Yearly Archives: 2015

Cooktown is as far north as we made it on Cape York.  This is about as far as the bitumen goes.  I was expecting to see a town that catered to 4WD adventures and such, but instead it felt very much like many other small Aussie towns.  Lots of historic sites in Cooktown.  This is a fountain in memoriam of Mary Watson, the very definition of irony since she died from lack of water after an Aboriginal attack. This one … Read More

Not too far from Cooktown are a couple of mountains covered in heaps and heaps of black rocks.  It looks like at some point in the past it must have rained black rocks all over these mountains.  It’s named…are you ready? Black Mountain National Park.  Because, you know, the mountains look black. You can’t really hike the mountain, you can only observe it from the lookout.  Underneath all those rocks there can be gaps and people have been injured in … Read More

While in Cooktown we had to visit the James Cook Museum.  It was a must-see on our list.  I’d read that it was one of the best small museums in Queensland, so I was really looking forward to it.  So much history to take in here! The museum is in an old convent built in the late 1800s.  Part of the museum is dedicated to the history of the convent.  I wish I had a picture of the staircases inside.  … Read More

Cooktown is as far north as we are travelling on Cape York.  While it would be an adventure to go all the way to the tip it would also be quite a journey.  A dusty one, requiring a 4WD that we’d have to hire along with camping gear.  Or pay for a tour, but finding a tour for a family of six is difficult and pricey.  We’ve heard the trip takes something like twenty hours.  That’s a long journey to … Read More

After Mulambin we drove several days in a row to get all the way up to Cooktown.  It was tiring, driving for several hours and staying for just one night at our stops along the way.  Cooktown is as far north as the sealed road goes, so this is as far north as we will be going on this trip.  The plan is to make our way back down the coast as far as Mackay, then we’ll head inland all … Read More

On the way to Mulambin we made a quick stop in the town 1770.  I’ve always been curious about the town but it has always been soooo far away on the map.  But suddenly we were nearby!  We decided to stop in for a quick look.  The town is called 1770 after the year that Captain Cook landed there.  It was the first place he landed in Queensland.   It turned out to be a holiday spot.  A beautiful one.  … Read More