Cooktown

We left Cairns with our newly powered up Troll dragging the near 2.5 tonne van up the twisting and steep Kuranda Range. We held up a few cars, but we climbed the range with few problems although we did spew much more black smoke than we have done before.

Hmmmm.

We overnighted just north of Mount Molloy at a free site and we walked back into town to buy a beer at the pub. The National Hotel is a nice pub, but it started ouring with rain while we were there and we walked home and got soaked.

One of the things we have always enjoyed is seeing the different "rigs" that people have in which they travel around, well this one was particularly interesting:

Yes, it is a small garden shed on the back of a ute, complete with a veranda.

On our way into Cooktown we drove through the Black Mountain Nat Park. I had been looking forward to this, but seeing these hills of black rock blocks seemingly jumbled into a couple of hills was less impressive than I thought it would be.

We arrived in Cooktown around midday and headed to the Peninsula van park before we took a look around the town itself.

We drove up to the top of the grassy hill (of James Cook fame) to check out the lighthouse. Surprisingly, instead of being built of huge masonry it is built of roofing iron.

The views from the top!

This one is out over the town

The Endeavour river

Out to the Coral Sea.

This will give you an idea of the weather we have been "enjoying". Yeah - that rain just doesn't want to go away.

We took a walk through the old Cooktown cemetery and looked for the older gravestones. Some of the stories that they told will break your heart.