Cooktown, even further north

When we left Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands, we decided to spend a week in Cooktown before making our way back to Townsville.  It's only a few hours drive to this small coastal port town at the mouth of the Endeavour River towards the south of the Cape York Peninsula.

We spent a day here a few years ago and it's been on out list of "places to go back to" since then, so it was nice to be able to explore at a leisurely pace.  We booked into the Cooktown Caravan Park, a very friendly small bush park.







Cooktown is named after Lieutenant James Cook and the Endeavour River is named after his ship.  In 1770, the Endeavour ran aground and was holed on the reef near Cape Tribulation.  Cook and his crew managed to float the ship into the estuary near Cooktown and it was beached and repaired over a number of weeks.  In order to refloat the ship some 50 tons weight was thrown overboard.







The lookout on Grassy Hill provides commanding views and is a popular spot to watch the sunset accompanied by a glass of wine and some nibbles.

There are many interesting buildings and galleries throughout the town.  The James Cook Museum is a National Trust facility which has excellent exhibits and interpretation from Indigenous, Chinese and European perspectives.  

Exhibit highlights are the original HM Bark Endeavour anchor and cannon, Cook's diary extracts and stories from local Aboriginal elders.

The Cooktown Information Centre is located near the Botanic Gardens - Nature's Powerhouse.  We spent a pleasant morning walking along the paths looking at the tropical plants.

After our walk through the gardens we drove to picturesque Finch Bay.

One morning we loaded the car with our drinks and lunch and drove towards the Bloomfield Track.  We had seen the southern end of the track from Cape Tribulation on our several trips there and this time we wanted to see the northern end.  We had morning tea at the Black Cockatoo Gallery with it's lovely leadlight doors.

On our way south we drove alongside the Annan River.

We stopped off at the Wujal Wujal Gallery to look at the artworks and then drove on to look at the Bloomfield Falls before returning to Cooktown.

About 20km south of Cooktown is Black Mountain.  This impressive sight is a granite volcanic mountain.  The granite is actually pale grey but it appears black due to the algae growing on the rock.