Blogs from Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Friday 15th July 2011 Cairns to Cooktown Phil is our fearless leader for a couple of days while Murray repairs a tie rod. We arrived in Mossman to encounter John and Greg (from the first group) awaiting the arrival of a tail shaft to replace their broken one. We were going to have a coffee with them in town, but there was a big NAIDOC festival event happening, and the place was packed, so we’ve left it until further up the road (hope they get their car mended and rejoin us at Weipa).On up to Mossman Gorge, where we walked up the new (since we were last there a long time ago) elevated walkway through the rainforest. There’s an incredible amount of moss on everything, and what were those amazing purple pear-shaped and sized fruits on ... read more

If you are into big game fishing there is no better place to catch a BIG black marlin than the Great Barrier Reef area off of Cooktown, Australia. Here's a few pictures form my last trip to the GBR during black marlin season. Enjoy!... read more

After a late start getting away from Maggie Island we caught the ferry back to the mainland, grabbed some groceries and went to retrieve our trailer. Then we hit the road again and headed north to Forest Beach near Ingham, passing the large sugar cane mill along the way. We had arranged to spend the evening here with Norma and Herman (good friends from Darwin). We arrived later than we had planned but had a brilliant evening catching up with them after again being treated to Norma's yummy cooking. The next morning The Netherlands were playing Uruguay in the semi final of the World Cup soccer so Mark, Thomas and Herm got up early to enjoy the game together. Then we were treated to a delicious cooked breakfast before we loaded up the car again and ... read more

The campsite at Cooktown is nice with ready made shades which come in handy as it starts to chuck it down later that evening and we sit under the shade and keep dry. We arrive here on a Sunday and the place is dead, it is a very small town and has beautiful old buildings and you can see it really hasn't changed much since the 1880's when it was a gold mining town. It is only recently that there has been a tarmacked road coming into town so tourism is still just developing. We take a walk through the town past historic monuments to Captain Cook, this is the place where his boat got damaged when it struck the reef and he had to settle here for 48 days while the boat was fixed. You ... read more

I think I really should proof read some of these blogs before I post them. Oh well, you can all gather what I mean. We made the decision to start heading south instead of going to Thursday Island. We found out the ferry cost $100 each. We thought the money better spent on the boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. The wind was getting stronger and each day getting cloudier. This is not what we came north for, more cloud, no way; more sun, yes please. We stopped to look at the WWII plane wrecks at Bamaga Airport on the way down. No signs, just dots on the map and the rest you have to figure out for yourself - a bit like directions to the Tip of Cape York. Discarded 44 gallon drums ... read more