Last weekend we headed up to Cooktown with Grant & Sam & the kids. It was their last weekend here, and they wanted to do something special. So we packed up the 4WDs, and headed north into the rainforest via the Bloomfield track.
We were closely watching the weather during the week before, as it was raining on and off for a good part of the week. The track is not hard, but there's a couple of creek crossings that can get deep and fast, and there's two range climbs that can be a bit steep - 25% and 30% inclines respectively. Add a bit of water to those climbs, and even well setup trucks can struggle, let alone ones dragging a ton of camper trailer behind them. As it turns out, the weather receeded, and we had no troubles at all. Even the old turbo-diesel Pajero with the camper behind breezed up the hills in high-range (although it needed low to come back done a couple of sections!).
We had a good run up, stopping at all the normal spots, as well as calling in to Bloomfield falls at Wudjal Wudjal, where Jesse almost trod on a good sized green tree snake that was curled up on the path, minding his own business in the sun. Thankfully Jesse saw him a couple of steps in advance and alerted everyone, and Mr Snake was just as happy to get out of the way and hide in the rocks. We encountered two sets of roadworks - one at the exact same site they were working almost 12 months ago. I don't know if it was the same project that was still going, but I assume so. They looked to be widening the track from single lane (which was a bit of a concern, since traffic both ways had to share the one single-width strip of road for quite a way) to double-lane last year, and it doesn't look like the've finished it yet.
Just before arriving at Wudjal Wudjal though, we stopped at the lookout over the Bloomfield river, as we've done before. This time though, we had a friend on the opposite riverbank!
This is the first time I've ever seen a lizard there, but it looked suspiciously like he had a friend in the water a couple of metres away. We couldn't definitively say, but it certainly did look like a long snout just on the water line...
We arrived in Cooktown about 4:30-5 Friday afternoon, and set up camp...
We spent Saturday taking the kids on a tour of Cooktown, from Grassy Hill overlooking the Endeavour river...
... to the old lighthouse on top...
... out to Quarrantine Bay for a quick look at where the old ships used to stop off for a week on arrival at the Colonies, to avoid bring in diseases...
... and down to Black Mountain, which we passed on our way in.
Following a tip-off from a tour book, we went exploring to find the Trevethan Falls. They were mentioned in a couple of books, but no directions were given on how to get there, other than that a 4WD was needed. After driving for 45 mins through some progressively worse and unkempt tracks, we came to a dead end. Not to be discouraged, Grant went forward on foot, and we eventually discovered the majestic Trevethan Falls:
Sunday we headed back down the track, and home. Monday morning the kids loaded up the car and camper, and hit the road south. They've now arrived safely back. Before they could go, though, we had one last problem that we needed to fix when we were back at our place:
All in all, a great weekend. I always love an excuse to get away to Cooktown - it's a real diamond in the rough. You get the feel of a real old frontier town, with wallabies in the street in the morning, and pubs where thongs are considered dressed up.
Heaps more photos available in the album here:
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| 2009-05-29, Grant & Sam & Kids - Camping at Cooktown |
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