Cooktown

Cooktown is renowned for being a little windy.  When we rolled into town, we really felt like a coffee, so went searching.  Being Sunday afternoon, not a lot was open, (ie next to nothing).  At the only place we could spot, we got out, and nearly lost the kids.  They near on got blown off their feet. 

The cafe had its coffee machine shut down, so we abandoned, and headed for camp.  We decided to skip the windy hollows, and go back to our old ‘haunt’, that being “The Lion’s Den”, 20km south of Cooktown.  This is where we stayed on the first 2 nights of the MySwag trip.  Wow, we were in a different space then.  It was all anticipation, naivety, a lot of ‘getting to know’ you time with the rest of the group.

This time we rolled in like old hands.  Knowing where to go, and having that air of “We’ve done the Cape” about us.  We did have to search out people and persuade them into asking us where we had been.  Sheesh, don’t they understand!

We picked a spot down near the river, and setup quickly.  The kids wanted to head straight back to the playground, so after a play, and a shower, we took the night off and headed to their restaurant / pub for dinner.  The beers and pizza went down very well, whilst we looked back over the campground where the whole group was spread out a few weeks ago. 

We shot back into Cooktown the next day to have a look around, and also decided to try to tick at least one of our re-set jobs off before getting to Cairns.  We had to get the 2 tyres we had beaded on the OTL taken off the rims and cleaned out.  The local tyre joint did us well, with a bit of advice for free.  “Never, ever drop your tyre pressure, unless you are totally bogged”.  Hmmm... it’s a black art, and a religious discussion around the good ole’ tyre pressures.

We did find a very lovely coffee shop open this time, and also played in the park near the foreshore.  Cooktown was where Capt Cookie ran aground out in the reef, abandoned a heap of stuff to refloat, and then ran his tug up on the sand in the bay at Cooktown to do repairs.  

'Dumped' Canon at Cooktown

Musical ship

From the lookout

We also drove up the very steep lookout, onto Mt Cook.  When we got out at the top carpark, the kids nearly went MIA for the second time, but this time for real.  We put on our grippiest shoes, tethered the little ones to us, and walked up to the 360 degree lookout point.  Very impressive, looking out over the bay, and out to sea.  Would have been an interesting vantage point for Cookie to assess what kind of ‘kaka’ he was in.  How do you navigate out past all those reefs??  Sheesh.

We headed back to Lion’s Den from there, and enjoyed a lovely afternoon swim.  Amy was a bit sad to leave, given how nice the whole place was.  Definitely a lovely feel.

Swimming at Lions Den