Lilian's Tree

Situated between the mouth of the Endeavour River and Grassy Hill, it has Mt Cook forming its backdrop. Cooktown is where Captain Cook beached the HMB Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. To see this town, venture up Grassy Hill, for a specular 360° views of the river, town, mountain and Coral Sea. Captain Cook would climb this hill during the 48 days spent repairing the Endeavour,  making observations of the tides, so that he could safely leave the river.   There is now a lighthouse situated on its peak.  Built in Birmingham, England, it was shipped to Cooktown in 1885 and was automated in 1927. Our stop was the James Cook Museum, housed in the 1889, Sisters of Mercy Convent school building, it has the original anchor and cannon, from the Endeavour.   Our homeward journey was along Mulligan Highway, through Lakeland and stopping at the Palmer River Roadhouse for dinner. Cathy also made short stops at lookouts and a wetland, for pho...

Monday, 26/9, dawned, warm and sunny and we boarded our bus for our trip to Cooktown. Now Cooktown can be reached by traversing sealed roads but we choose the 4WD experience. You are thinking, 'how is a bus going to tackle the Bloomfield Track?'  Well have a look at the bus!    The road was pretty good from Cairns to Cape Tribulation and from then on it was a dirt, rough, rock strewn, corrugated track. The scenery was amazing and crossing the Daintree River, by car ferry gave us a close view of the river. Just before the bitumen ended we stopped for morning tea at On the Turps. The scones, jam and cream were delicious. Our driver, Cathy pointed out the web of the Golden Orb Weaver spider. It was beautiful, as was the spider.     Crossing many creeks, some with plenty of water, some a trickle and crossing the Bloomfiled River, we  had a very brief stop at Wujal Wujal aboriginal community, where we saw some of thei...