The huge bill board next to the road somewhere down in Queensland on the way up said: "Cooktown, where explorers go" .
So after careful consideration I decided to heed the host's advice and instead of heading across the Cape for Weipa as per the original plan to rather book a second night at the Milkwood Lodge to use the day for doing what explorers do
. Since I was now more familiar with far north Queensland I realised that running out of fuel was a low risk and carrying extra fuel not critical.
The morning started with calm conditions and perfect blue skies. I headed into town looking a place to have breakfast. Businesses were still closed so after looking at Captain Cook's statue and taking a few pictures I decided to go for lunch at Laura via the Battle Camp road. A distance of approximately 138km dirt road more or less due west from Cooktown.
The idea was after reaching Laura to return via Lakeland on the bitumen road to Cooktown. The dirt road was very scenic but lonely with very few other vehicles. The road crossed several drifts awash with crystal clear water from the rains. Some drifts had concrete causeways, others nothing. The flows across the road was nowhere deeper than approximately 300mm and always clear to the bottom and moderately fast flowing hence save to cross
.
Back in Melbourne people with experience in remote QLD would ask me if when I crossed the drifts I ever thought of the 'Salties'. The Saltwater Crocodiles are found up to 200km inland from the coast in fresh water. They are quite a hazard and are well know for quickly
grasping passerby people's behaviour around water and then would wait in ambush
for weeks and months at such places. They are really a menace in those parts.
Our company even has a 'Saltwater Crocodile Induction Course' which must be
attended by all workers to areas like that.
Then I reach a road sign in the middle of the road that said "Road Closed". As I later learned the Normandy river flooded and eroded the approaches. There was a turnoff to the right just before where the road was closed. The road signs at the junction were all but unreadable from rust. With few clouds in the sky , I took the right turn and continued on the road running directly north. Stretches of the dirt road was in very good condition and 100km/h was possible at times. The GPS could not navigate a way around the closure and with storm clouds building in the sky I turned around in order to get back across the drifts before the rain came down
. At the turnaround point according to the GPS, the town of Laura was 80.4km SW from me.
The sign at the entrance to Cooktown from the Battle Camp road side read: "Welcome to Cooktown where history just begin" .
Back in town I was still looking for lunch and sat down at a table on the sidewalk of a Fish and Chips place opposite Cape York Tyres while a heavy downpour of rain broke. The streets rapidly flooded. Back at the Milkwood Lodge the host thought that the cyclone rain may be setting in and reassured me that if I could not make it out to the south the next day, the room was reserved for me and I could stay for as long as I like.
Ever since arriving in Cooktown the humidity was extremely high. Rain drops on my helmet which I left on the veranda in front of the room would not evaporate. The jacket and pants remained dripping wet and would not dry so before going to bed that night I brought it into the room and set the air conditioner to 20C. It rained heavily during the night so much so that I was somewhat concerned that the roads leading south from Cooktown would be flooded come sunrise.
By way of returning the favour for the dinner of the previous night I brought a bottle of wine and joined the host and his wife with two other guests for drinks. The other guests were from Alice Springs having driven to Cooktown via Mount Isa by car. I was still exploring the idea of returning to Victoria via Three Ways and Alice Springs and we speculated about possible flooding of roads just below Carpentaria where the cyclone had strong impact..
Day 5
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Cooktown, Queensland, Australia
Other Entries
2025-02-06