From Walkamin to Cooktown

Well here is the next episode of our travels!

We ended up spending 5 weeks at Walkamin on the Atherton Tablelands. A beautiful place with so much to see and do. We saw waterfalls, volcanic craters, coffee plantations, markets where we picked up the best pineapples and fresh passionfruit, went flying in a Chinese trainer plane and did acrobatics, went to Kuranda and travelled on both the Scenic Railway and the Skyrail. We saw the most marvelous scenery, so green and pretty, with creeks full of clear running water and waterfalls everywhere. A bit of a change from Cobar!

We left the caravan there in storage for 12 days and went and did the most fantastic trip to Cape York including Thursday and Horn Island. (See previous chapter!)

We left Walkamin last Sunday and are now at Cooktown. It is a totally unspoilt, scenic, sleepy little village. Can't swim though because there’s lots of those "stumpy legged swamp dogs"!!!

When we went on the Cape York trip, because of the rain, we weren’t able to undertake the Bloomfield track because the track is very steep in some places on a clay base. On Monday, whilst lunching on fresh grilled barramundi and salad, Dot & Len Hutton, the 2 tour guides for the cape trip, arrived in with the next Tag a Long tour. Len offered us the option of jumping on the end of the tour the next day to drive the Bloomfield Track . Needless to say, we jumped at the chance. This is a 4WD track that runs down through Cedar Bay National Park into the Daintree to Cape Tribulation and southward. So we joined the tour at 8 am Tuesday and went back down through Black Mountain, Little Annan River Gorge and onto the Lions Den Hotel, Weary Bay and Bloomfield Falls. This is the point where it became new territory. We crossed the Bloomfield river and up the mountain into the rainforest. We crossed gorgeous clear creeks amongst dense rainforest, filled with orchids, tree ferns, staghorns and elks. Mangroves grew prolifically along the creeks, lots of kingfishers and honeyeaters. The road then parallels the coast, and the rainforest meets the sea. The views are spectacular. We walked onto the beach where James Cook played cricket with his crew (the poms won!). The beach is totally unspoilt and we were the only people on it.

We decided not to call in at Cape Tribulation as it appeared that thousands were there. We decided we would call back here from the Daintree end. We went down as far as what is known as the Dujabli Boardwalk. This is a boardwalk through the Daintree of about 1200 metres. The fan palms, mangroves, rattan palms, pandanus and so many other plants and trees. There is more species here in 1 hectare in the Daintree than there is in the whole of the USA! We left the tag a long tour here, thanking them for letting us join in and we drove back to Cooktown the way we came, along the Bloomfield track again. This time on the way home we stopped at a lookout over the Bloomfield river. We were so excited as we looked down on the river over a large sweeping bend and on that sandbank was the biggest crocodile! He was a good 5 metres long and huge! I was glad that we were high above the river! We arrived back in Cooktown at 5 pm after a wonderful day.


Yesterday we, with 2 other travelling caravanning friends, Roger & Jenny, caught a tour called "Catch a Crab Tour". It was a 6 metre boat and we all left the wharf at 8 am. (Boy that's early for us these days). We travelled up the Endeavour River, first checking all the crab pots he had put in the night before. Anything legal size was ours to keep. Lots in each one but only two were true legal size, so many of the others only 5ml TOO SMALL! But we had 2 lovely big mud crabs for tea last night after I cooked them!

We also went croc spotting (stumpy legged swamp dogs) and saw 2 huge ones. One was sunning himself on the bank and the other in the water. The one on the bank scared the livin' daylights out of us when he launched himself off the bank, over the boat into the river! We threw a line in but I caught the only fish, a small brim, which we sent back to his mother! We travelled 15 miles up river and into the rainforest. So very beautiful and prehistoric. Made you feel that you were the only one to have ever gone there.

Tomorrow we are catching the Nimrod Explorer at 5 pm for a 3 night/4 day Outer Reef diving trip. (Walter will sit on the deck and read whilst I talk to the fishies! He may do some snorkeling if his hip is OK). We will give you a whole chapter on this adventure next week when we return!

Today we drove out to Finch Bay with our lunch and sheltered behind some rocks out of the wind and sand. It is totally unspoilt and it is just the way James Cook would have seen it when he put his ship, “The Endeavour” in here for repairs all those years ago.
Check out the tide though, there is a 3 metre difference here!

We plan to leave here on the 28th at this stage and head to Mossman, Daintree, Wonga Beach and Port Douglas, beginning our trip down the coast. It is warm here but very windy. This is usual here apparently, even Cook’s Diary mentioned the strong SE prevailing winds!

Til next time, the Happy Travellers

Rob & Walter