Saturday 25^th October

Today we had a late start (10am) and drove to a lookout on the Black mountain. This reminds us of the slag heaps in South Wales but here is formed naturally. Grey granite boulders were thrown up by escaping hot gasses fracturing through the rock, and then eroded until only the hard granite was left. These then get their black colour from the lichen that covers them.

We then stopped at Keating’s Lagoon where we walked to a bird hide along a pleasant wooded path but we didn’t see anything special – just Magpie Geese and Shelduck.

We then drove to the Endeavour Falls where we had a cup of tea and admired the owner’s silky chooks (chickens to us!) before dodging the sprinklers across the camping ground to visit the falls. They were only small but it was quite a pretty place.

We then drove on a 4WD only track to find the Isabella Falls which proved quite elusive – we drove several kilometres down a couple of different roads through the forest before we came across the falls. They were actually on one side of the river we had forded on the main road but we were too busy trying not to splash water over a woman and her child who were playing in the river to notice them the first time through!

We ate lunch just parked up at the side of the road before driving onwards to Hope Vale. Once through the community we were unsure of the way to Elim Bay which was where we wanted to go. The road wandered for twenty kilometres through sand dunes which looked as though they had been covered with a sprinkling of snow because the sand was so white.

We eventually found our way but chickened out of going to the camp site to get a permit as it was getting more and more sandy and we didn’t want to risk getting stuck. We just parked up for a few minutes to take some photos of the lovely bay and then did a short walk to see the coloured sands so we didn’t feel too guilty.

We then drove back to Cooktown and booked dinner for tomorrow before exploring a bit along the waterfront and driving up the Grassy Hill for some great views. Cooktown is a small town (1700) but is quite picturesque situated between the Endeavour River and the Coral Sea.

Hamish treated us to another excellent dinner of spiced pumpkin soup followed by crusted lamb with mash and vegetables (me) and Malaysian Beef Rendang (Iain).

We heard the feral pigs very close to our hut tonight and Hamish has fenced a lot of his property, although the cyclone that came through here last April has still made its mark.

Friday 24^th October

After some deliberation we decided to take advantage of our 4WD and drive up the Bloomfield track from Cape Tribulation to Cooktown, rather than backtracking to the main highway. It was a scenic, if somewhat bumpy, drive along the coast, through the rainforest. We had to go into 4WD mode to ford a couple of creeks, but they were quite shallow. We also stopped to visit the Bloomfield Falls near Wujal Wujal, which were definitely worth the detour.

We then stopped at the Lion’s Den in Helenville for lunch – an unusual pub in the middle of no-where - named after a tin miner who came up from the ground with his shaggy hair all covered in dust causing someone to remark that he looked like Daniel coming out of the lion’s den!

We found the turnoff to Mungumby earlier than we expected and had a few kilometres drive up a windy track to get to the lodge. Apparently David Attenborough stayed here when he was filming part of First Lives and it is a really stunning place. It consists of nine or ten wooden bungalows set in open gardens with some beautiful trees around, a small pool and loads of birds. Hamish, the owner, is lovely and again we are the only guests here. We had a pleasant and relaxing afternoon followed by a wonderful dinner.

Thursday 23^rd October

We were down at the waterfront by 7.50am, with time for a toasted sandwich and coffee before embarking on the Poseidon. Unfortunately the smaller boat we had originally booked on was in for repairs, so we were on the boat with eighty other divers/snorkellers. It took about ninety minutes to get out to the outer Agincourt reef and we enjoyed the snorkelling at three different sites, although it was a bit choppy. The corals at the first site were very beautifully coloured in blues and purples and with lots of small fish. I saw a couple of large fish (?groupers) and a turtle at the second site but got spooked because I started to see jellyfish and returned to the boat. We had on lycra suits to protect against jellyfish but I didn’t want to put it to the test! The water was quite cool so I only stayed out thirty to forty minutes at a time. The third and final site, after a buffet lunch, was Castle Rock which was a large outcrop of coral that we snorkelled around. It was quite rough on the way back but thanks to Cinnarazine I was absolutely fine.

We docked at 4.45pm and then we drove up past Mossman to the Daintree Ferry to cross the river to Daintree NP. It took us less time than we thought to get to Daintree Wilderness Lodge where we were staying the night so we had time for a shower before dinner. We were the only people eating at the lodge so we got personal service and the food was excellent. We had sticky ginger glazed tiger prawns on skewers with rocket followed by wild barramundi – delicious.

Wednesday 22^nd October

Today we had quite a leisurely start and drove up to take some photos at Lamin’s Hill lookout before driving up through Atherton and Mareeba to Mossman gorge. Here we took the shuttle bus up into the gorge and walked a couple of the trails. We have been spoilt by some of the amazing places we have seen on this trip and thought that Mossman gorge was too touristy and not that spectacular,

We then drove to Port Douglas where we are staying for a night at a backpacker’s lodge – cheap but quite adequate with an en suite bathroom. We wandered around and found a very nice restaurant for dinner and checked out where we have to go tomorrow to take the trip to the reef.