Bel and I left Cape Tribulation and headed up the Bloomfield track – a 4wd only shortcut to Cooktown. We entered with a bit of trepidation as there had been a lot of rain and the track was known to get very slippery due to having 30% inclines to climb and descend. Not fun with a 2 tonne trailer pushing you!
The first hurdle was Emmagen Creek,
Thankfully the water had subsided a bit from the day before and we made it across comfortably.
The rest of the drive was beautiful, passing through the rainforest, with lots more creek crossings. The steep ranges were confronting to climb, but easy enough in the end, and lots of engine breaking on the way down. Thankfully the worst parts were concreted.
Once through the track we crossed the Bloomfield River and arrived at the Aboriginal settlement Wujal Wujal. A short detour and we were at Bloomfield falls and they were thundering down due to the recent rain.
We then continued on toward Cooktown, and after passing through pretty rainforest villages arrived at the famous Lions Den Hotel.
It’s a remote old mining pub that now serves travelers and has an adjacent camping area.
The building is very rustic, filled with character, and for a gold coin donation to the SES you can write your names on the walls – it took us at least 10 minutes to find a blank spot.
From there we passed Black Mountain – mountains of rubble caused by volcanic granite crystalising underground and then fracturing as the soil erodes away. Amazing.
And then finally arrived in Cooktown. After setting up camp and refuelling we had a look around town -which didn’t take long.While one of the bigger towns in the region it is still quite small. It is on the Endeavor River mouth where Captain Cook beached for repairs and therefore the name.
Now it is mostly a fishing and tourist town. One thing it had plenty of were pubs. So we headed over to one for dinner and to stir up the locals. State of Origin was on and I had my Jersey with me.
While we didn’t win, it was a fun night and everyone was surprisingly friendly. We headed straight to bed after the game ready for an early start the next day.