Cooktown

15th Aug.
  We had light drizzle overnight & in places on our 300klm drive. We soon left behind the beautiful green tablelands for scrub & yet more termite mounds. We stopped around halfway for a coffee stop but no nice rest stops to pull in at. It became quite quite hilly from then on & we climbed up & then had downward curves but a good road. We just got set up at the Big4 when the drizzle arrived & it was very cloudy & not the sunshine we'd hoped for. We decided to walk into "town"but dived into the car as the rain became heavier!

A hardy couple were fishing from a jetty & drinking coffee & eating fish & chips!
16th Aug

  We woke to light rain & very windy & rather a shock after 10 weeks of sunshine & blue sky. We decided to go out for lunch as not much else to do & it was a very pleasant meal right on the water front. As the rain had cleared a little we drove up to the light house & lookout

After going aground on the reef Captain Cook managed to re float & came ashore for repairs. It is said he came up here many times to plot a course to avoid a repeat on the way back to sea.

Cooktown is quite small now although during the Goldrush had the second biggest port in Qld.

We decided to walk off our lunch when we got back to the park as still fine. However we weren't so lucky on the way back when a very heavy squall came across & we got quite wet! Allan took this photo in a park which also had several old military tanks.

Too wet for happy hour & the wind became stronger & the rain heavier so we battened down for the night. Quite a sense of isolation here although lots of caravans in the park. There are also many camper trailers who obviously go off road up to Cape York & they are covered in red dirt! Love Bev & Allan.