At Cooktown, the base of Cape York

Saturday, June 03, 2023
Cooktown, Queensland, Australia
Sunday June 4   Weipa to Merluna Station 
As usual we took advantage of the cool temperatures and packed up early.  Happily, the BT started with no problem.  We have no idea what happened yesterday.  Even though we weren’t in a hurry, we didn’t hang around for breakfast, but drove off to a local park and enjoyed a view of the lake.  We really aren’t good at suburban camping! 
We fuelled up at the Shell and headed north to Mapoon.  On the way we drove through bits and pieces of Rio Tinto’s bauxite mine.   It was actually very interesting.  Slag heaps, super highways for trucks with traffic lights for us, regeneration areas, railway… 
Mapoon has an incredibly tragic history centring around the repeated abuse of the indigenous residents.  In recent years some Mapoon residents returned and set up camps then houses and now at least on the surface it appears to be a healthy community. 
We’d planned to camp at Mapoon, but once again it didn’t meet our exacting expectations.  Not enough shade in the campground and the shore fishing didn’t appeal either.  What to do?  Return southwards.   Before doing that we checked out some historic sites and a memorial. 
Back in Weipa we filled up with reasonably priced diesel and off we went with no real idea of where we would end up.   We saw some signs to Merluna station, read about it on Wikicamps, so thought maybe it would be a good spot to stay.  And it was! We arrived respectably mid-afternoon and shared a huge shaded area with 6 other campers.  There were some walking tracks, so that’s where Wendy went while Rick stayed at camp, fortunately, as a squall came through damping things down. The walking track took Wendy through some beautiful rainforest and past a dam with resident large croc which she didn’t see! 
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Monday June 5 Merluna Station to Chili Beach
Even though it was a very pleasant campground, with no entertainment for us we decide to move on.  We really aren’t skilled in staying still!  It was our slowest start yet and leaving at 9.30, we still beat most others who were leaving! Heading east, the road, mostly gravel was in excellent condition, so the only difficulty was when oncoming traffic, especially road trains drowned us in dust.  
We travelled a few km on the main north south road before heading east towards Lockhart river.   We inspected a campsite on Wenloch River and declared it suitable for our return!  From there the road deteriorated to being a rough track, corrugations, dozens of washouts and creek crossings.  
Lockhart River township is an aboriginal village, a dry one, with a decent supermarket, school, health centre etc.   Nearby is an airstrip originally built by the US military in 1942.   7,000 US troops as well as Australians were camped in the rainforest around the airport. 
Arriving at our campsite at Chili Beach the drizzle changed to a downpour.  We hung out in the car for a while.  We managed to get the tent set up in between showers, but puddling around in the mud was not pleasant.  We had shelter from the BT from both the rain and wind, so did manage to get dinner prepared and eaten!! 
Tuesday June 6  Chilli Beach 
The wind howled all night and there was quite a downpour for who  knows how long.  The tent stood up to it well, so we were quite dry, if surrounded by mud! The wind continued, but at least we had a few hours without rain in the morning.  
There would be no solar gain today!. The fridge needed a boost, so Rick drove while Wendy rode 15 km on a couple of tracks and we ended up back at Portland Roads with a high tide and the promise of fishing which Rick did in between the continuing squalls, dumping rain on us.  Since it was warm, getting wet was no big deal! 
Returning to camp, Rick did some chefing while Wendy enjoyed a 18km ride on the beach.  Hard sand made it possible and she enjoyed it despite being buffeted by the wind. We cringed in the protection of the BT for the evening and had another early night.
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June 7 Chili Beach to Wenloch River Crossing 
Another wild night, but minimal rain and the tent continued to perform brilliantly.  We decided we couldn’t stand any more wind, so packeds and left. Wendy rode to the first creek crossing where she gave the bike a good dousing to remove all the salt and sand. We had no idea how far we’d get, having had a report that there were 2 impassable rivers yesterday because of the recent rain.  We had fingers crossed they’d dropped enough by now. 
The first deep river was a short crossing and we managed to bump through that one.  Phew.   When we arrived at the second, there were 2 cars parked.  They were locals, who like us didn’t have snorkels on the vehicles.  One man said he’d read the automatic river level before leaving home.  2.2m   What did that mean?  Measured from where exactly.  We all sat staring at the river, watching a bit of a drop in depth.  
Another car of locals arrived.  One of them knew that  because the crossing was paved, you could take 1.4m off the reported level and that’s what the real depth would be.   He decided to give it a go.  He got through, as did a Prado with no snorkel and didn’t have as much clearance as us.  So…off we went.  It was a really wide crossing, about 100m.  We had to make sure we didn’t go too fast or the water would’ve come over the bonnet. 
By the time we got across a few more vehicles had arrived going the other way.  They were pleased to see us take the plunge!  The Prado had water inside the car, but we were perfectly dry. 
Before lunch we arrived at Wenloch River crossing, not a challenging one, but one with some good camping, so we decided a short day of travel was in order.  We camped next to a lake covered in lily pads.  Quite beautiful, except, a truck arrived…to fill up with water, right beside us.  Very noisy event for about half an hour…3 times during the afternoon.  It’s being used for road improvements, so perhaps we shouldn’t complain too much.
Wendy did a 3km walk around an old gold mining area and found quite a few old relics and abandoned shafts.  We set up camp and took advantage of our solitude to have complete sponge baths…great feeling! 
Thursday 8th June  Wenloch River to Kalpowar Camp, Lakefield NP 
We were up early as we knew we had a long day of travel ahead…some on rough road.  We were packed and on the road before 7AM. 
 As we approached a rough creek crossing, we noticed a vehicle on the other side on an unhealthy angle.  We stopped to see if they were ok. They weren't!! We provided advice and a better jack and helped them change a wheel on their camper trailer.  They, Monica and Scotty were very appreciative. 
First stop, was Coen to make some National Park reservations for the next day or so, top up the diesel and get a few basic supplies.   We were then back on the road to do what we thought was the last hundred km of tough dirt.  After we turned off at Musgrave the road was very good, smooth 80km per hour.  
After hitting the National Park the road deteriorated and became a 60 km per hour and be careful of washouts.  We crossed an incredible treeless plain with thousands of anthills.  We guess the ants live on grass!! We passed some old station buildings and their 100 year old mango trees…alas no fruit!  
 Along the way today we spotted a few big birds – brolgas, magpie geese, jabiru, black bittern, blue winged kookaburras and probably a juvenile bustard.  At one stage we travelled slowly behind a raptor for quite a while watching it hunt, rather unsuccessfully.  Sadly the ID was unsuccessful too! 
When we reached our campsite that we had booked earlier in Coen (site 4) we found that there was a camp set up at one end…half off the actual site.  In the middle of the site was a fire, in a fire ring, but quite large, with no one in attendance and no vehicle.  We were annoyed as we needed to sort this situation out and set up camp.  The site was easily large enough to share for just the one night.  After talking with a few nearby campers we learnt the camp on ‘our’ site was set up by two young fellas in a ute, who’d earlier been playing loud music, had stoked the fire and then took off in their vehicle…probably to fish.  A nearby couple told us that they had booked about an hour earlier and noticed that sites 3 and 7 were vacant at that time.  So to avoid messing with probably a couple of maybe intoxicated young people when they returned…and who knew when that would be…we decided to take a chance and set up on site 7…it was a good decision!
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 Friday June 9.  Kalpowar to 12 Mile Camp

Wendy went off on an early morning "4km easy walk".  Wrong! After about 1km, the track was completely overgrown with grass about 2m tall. Rather foolishly she continued, getting thoroughly wet, scratched and being tripped up. The vegetation got thicker... By then she was almost half way and since she'd walked the other end of the loop yesterday in an excellent track which had continued past her stopping point...she pushed on. Bad error!  It continued to be very tough going and then she hit a long lagoon. After gathering wood to make a bridge and some sticks for walking poles, she got across.  Eventually she made it back to where she'd been yesterday.  The "good track" had only continued for about 50m.

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Back at camp Rick had seen the Ranger and reported the guys who'd been on the site we'd booked. As Wendy returned she saw them getting a dressing down.

Unfortunately we could only book one night at that campground, so off we went again m, following the bad boys out!

We'd booked another site about 50km further on in the park.  This site was 12km off the main road. Wendy decided to ride that bit. It was a bit rough and too sandy in a few places, but enjoyable all the same.

We did a bit of maintenance, Wendy made some fruit bread, and we were about to sit down and relax when we noticed a tyre low in pressure. It was a slow puncture but had to be changed.

Our site wasn't brilliant, so we decided one night was enough.
Saturday June 10.  Twelve Mile Camp to Cooktown
In order to make sure we got to Cooktown in time to get a tyre fixed (assuming a midday closure), we headed off at a record early departure of 6.30!!   We stopped at the historic Laura Homestead, amazing structure, built in the 1870’s.  Some of the outbuildings were still in good condition too.  Other than that stop, we just motored on, following the “Battle Camp” road.  It was an interesting drive through a variety of vegetation, lots of creek crossings and a mixture of surfaces, from just graded, in full repair through to dreadful corrugations.  Fortunately there weren’t many of the latter.
We made it to Cooktown in time to visit Tyre Power, but the tyre was unrepairable,  Fortunately they had a new one to match our others.   We snagged a good site at a small caravan park and were told it was local market day.  Perfect.  We stocked up with local fruit and just had to buy local prawns which, along with great fresh bread made a stunning lunch!
Wendy spent the afternoon walking the Botanical Gardens and local hills and beaches while Rick was at the wharf catching fish!  Yes!!  Quite a few fish including two decent sized golden trevallys.  We put them on ice because we couldn’t resist the temptation of a Thai restaurant!
What a delightful town Cooktown is.  It’ll be hard to move on!  
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Comments

Murry
2023-06-10

Glad that you are going well. I really enjoyed Cook town.

Lyn and Ken
2023-06-10

Have never visited Cooktown. It sounds lovely.

Maree
2023-06-11

What fantastic places and experiences you are going through- just fabulous and so interesting. Well done !!

Elaine
2023-06-12

Great to catch up with your adventures - I didn't realise what I was missing.

Sue
2023-06-12

Looks like good bird country- hope rain and mud and scary road crossings are done!

Maureen H
2023-06-16

We also have great memories of a trip to Cooktown many years ago. Sounds like you are still having plenty of adventures on your trip back south.

2025-02-09

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