Return to Cooktown

19/11/2012
  Today was a work day for me, well that was the plan. Fortunately Phil has lost  the key  to the storeroom with the lawnmower, leaf blower, and all the tools needed to keep the place looking tidy locked inside! Nothing for it but to spend the day in the pool. Luckily the key wasn’t found until 4 o’clock. Too late to do any work as also a storm conveniently arrived.

 20/11/2012
  Julie was due to return from her trip down south and Phil has a few days off work so there is no need for us to be on call for caretakers duties.  So, we have upped sticks and decamped 300K’s north to one of our favourite locations, Cooktown. We have booked into a van park for 2 nights in the centre of town, nice and handy for the Top Pub. After that we will go to another of our favourite places, The Lions Den, for a night.
 It has been a dreadful day for travelling as the temperature has crept up to somewhere near 40C and has tested our drivers cab air conditioning to the limit. Then, as we got within 80K of Cooktown we ran into a tropical storm which increased the humidity to full on sweat proportions. Once we were plugged into the power and the awning up, I hardly had the strength to knock the top off my ice cold Tooheys.
 After several of these we finally stopped sweating. We are now lathered in insect repellent. Flies and mossies just love this humidity. We won’t bother going out tonight, time to test the van cabin air con.

 21/11/2012
  Humidity a bit more tolerable today giving us a chance to wander around the town to check out any changes. It seems some money has been spent here, the town is tidier, obviously they have at last realised the tourism potential. Even the Top Pub has joined in by having a new carpet in the bar area and a new cover for the pool table. There is a definite move to promote the indigenous heritage with signs and explanations of the aborigine culture. There is a large Aborigine population here but the town seems well integrated.
 Down on the jetty we watched several boys fishing. We were there just at the right time as we saw some nice big fish landed, Trevally and I think Queenfish, plus lots of pilchard types/fry, used for bait. We had an afternoon dip in the camp pool to keep cool, before wandering over to the Top Pub where we had a one sided  intellectual chat with one of Cooktowns finest! and a couple of coldies. Why do they always pick on us? Though as it happened we were rescued by the arrival of a couple of Austrian tourists. Our new friend obviously found them more of a challenge, eventually resorting to sign language. We escaped to the restaurant for a very nice meal.

 22/11 2012
  As much as we love Cooktown we have come to the conclusion that everything up here would like to eat us! We don’t give the crocodiles a chance, but the mossies, midges, march flies, sandflies and ants seem to be on a feeding frenzy, and we are on their menu. Jane is their favourite this trip, she is already into the supply of antihistamines.
 We have moved inland to another favourite haunt, the Lions Den Pub. It is at the northern end of the Bloomfield track and a must visit/stop for 4WD enthusiasts who negotiate the track up from Cape Tribulation. I would love to drive it but our van is not up to the job.
Between  the Lions Den and Cooktown  there is a turn  directing you to Archers Point, a 16k dirt road out to the coast and a part of the coast I have wanted to visit every time we have been up this way. Today we gave it a go.
 Archers Point is Aboriginal land and has had no development, meaning the landscape has never changed. It hasn’t changed but has been neglected by the people who live here, they leave their rubbish everywhere they camp never taking any of it away. We came across a small Aboriginal camp by the ocean and were disgusted by the amount of crap laying around. It was obvious where they had camped previously by the camp fires they had left full of the remains of the meals last cooked there. We have seen this before in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. If they are the owners of the land, as they claim, and they were here before Cook, you would think they would treasure it.
Anyway at the Lions Den we have parked up behind the pub, had a swim in the beautiful Annan River ( no crocs ), had a couple of beers in the pub then went to our van for a few more stubbies while we watched the Cockatoos demolishing the mango’s that grow here for fun.