Cooktown

This is a view from Grassy Hill Lookout at Cooktown; it overlooks

the Endeavour River named after Captain Cooks Ship.

Captain Cook climbed this hill several times; to try and navigate

a safe pathway for his ship to travel back out to sea and home

to England.

A nice place to have a happy hour or a picnic!!!!

We loved Cooktown it had the perfect balance of development

and untouched beauty. Mike and the kids really enjoyed fishing the

many different rivers and bays. Claire particularly enjoyed fishing

the Cooktown wharf; where she developed her passion for the sport.

I loved the history, the beauty, the culture and the people.

Jarrod and Claire outside James Cook Museum. We all

enjoyed wandering around the museum soaking in the era

that belonged to Captain Cook and his landing at Cooktown.

As well as the history of the town since that time; including

the search for gold in nearby towns, the boom of Cooktown, it's

role in the war and it's redevelopment in recent years.

Jarrod and Claire in a musical version of a boat; the kids spent

quite a bit of time belting out tunes. The musical boat was located in the centre of cooktown

along with other significant icons that draw people's attention to the heart

and soul of Cooktown.

Of course it would not be Cooktown without a statue of the

man himself; Captain James Cook.

Every year at Cooktown they have the Discovery Festival; to mark

the occassion when Captain Cook first set foot on Cooktown soil. They have

markets, street parades, fireworks and of course the re-enactment of Cook's landing.

Here the kids take an opportunity to support a charity that takes care of

orphaned Kangaroos; cute aren't they !!!!!

We don't have very good photo's of the night festival and fireworks; but it was

fantastic. The bellydancers/firedancers were incredible. The fireworks

display was the best that I have ever seen and it went on for ages.

Well done Cooktown !!!

The re-enactment; when the Aboriginal people first observed

Captain Cook and his landing party heading into shore.

The landing party.

Captain Cook made the decision to unload most of his ship's cargo in order to

make repairs to the endeavour. He also had to work out a safe navigation path

in order to take his ship back out to sea.

Captain Cook's armed guard checking their guns in preparation to fire them.

They were loud !!!!!

Cooks first meeting with the Aboriginal leaders; both trying

to understand each other a little better.

Jarrod and Claire really enjoyed climbing all over this army tank;

as did all the other children in Cooktown for the Discovery Festival.

The tank was a memorial to all the people from Cooktown who served in the Second

World War.

Jarrod enjoying a spot of fishing; most mornings Father and Son

would head out around 6am to enjoying the rising of the sun and

wet a line together. Whilst Mother and Daughter would enjoy

a spot of peace and a morning lay in.

Mike saying goodbye to Cooktown at Sunset on our last evening.

Claire's 9th Birthday

We had Claire's Birthday celebration dinner on the 11th because

we could not find any restaurant that was going to be open

on the 12th. After much deliberation on Claire's behalf she decided

that the Italian Restaurant was the place to go.

Mmm the Garlic Bread Pizza was sure yummy!!!!

The Birthday Girl; what a character !!!!!!

The Birthday Proper; Sunday morning and we have a 9

year old in our midst.

The ballons, cards, presents and of course the cash !!!!!!

Super Dad to the rescue; pancakes on the BBQ.

Pancakes and Icecream; a perfect birthday breaky !!!!

Port Douglas/Daintree & Mossman Gorge

This is the view from the hill near our Caravan Park at Port Douglas.

We were all packed in like sardines; but the saving grace was

that you only need walk out the back gate for 300m and you were

at the beach. Port Douglas is a lovely destination if you like to be amongst

a built up area close to the beach. We discovered that our favourite places

are in those locations that have not been impacted too much by development.

Another beautiful view on the way through the Daintree.

Jarrod and Claire outside the Daintree Discovery Centre.

They gave us an audio handset to help us interpret the different

types of flora and fauna in a rainforest setting. It was a lovely boardwalk through

the rainforest followed by a climb up a tower to appreciated the different

layers and what you can find there. Worth doing even if it was a little pricey.

Jarrod and Claire at the entrance to Cape Tribulation.

In this photo underneath and to the right of the yellow sign

is a bottle of vinegar. They have these all along the coast from

Cairns and further north for the stingers.

Jarrod and Claire horsing around in Mossman Gorge.

It looked very much like the rivers that you find up in the Snowy

Mountains; very clear streams, cool water but surrounded by rainforest

instead of bushland.

Cairns

As Mike pointed out in the last blog it was quite a stretch for us all;

driving from Northern Territory to Queensland.

But if anything was going to help raise morale it was Cairns Coconut Big 4 Resort.

It had everything a child could want; 2 jumping pillows, a water park, 2 large pools,

putt putt golf, ping pong, billy carts and movie nights.

It was a really nice place to hang for a while.

Mike with much encouragement from the family treated himself to a

full body massage by the pool. I know life is tough!!!!!

This is the pool where Mike had his full body massage.

This is the other pool a bit smaller and older than the first; but

the kids enjoyed it because you could slippery slide into the water.

On the day we left the kids thought they might like to take a ride

in a billy cart around the resort.

Even Dad had a go, you will have to view our video footage to

give yourself a good laugh.

Mike had our neighbours in stitches as he was reliving his former glory days.

Daley Waters Pub to Cairns

I'll try and stay positive for this part of the blog but I'll be blunt, this section of our journey was challenging, (in Leah's words), or (in Mike's words), sucked!!!
When we left Daley Waters Pub we were all a bit naive about how long the journey was across to the east coast. We also had started to feel the cold and Leah wasn't receptive to me snuggling up to her every night after sitting next to each other all day!!!!!!!!
Anyway the first stop after Daley Waters Pub was Barkley Homestead. Above you can see us having a happy hour. Actually it was a mildly amusing 15 minutes as there was something going on with the septic at this place.!!!!!!!!
That night we all froze and it was unanomous!!!(hope Leah is teaching spelling), that we stop at Mt Isa 'Target' and purchase electric blanketss for the Taj Mahal, done, and on to Cloncurry. Again we were attacked by the smelly septic odour.
Moral was getting lower and the troops were threatening rebellion if we didn't get to the coast by night fall.
Actually that was all me!!!!, everyone else was handling the trip very well, reading, DVD's and ninetendo ds, but I was starting to have a melt down. We arrived at Charters Towers and I had had enough of driving long days with about as much interest out the window as watching grass grow in winter.

This didn't help the situation at Barkley Homestaed either!!!!!!!!!!!

A little point of interest along the way!!!!!!, actually if we all weren't hanging for the coast and warmth they had a Dinasour trail which looked quite interesting between Mt Isa and Charters Towers. Next time!!
Anyway back to the Journey, from Charters Towers (electric blankets worth every cent I might add), we headed for Cairns for and extended stay. Moral was returning as the view from Townsville to Cairns was great and the kids had picked a place to stay. We even pulled into a place could Rollingston and may free camp on our way back down the coast.
Must say the devastation from the cyclones earlier throughout the year was very evident at Tully and Cardell. Anyway next Blog should be a little more interesting as we'll start from Cairns, yehh!!!

Katherine & Daley Waters Pub

Sorry for all those avid BLOG followers for such a delay in proceedings but as usual I got side tracked with fun!!!!!!!! Anyway thought I'd drop a line or two and share some of the last week or two's travels. Here's a photo of Jarrod and Claire splitting a cocconut at Kathrine van park. We were staying at the low level Big 4 van park. Very nice with large pool etc.

Quick Leah!!!! where's Jarrod and Claire!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Ohhhh at the pool.

Well after the usual night of festivities, going to bed at 8!!!!!!!!, we awoke to the new adventure of Katherine Gorge. We only did the two gorge boat trip which involved a little walk between gorges (well not different gorges but rapids really). Anyway as you can see the water is still a little high and we had to walk on sand bags in places. It was quite a good experience and Leah really enjoyed it. Me, well i was just a little gorged, canyoned, rocked out !!!!!!!!!! and was starting to want the taste of salt water!!!

We saw a few more croc's, only little freshies here though. Notice the long sleeved shirts, things were starting to cool as we went further inland!!!!!!!!!!

This shot gives great perspective and to think in the recent floods the water was just fifteen feet from the top of the canyon and the volume of water coming down could fill Sydney habour every nine minutes, WOW!!!!!

By now your probably asleep so I put one in on the angle your head should be at!!!!!!!!!!, technical hitch!
Jarrod & Claire under a Boab tree at the Canyon carpark. Which I might add had thousands of bats flying around all the tree's near the river!!!!!!!!!

After leaving Katherine we were heading for Daley Waters Pub and as it is just a mere 3 hours down the road we decided to drop in and have a swim at Mataranka thermal pool and Bitter springs again. Beautiful water temp and crystal clear. Might add the water level since we were here 2-3 weeks ago has dropped 1-2 feet and there was hardly any current at bitter springs, very, very nice way to fill in the day whilst travelling.

Arrived at the Pub around 3.30 to get a site and to our amazement the place was nearly full and by 4pm it was and people had to set up across the road on a spare block. Now is this place as good as everyone says,,,,,,,,,,, YES,,,,,,,, absolutely fantastic night with a bloke named Chilli telling yarns, paying out on the crowd and singing great ozy songs, he has even won an award at Tamworth for a song he had recorded. The man has done so much in his life and can tell it in a way that just keeps you hanging on every word.

We got the front. Jarrod waiting for the women to bring him his beer.Ooops, I meant the ladies to bring him his refreshment!

The place was packed and your in the middle of no where!!!!!!!!!, really amazing as it is like it every night of the week!!!!!!!!
From here we had made the decision to go to Queensland along the Barkley Highway! I'll do another blog for that one as so much happened along the way!!!!!!!!!!