived at the park and took up spots adjacent to me. They were couples from the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg areas. It wasn't long before we got chatting and I joined them for drinks. It was great to have the company.
Next day it was drizzling - an ideal day to go for a drive. I really wanted to see Cape Tribulation so James and I made our way to where the ferry crosses the Daintree River and paid $27 for a return fare. The narrow road wending its way through the world's oldest surviving rainforest is amazing - its like driving through a tunnel of vegetation - truly beautiful.
Following the road northward we stopped at a lookout to admire the views and also had a walk along a couple of the pristine beaches.
Cape Tribulation is usually a very popular destination not only for Australian tourists but also those from overseas, including backpackers. It was hardly surprising therefore, given the Covid-19 border closures, to find it was almost deserted with many businesses closed. The road past the village continues up to Cooktown but is only suitable for 4 wheel drives so I turned around and headed back. On the way I stopped at one of the boardwalks through the forest and even saw a Cassowary!
Back at camp that night I settled in with my new grey nomad mates and not only got treated with a fire but a serve of fresh scallop mornay. Yum!
We all packed up next morning, my friends to head homeward and for me to continue further north to Cooktown. The quickest way would have been along the coast through Cape Trib, a distance of 150km, but unfortunately the track was not caravan friendly. That meant heading south to Mossman, then east, then north - twice the distance! The Mulligan Hwy was, however, a great track and an interesting drive. Enroute I stopped for a break at one of the lookouts. It was quite late afternoon before, after a lap of the town, I elected to prop at the somewhat decrepit Peninsula Caravan Park because I could camp out the back with lots of space for James to wander off lead.
Cooktown is an interesting place with a fascinating history, much of which I learned from Nick, the owner of Riverbend Tours. In June 1770 Captain James Cook hit the Barrier Reef and put a hole in the hull of the 368 ton Endeavour. His crew of 87 men had to offload a heap of stores to avoid sinking and they limped into the nearest river they could find. There they beached the ship and conducted repairs over a seven week period. There is a rock on the shore that pinpoints the spot of the beaching. He later named the river the Endeavour River. Nowadays Cooktown has a population of over 2000 people, many of whom are indigenous. There is a boutique fishing industry there for prawns and live Coral Trout for export. A big boat goes out with several little tinnies for 10 days at a time and a single bloke in each tinny fishes all day then keeps the catch alive before it gets transferred to holding tanks in the big ship. The live fish then go by road to Cairns where they are sent overseas. That is something I did not know.
I stayed at Cooktown for three nights. It was a bit of a ghost town with tourism way, way down, but had quite a nice feel about it and some interesting spots to check out. One drawback was the massively gusting winter southeast tradewinds. It would have been great to spend some time on the local beach but being sandblasted was most uncomfortable.
Grassy Hill Lookout is a great spot to view the town and the Endeavour River - so long as you anchor yourself to something so you don't get blown off!
I drove about 50 km both north and south of town and there was some fantastic scenery.
Sunday was a big day with a trip to the renown Lions Den Hotel via Black Mountain. Lions Den is a fabulous old pub about a half hour south of Cooktown where you can view all sorts of memorabilia, have a drink and a good meal and even camp if you want to.
Sunday night I did the sunset river cruise and it was bloody fantastic - one of the best things I have done on my travels. The two and a half hour cruise only had eleven passengers and owner, captain, tour guide and waiter Nick did a great job. It was BYO with a delicious antipasto platter provided, the information he gave was really interesting and it was a bargain for $67. What a perfect last day to my stay in Cooktown.
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