Cape York Trip - Day 23

This was my first actual day of leave. Darryl rode his bike to the lighthouse at Archer Point.

From Archer Point Lighthouse

Archer Point Lighthouse

The old jetty

It was very windy on the beach and in Cooktown. Cooktown Orchid Caravan Park seemed like one of the nicer places to stay.. And, it was very windy. Grassy Hill lookout was interesting (this was apparently where Captain Cook climbed for a view of the area), but VERY windy, and it didn’t look grassy. 

Lighthouse on Grassy Hill at Cooktown

Tiles around the lighthouse had family trees!

Endeavour River

Then we went to the Botanic Gardens for lunch. It was beautiful, small but well done. 

A stunning River Gum at the Botanic Gardens

At the History Centre I got some help on the cemetery, so then we decided to walk to it. While I was checking it out Darryl entertained himself by picking some mangoes from a tree in a park. He just loves it when he can forage...

I think these might have been from shrimp

The track went through the mangroves, but we found un-marked grave of Alexander Turner Smith.

There was a historical walk to the esplanade where we saw lots of statues, and it was very windy.  Elizabeth at the Caravan park was very helpful. Did I mention it was windy?

The Cook Statue

The Miner Statue

The 'Singing' Ship

A mudskipper

Leopard Tank on display near the RSL

Troop Carrier

Cape York Trip - Day 22

Darryl went for a short walk to see if he could get the Lotto results, which he couldn’t, so returned to start preparing the car and camper for the Bloomfield Track much of which we did at 6km/hr low-range 4x4 & 2nd gear.

Our first water crossing

We found a nice spot beside the upper reaches of the Bloomfield River to have morning tea, and met two other couples. At Wujul Wujul I got phone signal again. Bloomfield Falls was before the town and we saw a small salt-water crocodile gliding in the large pool below the falls.

On the drive along Bloomfield River we spotted sailing boats and a saltie.

Weary Bay beach was our  lunch spot and it was extremely windy. Some Magpie Geese were flying up and down the beach, which seemed to be a crazy thing to be doing because of the wind.

The road took us past Black Mountain, and we then turned off to Trevethan Falls, which was quite a beautiful spot.

Black Mountain

Trevethan Falls

Dust! Dust! Dust! And that's just the start!

Our free-camp for the night was at Archer Point. We set up at a reasonably nice spot in a sheltered area and a guy called Dave gave us fresh Mackerel for dinner that he had caught off Cooktown Jetty.

Darryl walked along the beach for a while. We could not believe that there were Kite-surfers in the water as the area is re-known for crocodiles. Lots of campers came in late.

Cape York Trip - Day 21

We woke to our wedding anniversary, 18/8/18. Darryl went off for an early beach walk and returned with fresh coconut for breakfast.

We gave the leftover bit to our Iraeli neighbours, (Noram, Sarah, Yuval), and they later prepared their own, after Darryl taught them how. We went for a beach walk and saw mullet and trumpeter in the shallows behind the rocks, and boats sailing by. It was lovely to see the number of coconut trees growing along the beach.

I found that there was a lookout walk just north, so we went there. It went out on Cape Tribulation and overlooked the bay north of it (Emmagen Beach). We also walked a short way up the track to Mt Sorrow, a 6 hour walk, although we spoke to a man coming down who had done it in 3 ½ hours. I was hoping to get some phone signal, but only got a small amount when back on our beach (Myall Beach), but not long enough to connect. The rock at the end of Cape Tribulation is where all the staff go to get internet access, apparently.

Orange-footed Scrub Fowl

Walking back along the beach a man, who turned out to be a worker from PK, came towards us, and pointed out dolphins just out to sea.

Cape York Trip - Day 20

Our travels North proceeded on Friday, and we decided to take the detour to Mossman Gorge.

There is a huge expensive looking visitor centre, and you could take the bus for the 4km round trip for $9.80 each, but we decided to walk. Up at the gorge there were several little walks and I think it was about another 2.7km. The rainforest walk was impressive with huge buttress trees, and lovely boulders in the creek.

We saw Mountain Perch and a turtle, and all the people swimming despite the signs saying that swimming was closed.

In Mossman we had lunch beside a little park, and only discovered the lovely shady picnic area we could have used as we were heading out of town. It was on for a quick drive-through of Port Douglas. We didn’t even stop, as it was really touristy. Then to Daintree for the ferry trip across the river.

Daintree River Ferry

We were trying to get to a National Parks campsite at Noah Creek, but although there was one spare camping spot, I couldn’t get a phone signal long enough to book. At Cape Tribulation the first van park was booked out, so we thought we would just go further. The bitumen ran out and we got to the first creek crossing where we turned around and went back to Cape Trib. A camping place called PKs Rainforest Village initially didn’t have any places either, but when I paid for us to set up on their grass at the front, but they found a spot for us.

In the middle of the night some idiot was walking around with a portable boombox playing some horrible music at maximum volume.

Cape York Trip - Day 19

On Thursday we visited my cousin Lorraine and her husband Mario. We had arranged to me at their place at 8am, and at lunchtime we were still going, so Darryl & Mario went off to pick up lunch.

Around 2pm we went to find some of the family graves at Martyn St Cemetery in Cairns.

Cape York Trip - Day 17

I had to work at Cairns DPT for two days. On Tuesday night we all met at The Strand for a picnic dinner. Darryl bought a tyre that he wanted while I was at work, and checked out the Botanic Gardens.

Cape York Trip - Day 16

Walsh’s Pyramid was the first destination of the day, so it was a quick pack-up and we found a spot in the car-park. Darryl took off up the Pyramid ahead of me, as I knew I would be slow. I passed the 1km mark then the 2km and made the half-way point.

View from halfway up Walsh's Pyramid

Darryl's photos from the top

It had taken me an hour and a half just to that point, and my knee was already sore, so I knew I should go further. I sat and rested, took photos, and told another walker to tell Darryl I was waiting there for him. Eventually I decided to head down, so passed on more messages regarding my intentions. At the car I had just set up a chair in the shade when Darryl appeared. He had made it to the top. There was a free-camping spot beside the Mulgrave River and it wasn’t far, so that was our lunch spot, and a good place to dry out the camper in the sun.

There were some beautiful huge old fig trees to sit under. A guy who had a Unimog camper came and chatted. A text came through from Mal that he had come home early from work, so we went there. In the evening Steve Heather & Justin came around and we had Korean BBQ on the front verandah.

Cape York Trip - Day 15

Mt Bartle Frere today without cloud!

Walsh's Pyramid

We went north and found Behana Gorge, (recommended by our friend Glynn), just on the south side of Walsh’s Pyramid. After having lunch we did the 3km walk up the gorge and sat on the rocks at the top watching others swim.

'Wait-a-while' the growing tip of Lawyer vine

Clamshell Falls at Behana Gorge

Clamshell Falls higher up

The concrete path was about 3m wide. Around 4pm we went back to the camper and re-parked it. Eventually everyone else left so we had dinner then set up the camper and I slept for 11 hours!

Cape York Trip - Day 14

The men had an early start from Etty Bay, 5:15am, for their walk up Mt Bartle Frere but it was, unfortunately, raining which made it more difficult & dangerous. It was also the first time Darryl had seen leeches up there.

The start of the walk

Steve made it!

This is Darryl's 5th time on the mountain but 3rd time to the top

The 'Summit'

Heather, Justin and I stayed at the van park and had a quiet day. Justin and I played cards, and the accomplished walkers returned around 6:30pm. I whipped up a meal for everyone as no-one wanted to go back to Mourilyan for the planned pub meal.

Our camper is in the middle. Beautiful trees at Etty Bay Van park.