Day 30: Sunday with the Cairns Group again (01/07/12)

A cool night was bliss! We slept well and Joke felt better despite the cold. So we decided we would go down to Cairns for the day and worship with the Cairns group again. Walkamin is at about 650 metres above sea level, so going down to Cairns is just that. You drive towards the edge of the Tablelands, go up a bit higher, and then plunge down to sea level and Cairns. Quite spectacular.

We did it in good time, too. The group in the Trinity Beach hall was fairly small this week, as a number of people were away. However, this did not deter us, and we heard 2 excellent sermons, one of which was by John Kroeze. Matt Plug, cousin of Rev Joe Plug of Holland, was ordained as elder. We had the usual coffee followed by lunch and got to know and talk to a few more of the folk there.

View over Cairns from the Kuranda pass.

Then we went up the pass again and went back to the caravan “only” 69 kilometres away. We sat in the sun and drank tea. In the evening we participated in a quiz night in The Shed.

Day 29: A change of plan and we head for the Tablelands (30/06/12)

The nights were warm to hot in Cooktown, and even though this was meant to be the dry season, very humid. Added to this, Joke was coming down with an epic head cold. The result was that we did not sleep much at all and got up in the morning bleary-eyed and grumpy. So the prospect of more of the same at our next chosen destination, Endeavour Falls, did not seem to awake in us the desired joy. We made a radical decision: we would go south again to the Mareeba area where Camps6 reported the presence of some excellent free and cheap camps.

No sooner said than done. Plan made, action followed! Not on your Nelly, of course. We packed on what Joke calls our dead ten cent pieces (translate THAT, Mr Google!!), getting into a half-hour conversation with our Canadian neighbour, Charlie, whose grandfather had been part of the Palmer River gold rush before emigrating to British Columbia for another gold rush. Charlie had worked in B.C. in the 1960’s together with a Tasmanian by the name of Dick Groom, who had later returned to Tasmania and entered politics. I showed him 1970’s pictures of Roger Groom, the only Groom who could possibly have been in engineering in Canada at the time. Charlie was determined to follow it up. Interesting person.

Then we were off, via petrol station and hardware store, and onto the now familiar Mulligan Highway. We stopped off at the lookout in the ranges,

Another perspective in the Byerstown Range

and again at Bob’s Lookout

The view from Bob's Lookout

Big wide view from Bob's Lookout

The locals have tried to improve on "Bob" at Bob's Lookout

and then through Mt Carbine and Mt Molloy and finally through Mareeba. We had chosen a low-cost park in a little place called Walkamin, 20 kms south of Mareeba. We wondered what we would find, and were most pleasantly surprised. A very large field with an oval drive around it. Caravans far apart from one another, amenities and The Shed in the middle, outback windmill rattling in the wind. Bonus!

Evening glow on our setup at Walkamin

The windmill

Different weather to Cooktown!

Day 28: Housekeeping and one of the best little museums in Australia (29/06/12)

Friday was a day of housekeeping. Joke did the washing and I supervised.

Supervising the housekeeping

I also chased out the last of the ants who had joined us in Cairns and who seemed to have wanted to make a home inside the door of our fridge. Shutting the gate after the horse had bolted I ant-sanded every wheel and stabiliser. (some readers may remember how we ant-proofed a certain caravan in Albany some years ago, only to discover that the nest was inside the caravan in the first place..!)

Then a swim and lunch and off to Cooktown’s major attraction as far as I am concerned: the James Cook Museum. It is a little jewel of a place which does far more than just commemorate the visit of James Cook to this place when he repaired his ship the Endeavour on the river bank. The museum also focuses on aboriginal culture and the mining boom, the Chinese cultural influence, natural history, etc. All this in a compact and pleasantly laid out area. For us it was a second visit and worth every moment of it.

A cannon from Captain Cook's ship The Endeavour. It was thrown overboard when the Endeavour struck the reef, and recovered some 250 years later. Worth going to Cooktown just to see it!

The Captain Cook room at the museum

View from the balcony

Bird in the garden

Part of the museum gardens

Palm with bright red fruit. These palms seem to use some of the bright sunlight above to light up under their canopies.

James Cook Museum

Day 27: We attempted to conquer Mount Cook (but failed) (28/06/12)

Cooktown seemed to be a bit quieter than as we remembered it from 6 years ago. Still, the caravan park was full, and the streets were packed with caravans coming and going, and silver-haired couples sight-seeing. (The description “silver-haired couple” does not apply to us, of course, because we only have a silver-haired single: me. Joke’s promise to “go gray” during this trip has only materialised in some small spots, as yet.) The caravan park had a well-organised folder of Cooktown information which included a series of heritage and history walks which the tourist could do. We chose the easiest one: climbing up Mt Cook which dominates the town from the south. Climbing the 480 metre mountain in 95% humidity seemed to present no problem for us, so we drove out to the start of the track and got away. We were cheered by the fact that the Parks people had recently spent a lot of money upgrading the track. “Good on them!”, we said, “That’ll be easy!”

To misquote a Reformed book title: there’s promise and there’s delivery. Yes the track looked a cinch, yes it had been improved. But Queenslanders, as opposed to Tasmanians, consider walking track improvement to be a branch of road improvement. So they had brought this red gravel with little round pebbles which would not look bad at all on an outback goat track, and spread it over a very steep walking track up the side of a mountain. We were down to first gear, metaphorically, before we got to the first corner. A hundred corners later, with bruised shins and severe seepage of dignity, we said ”Enuff!”. A convenient boulder gave us a substitute for the top-of-the-mountain view we had craved, and then we beat a slippy-slidey, oops! bump retreat.

Joke walking on eggshells up Mt Cook

Convenient boulder without gravel

Joke putting a brave face on it

Our viewing rock

The offending outback road-base...

So we went to downtown Cooktown and strolled the main drag. This meant wandering alongside the Endeavour River, watching the fishermen (and –women), tipping the hat to Captain Cook, following all the inscriptions on the pavements and looking at the grand old buildings lining Charlotte Street.

The Powder Magazine

Tin Chinese

Cooktown Harbour

Cap'n Cook turned his back on us

The Post Office

Are the local vets a bit defensive?

Then we went to Grassy Hill lookout, where, a local told me, they had spent a million dollars to improve it, but left only 4 car parking spaces. There were 5. The evening view was grand.

Million dollar improvement, Grassy Hill

Million dollar imrovement continued - well-spent, we thought

Sunset view over the Endeavour River

And of course the lighthouse, sporting a new coat of paint since our last visit.

All the above happened on Wednesday, and so here briefly is Thursday’s story.

Back view of the caravan for a change - Cooktown Big4

Flowers laid on specially for our arrival

We set out to go down to the Bloomfield River, which is on the Bloomfield Track: the coastal route from Cairns to Cooktown. This is 4-wheel drive only, and we could see why, even though we didn’t do the toughest bit between the Bloomfield River and Cape Tribulation. Beautiful country, lush, green and mysterious. Every single creek crossing was a deep concrete ditch – all dry today, thankfully. We got down to the Bloomfield River at Ayton, drove upstream for about 7 kms to the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal and there crossed the Bloomfield River at a very tame crossing. Going back across we headed up to the Bloomfield Falls which were impressive enough considering the relative dryness. An ice cream at the Bloomfield Store, and then back home.

Bloomfield River

Crossing the Bloomfield River - White Bear is stressed out to the max!

Not to worry though, only a bit of water going through

Bloomfield Falls, or Wujal Wujal

Johanna of the Falls

Fallen rainforest tree supported by creepers

Our first alchohol-free community - we had our bona fides in order.

Joke on Weary Bay Beach - looking for coconuts, no joke!

WindyLoo at Weary Bay. I am not permitted to show what was inside.

Joke cooling her feet in a mountain stream

The Bloomfield Road, dark, mysterious and very lush

Wallaby Creek

Mysterious Black Mountain, seen here from the Bloomfield Road

The day is done, time to relax.

Dag 26: Van de Palmer Rivier naar Cooktown (27/06/12)

Om het ook een beetje gemakkelijk te maken voor de nederlandse lezers van dit joernaal, is deze aflevering in het Nederlands. Onze engelse lezers moeten desnoods maar de vertaalknop (“Translate”) gebruiken, dan kunnen ze ook lekker meelezen.

Aangezien wij maar 130 km of zo moesten rijden vandaag, hadden we geen haast om weg te gaan van Palmer River. Palmer River dankt zijn bestaan aan het ontdekken van goud in de omtrek in de laat-19de eeuw.  Dat bracht duizenden naar dit stukje van het York Schiereiland, waaronder ook 17000 chinezen. Het was alluvial goud, dus was te vinden in de zandbodem van de Palmer River en andere rivieren en stromen in de buurt. De goudjacht (“goldrush”) duurde maar een beperkte tijd, voordat er niet meer genoeg goud te vinden was en het niet meer de moeite waard was. Overstromingen in de zomer, dag in, dag uit 46 graden, gebrek aan voedsel, onderdak, transport en openbare orde maakten het voor de meeste mensen onmogelijk.

De brug over de Palmer River

Zit er nog goud in de Palmer River?

Ons kamp en de Palmer River

Nu is er nog alleen het “Roadhouse” over. Combinatie kroeg, benzine pomp, restaurant, kampeer plek, postkantoor en buurthuis, iets wat je veel ziet in het Australische “outback”.

De diesel generator (en een reserve)

Bij een roadhouse hoort een bier tuin!

De mensen daar hebben een museum kamer met veel interessante gegevens over de oude tijd. Ook kopen ze goud op van amateur goudzoekers tegen $60 per gram. Nou ja, dat is iets voor onze volgende expeditie! Een paar weekjes kamperen bij de Palmer River en dan met de “Pan”, een diep bord met richeltjes er in naar de rivier en even de kost verdienen. Een oude heer had een tent naast onze caravan, en kwam s’avonds terug met ongeveer een half gram goud. Leuk om over te dromen.

We reden noordoost over een pas of twee...

Uitzicht naar het noorden vanaf een de James Earl Lookout in de Byerstown Range

...en zakten toen snel af naar Cooktown. Daar was het weer volop tropen, alhoewel het een beetje droger is als Cairns. Caravan opgezet en eerst even zwemmen om een beetje af te koelen...