To Cooktown

I was awake early after a bit of a restless night, probably brought about by the Wallabies loss to the All Blacks and also being unable to get television to work to watch their loss! The worst part was I had to endure the defeat sitting beside a really nice couple, Chris and Sharon, who were parked next to me last night.

It did not take me very long to pack up and depart but not before saying farewell to Chris and Sharon. I had already attached the Bravo to the Karavan late yesterday afternoon so it was a simple departure.

My route was to Cooktown passing by Mossman. All the way along and past Mossman, I was passing through sugar cane growing farmland. The whole trip was not a particularly long drive but a very demanding one. However, the whole scenery was just so beautiful.

A bit further on there was a choice of going into Daintree village or to the Daintree River Ferry. I chose the village just to see what it was like. It is a very well maintained community. I had expected a hippy type of place but was really wrong. It is so typical of this area, it is so green and lush. I just drove through and returned to the ferry turn off.

As I arrived at the ferry, with pre-conceived ideas, thinking it would be a small and dilapidated ferry. How wrong I was. It is a very much bigger ferry than the Ballina ferry and also charges much more. It cost me $19.00 to go across. It was about half the distance of the Ballina one, too. It was all over in a couple of minutes.

I passed along the road towards Cape Tribulation. The whole area is heavily focussed on tourism with this resort and day spa seemingly on each side of the road. How good they are I have no idea.

After a while of winding road, I arrived at the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre. Before I did the tour of the Centre I had my first coffee for the day. It is really worth a visit especially taking in the Canopy Tower and aerial walkway. It is really well described not only by comparing green numbers with the informative guide book and listening to the vocal description of the location one is looking at.

After leaving the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre, my track became just that. Some parts were good to drive on while other parts were hard. I had engaged the 4 WD free wheel hubs as soon as I hit the gravel. The passing scenery was fantastic. All the time I was twisting and turning, climbing and descending as well as crossing creeks of varying depth. Some of the climbs found me engaging low range 4 WD and on several occasions, engaging first gear. The Bravo has never climbed so hard and it did it without missing a beat. Obviously, when you go up then you must eventually come down. Again the use of first gear was required to hold the weight of the combined units in preference to using the brakes.

After several hours it was lunch at the Lion’s Den Hotel. It is located near the end of the Bloomfield track and about 30 kms from Cooktown. There possibly would have been about 100 people there having lunch. Some people had passed me on the track and others had arrived from all over. It is a very old and quaint hotel but set in a wonderful location which also has nice camping spots. I had a nice steak burger and the inevitable chips along with a Corona.

Then I travelled the relatively short distance into the Big 4 Caravan Park in Cooktown. Quite quickly, I set up and connected power and water to the Karavan. It is a nice park and people seem to be friendly. The town is quite small but I will have a good ride around and look tomorrow.