We are in Cooktown. This is as far as we intend to take the caravan and now I will agree with Peter, that we are halfway up 'The Rabbits Ear'! Peter thought we may have had more mountain climbing to get here, but there was only 1.5 kms that was quite steep. It wasn't as bad as the 'Kings Highway' to Canberra from Batemans Bay though! That was a mountain and a half! The trip up the 'Mulligan Highway' was really good. We both commented to each other, that we had enjoyed the 265km trip. We are really glad that we have come this far! The road to Cooktown used to be named the 'Peninsula Developmental Road', but the Queensland Government is renaming these roads once they reach the required standard. Peter and I had discussed the fact that this should happen. So now we are happy! The road is named after 'James Mulligan' who was the man who first found gold at Palmer River. He found 2.9 kgs of alluvial gold in the first three months. He later worked for the Government to find other gold fields. But he wasn't successful and instead found tin and silver. The road was fully sealed in 2006. Morning tea stop was at the 'Palmer River Roadhouse'. The amount of rainfall they have received to date this year was recorded and visible behind the bar. It is 800 mls. They had over 200 mls in February and 300 in March. The Palmer River must be spectacular in flood. The bridge across it was very high as was the one over the West Normanby. It also must be a huge river when in flood. Cooktown's annual rainfall is normally between 2 and 3 metres.At Lakeland the road goes off to Laura, for those travelling up the west side of Cape York. There was a huge banana plantation at Lakeland and more land was being cleared, with further planting happening. Research on the internet has shown that the area also grows coffee and peanuts and they are even growing exotic fruits in the area.Cooktown is not a very big town, the population being a little over 2,000. The views over the town and the Endeavour River from Grassy Hill, are very nice. We went up on Wednesday night for the sunset. Of course everywhere you walk or drive, there is reference to Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour. At the spot where the Endeavour was beached there is a 'Commemorative Cairn'. The walk along the side of the river in Charlotte Street, which is the main street in the town, has been named the 'River of Life Walkway'. At the beginning of the walk there is some interesting ceramic work that has been done by the aboriginals. It is called the 'Milbi Wall'. 'Milbi' is the aboriginal word for 'story'. The 'Cook Shire Council' decided as a reconciliation project, that the aboriginals would be asked to tell the story of the first known European contact, from an aboriginal point of view. It has been built right near the spot where Captain Cook and his crew first came ashore. There is also a Chinese sculpture nearby with an information board on the huge contribution the Chinese made to the settlement of Cooktown. The Chinese rushed to the 'Palmer Gold Field' and by 1877, it is said there were 18,000 of them there. They made up 90% of the fields population. Infrastructure grew around the town to support the population and there were many market gardens. There is a 'Chinese Shrine' at the Cooktown Cemetery. We did visit the cemetery and took some photos of the 'Sisters of Mercy' graves and others, but didn't see the shrine! Can you believe it Delma? There is also a 'Captain Cook' sculpture and it marks the site of the re-enactment of Cook's landing, which takes place every June during the Queen's Birthday weekend. The monument commemorates Cook's landing on 17th June 1770. There is a ship that has been built to look like the 'Endeavour' and it is the 'Musical Ship'. It has been very well done and Pete played a bit of a tune during our wander along the edge of the river, taking in all the tourist attractions.We had left the car parked up near the wharf. We had nearly finished the walk and in actual fact were beside the bowling club. It was their Wednesday afternoon competition.  I was thinking of hanging over the fence to watch them playing on the synthetic green, when one of the locals came up to me and asked "If it was our vehicle parked up under the trees"? Immediately I thought we must have parked where we should not have! Turned out that the fella's name was Andrew Davies and when he saw the CV number plate, had decided to see if he could find out who owned the car! He had been walking along the 'River of Life Walkway' asking the tourists "If it was their car"? Andrew is Gloria Davies son, originally from Northampton. Gloria used to play the piano for us at church in Yuna and Andrew's younger brother Murray was good friends with Peter Cant. Once again small, small world. Andrew is a builder and he loves it in Cooktown. He and his wife have been here 8 years and he told us "It is the longest they have ever stayed in one place"! It is a perfect location for fishing on the Barrier Reef. Cooktown is the closest town to the reef. If anyone is looking for a B & B in Cooktown, they will be increasing the size of their 'Cooktown Gecko B & B'. He also asked us to let people know back home, that Gloria died in Brisbane in 2006. She came over here to live and look after his brother. On Thursday we decided, on Andrew's recommendation, to drive some of the way south on the Bloomfield Road. He told us there was a nice waterfall down on the Bloomfield River. Our first stop was for a photo shoot at 'Black Mountain'. The imposing mountain range of massive granite boulders marks the northern end of the 'Wet Tropics World Heritage Area'. The mountain is a significant and respected place for 'Aboriginal Traditional Owners' of the area. It is known as 'Kalkajaka' meaning 'place of the spear'. Black Mountain is a focus of several Dreamtime stories.The granite rock of Black Mountain is actually a light grey colour. Its distinctive dark appearance is due to a film of lichens and other small encrusting plants growing on the exposed surfaces. Grey patches and boulder fractures indicate ongoing rock disintegration. This is a process that can be accelerated when cold rain hits the sun-heated rock, sometimes with explosive results. Only a few kilometres down Bloomfield Road is the small settlement of Helenvale, where we stopped at the 'Lions Den' for morning tea. Another interesting hotel! It was a bit like Daly Waters with all the writing on the walls and old antiques and memorabilia in the rooms. The tropical trees and vines out the front of the hotel were extremely unusual. Unfortunately, or fortunately cyclone Ita in April had damaged the vines growing in the trees. The vine was higher up in the tree before and not so visable. Since the cyclone damage, they have had to prop it up with weldmesh. When I first saw it, I actually thought it was artificial. The colour of the flowers, just don't look natural! The hotel was named after a tin mine that was nearby and there is a large nugget of 'tin ore' on the bar. The story goes that a young boy named Daniel was a stowaway on a ship and from Cooktown he was put to work in the tin mine. The tunnel is in the mountain opposite the hotel. The mine had no name when Daniel came and working underground was a strange experience for Daniel. Upon seeing Daniel standing in the opening of the tunnel, the owner characterised him as 'Daniel in the Lions Den', and the mine took the name. The first three owners of the hotel were women and the owner of the mine, was the husband of the first publican in 1875. The 'Lions Den' was in the same family until 1964.The 'Bloomfield Waterfall' was quite impressive. The Bloomfield Road was very narrow and windy, so Peter had a tough day of intense concentration. I kept my eyes open for a Cassowary in the tropical rain forest, but didn't see one! As if I am going to!  But I will keep looking! We did see a 'little red car' on the side of the road though. I saw it on the way down, and it was still there when we came back. Peter says "I will take a photo of anything"!  But I know the grandchildren will love it. We bought a 'little red car' for Jack's 2nd birthday. He actually rode it around the corridors of St John of God Hospital, because he stacked on a show and wanted it out of the car, when we went to the hospital to visit Fiona and Lani. He got his own way with Nanni! Of course the staff thought it was great and Isabella will be the next to enjoy it! On the way back we called into 'Archer Point' where the Lighthouse is high on the hill. What a windy point and bay, that was!  Isn't our English language confusing? This 'windy' is the blowing wind! But the road was also windy to get up to the point! Finally we went into 'Quarantine Bay' and then 'Walker Bay', where the town's 9 hole golf course is. We saw a huge snake crossing the road on the way into the golf club. We didn't think you would want to get off the fairway and go looking for golf balls on that course! On our last day we went out to see the 'Endeavour' and 'Isabella Falls'. Nothing like the Bloomfield, but sometimes you get ones like that! They were nice enough, but far from spectacular! We had to check out the 'Isabella' one we reckoned. The car caused us a bit of grief on the way out there. Ironically some lights came on when we went across the little 'Isabella Creek' concrete crossing! We had quite a steep gravel decline to the crossing and there was a bit of a hump at the bottom, which probably caused the problem. The book told us we should contact a dealership! So back to the van we came and Peter made the phone call to Cairns. The service manager told him "The lights would probably just go off in a short time and not to worry"! And they did! Anyway the car is being checked when we do get to Cairns. We decided to go back out and see if it happened again and hopefully see the falls! We couldn't believe it when we got there. We had actually got to within about 800 metres of the first of the falls! But then if we had gone on and seen the 'Endeavour Falls', we wouldn't have gone back for little 'Isabella'! Finally on Friday afternoon we went to the 'James Cook Museum'. The building was 'Saint Mary's Convent of Mercy Boarding School', established in 1889. During the 60's it fell into disrepair and as the building was considered dangerous, the Bishop made the decision that it be demolished. In 1969 tenders were called for its demolition. The President of the 'Historical Museum' in Cooktown approached the 'National Trust of Queensland' for help. The result was the Bishop offered the building to the Trust for use as a Museum and the necessary funds for its restoration were raised. The 'James Cook Historical Museum' was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 on 22 April 1970. There are some steps down on the riverfront, that were made for the Queens visit. They are called the 'Queens Steps' and I love the photo I took of them! The Museum building is really lovely and there is so much precious memorabilia in it. Peter thought we had seen old stuff before this one, but this one rates number one, for the quantity of really old memorabilia. From the time Cook and his crew were safely on the bank of the river, entries from his journal are recorded on a display board.  The journal entries are of the many days they waited for the right tide and wind, to enable them to sail HMS Endeavour out to sea on the 4th August 1770.The story of the recovery of a cannon and the anchor from the ocean in the early 1970's is also on display. The historic 'Anchor and Cannon' are displayed in a glass case. The trunk of the tree that the 'Endeavour' was tied up to is also in the Museum. In the garden of the Museum, there are many of the 170 species of plants, that Joseph Banks identified and named in the region in 1770.

I posted some mail on Thursday and found that the Post Office in Cooktown has a 'Special Stamp' that they will use to stamp mail, if you do take it into the Post Office. You need to request to have the mail stamped with this 'Special Ink Stamp'. So I purchased a few postcards and spent Thursday night writing on them. I got a bit carried away on Friday and wrote on some others I had in the caravan. Some family and friends have mail on the way with a 'Special Ink Postal Stamp' that you cannot get anywhere else in Australia! Sorry but I couldn't do more than 12.  30 photos