Day 42 - 43 ....12th & 13th August 2012

Kilometres travelled.... 314

Kilometres from home......2730

We decided to leave our van at Lake Placid and drive to Cooktown. We travelled via the Inland Road which is now sealed all the way - 314 kilometres from Lake Placid.
The route took us over the Kuranda range and away from the coast via the Kennedy Highway to Mareeba where we then headed north on the Mulligan Highway, which is the old Cooktown Development Road.

Once we crossed over the ranges the lush tropical rainforest was replaced by more open tropical Savannah. We had a fantastic view of this scenery later in our trip when we came upon Bob's Lookout at the top of the Desailly Range, which gave us a panoramic view over the remote and harsh Savannah.

Mount Malloy was the next town, it was named after a teamster who discovered copper there in the 1880's. there is a camping area at Rifle creek north of the town.
Mount Carbine was the next town. It was founded after the discovery of Tungstan deposits in 1890. There is a Caravan Park in a peaceful bushland setting which we inspected for future reference. The Park offers free van storage for customers travelling to the Cape.

After another 130 kilometres we arrived at the Palmer River Roadhouse where we pulled in for lunch and a rest. Located 80 km north of Mount Carbine on the Mulligan Highway, Palmer River Roadhouse is a good refreshment and accommodation stop on the drive from Cairns to Cooktown.
The Roadhouse is situated on the historical Palmer River - site of the original gold rush. It has 22 powered caravan and camp sites and 4 permanent tented sites. There are bar/dining and BBQ facilities, clean rest rooms and free entry to the museum. Fuel is available.
Looking at the solitary Roadhouse perched on the hill above the famous river it is hard to imagine that in the 1870s tens of thousands of miners flocked to this area searching for gold. It is even harder to imagine that this influx of miners was the catalyst for the establishment of the ports of Cairns, Cooktown and Port Douglas.
The rush was started by the explorer William Hann who, while exploring the interior of Cape York Peninsula in 1872, noticed evidence of gold in one of the rivers he crossed. He named the river Palmer after the Queensland Chief Secretary, Arthur Palmer. The following year the prospector James Venture Mulligan led a party to the river and returned with 102 ounces. He received £1000 reward and his discovery led to one of the last great gold-rushes in Australia. By 1877 there were 17 000 diggers on the field and the following year the Chinese, who had poured onto the goldfield, were involved in a bitter series of battles which became known as the Tong Wars. They were fought between the Macao and Canton Chinese. At the time there were over 7000 Chinese miners on the fields.

Following a relaxing lunch break we proceeded north for a further 31 kilometres
to Lakeland also known as 'Lakeland Downs' - which is a small farming centre in Cape York Peninsula. It is at the junction of the main Peninsula Development Road and the Mulligan Highway. It contains a hotel, a cafe, and roadhouse and a small store. The main agricultural products are peanuts, maize, sorghum , coffee, tea, tropical fruits and cattle.
One of the most amazing sights in the Lakeland area was the huge banana plantation which stretched for mile after mile along the Mulligan Highway. It was most unusual to find such healthy trees growing in the Savannah land, which seemed more suitable for cattle. This obviously is a recently planted crop as it wasn't there when we went through 2 years ago. All the banana trees looked extremely healthy.

The last leg of our trip passed Annan Gorge and Black Mountain, some 28 kilometres from Cooktown. Black Mountain comes almost as a shock when you see it first. When viewed from a distance it has a very black appearance, due to the deposit of a very thin coating of iron and manganese oxides on the huge boulders of grey granite.

This is "The Mountain of Death." Aborigines will not go near it. An ancient legend warns them of danger. White men fear it too, because of the numbers of men who have gone there and disappeared without a trace, as if the earth -- or the mountain - - had swallowed them. Birds and animals shun the area.

We arrived in Cooktown mid afternoon and checked into the Sovereign Resort, where we were to relax and enjoy the sights for 2 days. This was to be our fifth visit. The original Sovereign Hotel was built in 1874 and was one of the first double storey buildings in Cooktown. It was partly destroyed during the cyclone in 1949 and attracted the nickname 'The Half Sovereign"
Cooktown is a small town located at the mouth of the Endeavour River, where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour for repairs in 1770. Both the town and Mount Cook (431 metres ) which rises up behind the town were named after him. It is the northernmost town on the east coast and was founded on 25 October 1873 as a supply port for the goldfields along the Palmer River. It was called 'Cook's Town' until 1 June 1874.

We visited many attractions in the town, some for the first time, and some revisited. Amongst these were The Botanical Gardens, Finches Beach and Grassy Hill.
James Cooked climbed Grassy Hill on several occasions to view the surrounding reefs enabling him to navigate a safe passage out after repairing his ship in 1770.

We had a welcome surprise in Cooktown. The group of caravanners from Gosford arrived in town on the same day as us, and we had two very pleasant evening meals with them. Thanks to Terry, Mary, Ken, Caroline, Jack, Judith, Brian & Susan. We had previously met up with them in Townsville and Cairns.

We reluctantly left Cooktown on Tuesday to return to Cairns. We travelled back down the inland road but detoured at Mount Malloy to Mossman and Port Douglas.