Cairns, Cooktown, then into Queensland interior

  Cooktown, Australia
Friday, July 20, 2007

Wed 11th July Cairns
Look around the main town

Cairns - high-rise

and waterfront area where it meets the river.

Trinity Inlet, Cairns

There is a large marine industry area, and room for a lot more on cleared, filled land. Check out the mud-flats,

Cairns- beach at low tide

which are pretty ugly at low tide, and the man-made lagoon (the engineering was done by the company Dianne used to work for).

Cairns - the man-made lagoon

Out to Crystal Cascades camp area to book into a cabin. Drive to the Cascades, and clamber over rocks up the river to a nice waterfall.

Crystal Cascades -side track

When we get back to the car, find the proper track, which follows the main river up for about a kilometre,

Walk to Crystal Cascades

with lots of cascades,

Crystal Cascades

surrounded by the rainforest. The track ends at a gate and fence below the Lake Morris water supply dam. Surprised to find that this is one of the nicest things we've seen on the whole trip.
Back to camping area to make the planned rendezvous with Mike (Bev has already left for Perth), and Bobby, Greg and Nola.
Thursday 12th July Cairns-Port Douglas-Cairns
All go in Greg's Pajero for a day trip to Port Douglas,

Port Douglas

where we have lunch, then walk around the town, and up to the lookout,

Port Douglas -beach views

then walk around the town, and up to the lookoutbefore checking out the flash Palm Cove area, and returning to the camping area. We can't get a cabin, so try out sleeping in the back of our station wagon, with our new mattress, for the first time. Murray spends the second half of the night on a stretcher in the caravan annexe (the car sleeping needs a bit of refining).
Friday 13th &a mp;a mp;n bsp; &a mp;a mp;n bsp; &a mp;a mp;n bsp; Cairns - Cow Bay
Bobby, Greg and Nola set out for Cape Tribulation, leaving the caravan behind, while we head for the Cairns Yacht Clubthen walk around the town, and up to the lookout for lunch with Ray and Jeanie. Afterwards head for Cape Tribulation too. Stop at Mossman Gorge

Mossman Gorge

Mossman Gorge

for a nice walk along the river, managing a good parking place in spite of the crowds of day visitors. The gorge and river are pretty,

Mossman Gorge

with a lot of clean water in the river, and a good swing bridge. We check out the well kept Aboriginal settlement below the gorge, then head North, catching the ferry across to Daintree on the first loading. Are committed to going via the coast, but returning inland, so only pay one way. Find the troops at their upmarket rainforest cabin. They have a vacancy, but at $140 for nothing special we're not very impressed. When we ask if they have something cheaper, we're told the pub about 5 kms back at Cow Bay has rooms for $75 including breakfast, and the manageress rings up and books us one (obviously not the owner!). All have a VERY ordinary meal in the restaurant, and then all head back to check out the pub and our room, which turns out to be a very good motel room, better than the others expensive one. You can be lucky! Have a drink in the pub, which is full of mainly locals, with the odd tourist, including one who sold a home and bought nickel shares three years ago. He is driving a very flash Toyota now, and only works part of the year.
Saturday 14th &a mp;a mp;n bsp; Cow Bay-Cooktown
Enjoy our included Continental breakfast, pick up the others, and away by about 9.30, travelling in convoy for a while, but it isn't working. See some good beaches,

Cape Tribulation - beach

Daintree National Park -beach

and an excellent boardwalk in the mangroves,

Daintree National Park-mangroves

Daintree NP - unusual fig tree

Daintree NP - in the mangroves

More mangroves

with unusual buttressed roots on the trees.

Cape Tribulation road

Daintree National Park -river scenery

More mangroves

Fill up with fuel, then onto the gravel road. Check out the Beach House backpackers, where we stayed in 2002. Rooms still look dark, but it is a good setup, in a great location, with a good bar, and the beach with Cape Tribulation at the South end. See a big goanna, and a cassowary on the way in, right near the office.
Just beyond here, catch up with Greg, who has a water in the fuel problem. Takes a bit of sorting out. Decide travelling in convoy is probably a good idea north of here, as the road is classified as 4WD from here on.
The road is in pretty good condition, with paving on the really steep sections. There is a fair bit of water in the creek crossings -get that floating feeling on the loose stone bottom, but in low range we proceed slowly but steadily, with water well up the black section of the doors.

More river scenes-Bloomfield Track

Morning tea break-Bloomfield Track

Don't see any crocs on the Bloomfield sandbanks, and discouraged from going to Bloomfield Falls by a large, but possibly ambiguous official warning notice, saying it's private property (it wasn't when we were here four years ago). Can get there on tours run by the local aboriginals, however. Bypass most of Bloomfield village.

There are some pretty flash houses being built along the main road south of the river, and the usual number of dead Toyotas scattered about.
We leave the coast and climb a steep valley, and into cleared grazing land

Grazing land after the National Pa

and find a good lunching spot at a creek crossing.

Lunch break

Stop at the Lion's Den Hotel for a beer and a look at the memorabilia.

Lion's Den Pub, near Helenvale

Lion's Den Pub

One of the young barmaids could pass for Lisa's sister, but it was 40 years ago that MP was here.
Stop for a look at the Black Mountain NP

Black Mountain National Park

then into Cooktown for accommodation. Right where Capt Cook pulled ashore, find an upmarket-looking complex, Seaview Motel, and settle for a 2-bedroom, 2-storey townhouse with excellent views

View from our unit, Cooktown

Why we don't swim around here

over the river for $220 a night for the five of us. After settling in, decide it is good enough for a second night.
Check out the town, including the very flash Sovereign Resort, but settle for a good but plain roast-of-the-day at the much more authentic top pub, watching the football, and checking the mullets and guts on the colourful locals. A real mullet-gut sort of a night.
Saturday is "The Bill" night, so those with the addiction, watch TV while Dianne reads. Have a poor night's sleep, due to sliding toilet doors, open bedroom doors, windy weather, and a restless DP.
Sunday 15th Cooktown
Map out a plan for the day. Greg goes out for breakfast supplies, but ends up finding a breakfast cafe, so Bobby and Nola join him. We breakfast in the flat, then walk the town to catch up with them.Take photo of statue commemorating the arrival of the vessel "Leichhardt" here in 1873, which was carrying people going to the Palmer River Goldrush.

Cooktown

Also take photo of statue commemmorating Captain James Cook coming ashore to repair his boat on the 4th August 1770.

In 1770 Captain Cook repaired his boat here

Check out the town (which is very dead on this Sunday),

Cooktown - grand architecture

Cooktown Hotel (1885)

and the museum on the way back

James Cook Museum

Modern housing Cooktown

(Dianne goes cross-country for some great views, and a sighting of a wallaby and a snake). Then into the cars, and down to the end of the road along the river, up a massive cutting which ends in mid-air, at an extremely difficult $900,000 building block. There are a number of these, and there is a lot of local resistance to the development. Good views over the bay, which has a narrow entrance channel, and is pretty choppy. Next, up the very steep gravel road for good views from the lighthouse lookout,

Cooktown - mangroves

then down past the Botanical Gardens to the beach south of the town.

Cooktown - nearby beach

It has some good granite boulders, and a wide sandy beach, but is short on coco palms for a real tropical beach.
Next we head out the road to pick up the turnoff to Archer Point. It is a surprisingly long way out, and there is a near mutiny until we find a map which shows only 10kms to the coast. It is nearly 10kms till we see the sea, but the point is every bit as beautiful as MP remembers from 40 years ago.

Archer Point

Archer Point

Archer Point

Archer Point

Find a picnic spot beside the beach and lunch well. The wind is quite strong, and we all get sun-and-wind burnt. Find an old wharf, a mysterious chapel-like structure on the offshore island, and an operating lighthouse on a high, windy headland.

Archer Point - view from hill

Archer Point-view from hill

Run into a couple of camper guys, one a local, who says there is a wind farm going in here. Can understand why,as it is blowing 30 to 40 knots on a fine, clear day. There are no houses out here, much less the housing developments we've seen in even the most unlikely places.
Back in town, drive a short way out on the road North, till we cross the Endeavour River,

Endeavour River near Cooktown

then up to a good lookout point,

Looking back towards Cooktown

Looking towards Cape Bedford

then back to town.
Back for sunset nibbles, then back to last night's pub for dinner.
Monday 16th July &a mp;a mp;n bsp;Cooktown-Cairns

Cooktown -Greg and Nola on our verandah

Get away reasonably late, but still too early for the Museum. Greg takes a long look on the way past, but we manage to get away. Both fill up with fuel. On a whim, MP tests the oil level on the Forester, and surprised to find the oil doesn't show on the dipstick. Shell garage has to phone Cairns to find out what sort of oil suits it. Buy 2 litres for $21, needs just over a litre to fill it. This is a timely warning, as we are just about to head into the remote areas, and our "new" car is not bullet proof.
We stop at the Annan River gorge PHOTO_ID_R=annan-river---the-quiet-side.jpg]

Annan River-looking towards bridge

for morning tea, demolishing vanilla slices from the Cooktown bakery beside the impressive cascades below the main road bridge.

Annan River gorge

Annan River gorge

Greg's in the lead car, and doesn't stop at the Palmer River, which appears to be pretty dry, but has a strip of water beside the bank, and the bed is wide and deep, considering we are relatively close to the start of the river.

Wedge-tailed eagle

Stop at a cafe at Mt Molloy which had been recommended by travellers we meet at the impressive Bob's Lookout.

View from Bob's Lookout

They are actually the wife of the surveyor at Cooktown and her friends. We had what was definitely the world's biggest (and best) steak burger.

Mt Molloy hamburger

Continue on past an irrigation area and the large Lake Mitchell and wetlands,

Lake Mitchell and wetlands

through Mareeba (which hasn't improved since we were here a few days ago). Stop at Kuranda for a while as Nola hasn't been here before, then back to Crystal Cascades camping area.
Meet up with Mike and Bev, who is back from Perth on the super-redeye flight. We sleep in the car again, which works much better, when we top and tail.
Tuesday 17th July Ca irns
Mike and Bev leave for Cooktown in the morning, and we arrange to meet up in Georgetown in a few days. The rest of the troops head for the town. We do a load of washing, then head out to nearby Lake Morris, which provides Cairns' water, and is just above Crystal Cascades. Good views, through the rainforest, over the town from the steep winding road.

Cairns is growing fast

Cairns - from Lake Morris

The valley which slopes down to the lake is steep, and completely clad in rain forest, with one large rock dome. The rainforest comes right down to the waterline, making it very pretty, more like a European lake than a water supply.

Male yellow-bellied sunbird?

Crystal Cascades from Lake Morris

Lake Morris, Cairns

Afterwards, into Cairns for some internetting, and a final walk along the waterfront. Have a very late lunch/early dinner at the Chinese buffet, then back to camping area for drinks with our new neighbours.
Wednesday 18th July &a mp;a mp;n bsp; Cairns- Undara Lava Tubes
Woken early by troops leaving to take Nola to the airport.
At this stage we've had enough of staying in the upmarket coastal camping areas

Greg's caravan and our car, Crystal Cascades

which we find are very reminiscent of a retirement village. The women are up early doing their washing, followed by sitting doing their knitting,

Crystal Cascades kitchen

while the men spend their mornings washing their cars, fiddling with their "rigs" and discussing various modifications with each other, while they all wait for morning tea time, followed by lunch, then afternoon drinks.......Quite a few come up from the South and do this for months at a time. We're ready to get away from this scene, and see some of the inland.
Bobby and Greg are not interested in going on gravel roads, which are pretty hard to avoid inland, so we decide to go our separate ways.
We go back South as far as Innisfail (87 kms) along the coast to look at a couple of tourist sites we missed on the way up, then travel up to the tablelands via the Palmerston Highway, which is covering new ground. First stop is The Boulders, in from Babinda, on Babinda Creek. There are a lot of tourists, particularly Uncle Brian's Tours. The picnic area is nothing special, but has a good creek. Walking downstream along a smooth, tarred path through cyclone-damaged rainforest, the creek gets better, with large, water carved granite boulders, falls, and deep pools.

The Boulders, on Babinda Creek

The Boulders, Babinda Creek

There is a remarkable tree trunk with wedged roots up among the boulders, left over from the floods. The prettier sections below the picnic grounds are out-of-bounds due to "numerous deaths".
Next stop is Josephine Falls, where the track up Bartle Frere starts. The creek and falls are very pretty, falling in several stages, with good swimming facilities, and a broad rock waterslide. This is also granite country, and the rounded rocks are very attractive. There is another large touring party of backpackers swimming here.

Josephine Falls

Josephine Falls

Josephine Falls - keen swimmers

We are nearly out of fuel, but make it to the Palmerston turnoff, and into the outskirts of Innisfail for a fill. The Palmerston Highway takes us through pretty rural scenery, cane fields, a tea plantation

Tea plantation Innisfail area

and dairy country, with a cloud-shrouded Bartle Frere to the north.
Stop at the roadside Palmerston lookout, not expecting much, and find the Johnston River a surprising distance down below us.

Johnston River from Palmerston lookout

The river is big enough for rafting here. We enter the rainforest here, and take photos of an interesting possum bridge across the highway,

Possum bridges across highway

and take a disappointing detour along the old highway.
Next stop is a camping area and walk along the Henrietta Creek, not a bad camping area, but the creek is pretty ordinary.
Reaching the top of the range, we turn off to the Mungalli Falls.

Mungalli Falls

These are three levels of basalt lava flows, the top being a rough slope with rapids, and the bottom a sheer drop of 20 metres. There is a very large lunch room and tourist trap beside them. Decide to push on, rather than walk to the bottom.
Decide to go direct to Millaa Millaa Falls,

Millaa Millaa Falls

rather than take the 15 km loop past three falls. Walk from the top car park down to the large pool, looking up at a 20m drop. There are a lot of tourists swimming. Decide against the rainforest walk, drive the 2km into Millaa Millaa to look for food, but have to settle for the last sausage roll in the town, which is quite small.
Take the old road to Ravenshoe, through pretty rolling country,

Rolling hills near Ravenshoe

with rainforest in the valleys, and come back to the main road at the Windy Hill wind farm. Get supplies and fish and chips at Ravenshoe, past Millstream Falls without having a second look, slow down through Inot Hot Springs, but don't stop. The road has deteriorated to a centre strip of tar, with gravel each side. We are now encountering two and three trailer ore trains, and slowing right down and getting off the road for them. Mt Garnet is not memorable, and push on to the Savannah Way turnoff, and the road to the Undara Lava Tubes. Apart from a short stretch of gravel, the road is good all the way in to the resort. Follow a caravan in, and are behind him in the line to see him knocked back for accommodation, either caravan, or camping. He is told there is a bad rut on the road in, but we can't find it. While booking in, we are told discretely that the buffet wasn't worth the money ($35 per head). Find our campsite ($16 per night), pitch the tent beside the car on a gravel patch, roping it to the trees.
Have tea in the camp kitchen, which is a long way from the tent, talk to an American couple who know the family of the Americans left on the reef. Have spent time in the Middle East.
After tea, go down to the singalong around the campfire. The singalong to the songbook is only fair, but after the official programme is over, the ringer, who is an old bloke, a Savannah Guide who has to do this as part of his job, sings some of his favorites, helped by John, a tour guide, who has a good voice, and a good line of jokes. John is driving the Wilderness Experience tour, and has a team of oldies who are long in bed.
It is pretty windy in the night, but we are warm enough on our Clark mattress with two thin, and one thick sleeping bag.
Thursday 19 July &a mp;a mp;n bsp; Undara Lava Tubes
Breakfast in the camp kitchen, then down to the lodge for an 8.30 start, DP trying to make a phone call, but the all-day tour ($110 per person) leaves right on time. Through being last on, we get the best seats, up the front. The tour is being run by Joe and Jo, from Bedrock Village at Mt Surprise. Joe has worked on construction and maintenance on the resort, one of 10 kids. Classic young Aussie from the bush.
First stop is at the Kalkari Crater, an extinct cone with a crater inside.

View from Kalkani Crater, Undara

The crater is lightly timbered, with long, dry grass, and is not very impressive. From the rim, you can see other volcanic features, including shields, cones, and the lava tubes, traced out by greener foliage on the trees, like a watercourse.

Undara lava tubes

One high point has scrubby trees, which survive because they are less subject to fire up here. There is a well maintained ranger station at the base of the cone.
The slow progress up the cone by some of the oldies is an indication that we will not be seeing a lot by the end of the day. It is quite cold and windy on top, but there are good views. Surprisingly, we are up at 900 metres, higher than the mountains on the horizon.
After morning tea, head to Wind Tunnel, our first lava tube.

Wind Tunnel, Undara

It is in a grove of trees with step and rope handrails down into it, probably 15 metres diameter, half filled with soft, dusty soil, about 40 metres long.
The next stop is lunch back at the lodge,

Lunch at Undara

a buffet of soup, pasta and salad, a preview of the evening meal (decide we will make do with chunky soup tonight). DP manages to get a message through to Mike's message bank, then we head out to another tube, this one with another rough entry, long walk through to a dead end, then back through a side tunnel, and out a different way. The tunnels have interesting patterns from iron and lime leaching, with fairly believable named outlines for elephant, dingo, Pamela Anderson, Mary on the donkey. Get photos of the tunnels, plus patterns and various sized bats, including some tiny ones.

Lava tube, Undara

Another lava tube, Undara

Another lava tube, Undara

Bats in lava tubes, Undara

Granite outcrop, Undara

One of the longer tunnels has a ramp for wheelchairs, and a chair lift on the steps, and a boardwalk on the tunnel floor. Some of the oldies are surprised at the difficulty, and sit out some of the tunnel visits.
The longest tunnel slopes strongly, and has a lava floor, as water washes soil straight through into the pool at the end. We go in about 400 of the 900 metres, turn off the lights, but still some light from people who wouldn't join in. Dense patches of bats on the roof, gas bulges in the roof, maybe 20m high.
Last stop was at a replica stockman's shack on the old telegraph line. Saw black cockatoos, and whip-tailed wallaby on the way home.

Red-tailed black Cockatoos

Kangaroo at Undara

MP explores the granite outcrop behind the camp, looking for firewood and rufous betongs, takes DP up for a look, but no sightings.
Another chunky soup meal, then across for the stargazing show at the campfire. Young guide was pretty sketchy on his astronomy, but we got to identify Scorpio, Jupiter, Southern Cross, and two different Coronas. All saw a good shooting star.
Another windy night, but quite snug in our tent.