Cooktown

Tuesday morning we packed up and headed out to Cooktown.  There was plenty of wildlife to watch out for on the roads, massive Brahman cows grazing next to the road and a dead boar sunbaking on the verge kept us alert!

We stopped for lunch after about 2.5 hours then continued driving for another 90 minutes. When we arrived in Cooktown we did a quick tour of the town then found the IGA for some groceries, then found a caravan park to camp in.  As it was just after the Easter long weekend the park was very empty and quiet. 

We set up camp then headed off to the pool for a break from the heat!  It was very refreshing and we spent a few hours enjoying it.

After dinner and showers we were all off to bed to try and catch up on some sleep after the busy weekend.

The following day we headed back into town to see the James Cook Museum.  Cooktown was named after Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef in the Endeavour.  The anchor was lost on the reef as well as a cannon, which were retrieved 200 years later. He limped the boat to shore and when the tide went down he and his men were able to start fixing the hole in the hull. He and his crew spent 74 days at Cooktown and had some interesting dealings with the aborigines there.

 The anchor which was retrieved from the reef 200 years after the shipwreck

We spent a few hours wandering through the museum which hosted a lot of information on Captain Cook as well as the history of the gold rush days, the immigrants and the aborigines that were living in the area.

The kids loved the poem on the wall...

'Captain Cook chased a chook, all around Australia,

Lost his pants in the middle of France

and found them in Tasmania'

From there we walked down to the park and had some lunch while the kids played.  It was pretty warm! We strolled along the foreshore and had a look at the musical boat where the kids (and adults) could play tunes with the thongs on the pipes.  There were a number of different statues remembering different people who were involved in building the community at Cooktown.

Captain Cook statue

We headed back to the car and drove up to the lookout, overlooking Cooktown and the Endeavour River.  Afterwards we drove out to Trevathan Falls which was a bit of a 4WD track and a bit tricky to find.  We were all keen for a swim when we got there but it turned out to be not a great spot for the kids to access the water.  So Mars and the three oldest had a hike up and took some photos then we headed back out again.

Back at the caravan park we had a swim and cooled off there - it was a stinking hot day!