Such an amazing change in scenery for just a few hours drive north of Cairns. We headed up with the Spences to Mount Molloy - a nice little freecamp, where we picked up the most enormous burgers I have ever eaten. And a few new birds the Spangled Drongo and the ... and a wallaby on my walk. We also got the name of the Blackbean, a forest tree we had been hunting the name of since Mission Beach, where Terry and Merrilee had given us a pod and a quest!
Next stop the Palmer River Roadhouse where we did a bit of school and a few board games and marvelled at the toilet decor. The sky and the walk in the tough bush up north more than made up for it.
We stopped at a couple of lookouts on the way to Cooktown, the most spectacular of which was Black Mountain. It was two amazing piles of granite boulders, coloured black because of the lichen growing on them. We didn't see the snakes or rock wallabys from the dreamtime story.
Cooktown was a slightly momentous arrival - our most northern part of the trip... at least on the East Coast! And the furthest north any of our family has ever been in our lives. The Big 4 campsite was one of my favourites. Leafy and shady, not too big. Just nice to relax in, however briefly, and imagine you could just sit and read a book. Sometimes the imagining is all you need!!
Cooktown was both pretty and wild. The crocs were an unseen but noted presence. It's strange to be in such a beautiful place by the sea and not to be in it! The history was interesting and, as always pretty sad, when it comes down to it. No matter which way you look at it white people's attitudes and behaviour were mostly pretty stinky and often much worse when it came to the First Australians...
Cooktown deserves its own little celebration as it was where we spent our last school day of Term 2. Dom came home telling me of his visit to Cooktown Library "was like Heaven" to him. It certainly was, with heaps of toys, puppets and games as well as all the usual good kids books! We all had to go back there prior to leaving the next day so the big boys would not miss out.
Cooktown was both pretty and wild. The crocs were an unseen but noted presence. It's strange to be in such a beautiful place by the sea and not to be in it! The history was interesting and, as always pretty sad, when it comes down to it. No matter which way you look at it white people's attitudes and behaviour were mostly pretty stinky and often much worse when it came to the First Australians...
Cooktown deserves its own little celebration as it was where we spent our last school day of Term 2. Dom came home telling me of his visit to Cooktown Library "was like Heaven" to him. It certainly was, with heaps of toys, puppets and games as well as all the usual good kids books! We all had to go back there prior to leaving the next day so the big boys would not miss out.
The drive back to Port Douglas to meet up with Kath and kids flew by. The kids travelled really well and we all enjoyed some of Huck and Jim's adventures on an audiobook on the way home. We stopped in to see the Spences and have a game or two of Rummy-o at the Mount Molloy free camp before making our way down the hill to Port Douglas in the afternoon
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