Still in Cooktown and we have gone past the 2-week mark but tonight is our last night.

Jude is sleeping quietly beside me and there is a very light breeze blowing in through the door, shortly to build up and then drop again as it does continually here.

We were warned by everyone we met who had been here before us that Cooktown is windy but they said it like it was a bad thing whereas actually it is what keeps the temperature bearable and blows the rain clouds away as quickly as they come. We have been having a bit of rain the last few days but nothing too constant and certainly not enough to flood us in but maybe it is these thoughts that have prompted me to start heading south because Jude would never forgive me if we didn't get to all his toys on that upcoming train ride - oh, and I think he wants to see his family and friends down there too!

We have had a nice, relaxed and lazy time here only taking the van out of the park once to visit the bird hide at Keatings Lagoon and then to Finch Bay to see the beautiful beach (which has a resident croc in the creek but it didn't come out while we were there).

We have walked down to the wharf a couple of times, once with our (now) old friends Kerry & Peter who turned up here a few days after we left them at Mt Molloy. We also jumped in their car to see the sunset from the Lighthouse lookout which is the only time we have been able to do something like that because of the difficulties of setting up the van in the dark with a 2-year old running around. We didn't get a great sunset but the view from up there is something else. Let's just say you certainly don't need to get in a plane to get an aerial view of Cooktown.

We have twice visited the Saturday markets and if you ever get up here you just have to treat yourself to a Fruit Frappe, they are truly delicious and refreshing and after getting a small one the first week and being left wanting more I invested in a large one last week and I will most certainly be doing the same thing before we jump in the van to drive south tomorrow.

There has been lots of swimming in the park pool, Jude enjoying his new 'noodle' but refusing to swim by himself except for the first day (when there was another kid in the pool to show off to) and today when he finally got back into the swing of things and spent sometime floating with the noodle and sometime jumping off the edge and swimming to me like the little fish he is.

We also discovered the local library and have spent a few hours over a few days in there with Jude loving the new toys, the company of other kids and the new stories I would read to him as well.

There is also a pretty cool playground and a musical ship (all sorts of pipes and drums and xylophones incorporated into it for you to play) so we have not been short of things to do.

We worshipped both Sundays at the local Baptist church which is a small wooden building much like the one at Tallebudgera and with an even smaller congregation (if you can believe that Dave T!) but everyone so friendly and welcoming and understanding of the fact that a 2-year old just will make some noise during the sermon and the prayers.

If there is one thing that I will always talk of to people when I am asked about Cooktown it will be the generosity of its people; since arriving here we have been given a discounted rate at the park, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, passionfruit, garlic bread, lollypops (Jude not me) and a full meal at the Italian restaurant that backs on to the van park - oh and a meal tonight in the camp kitchen here that was a send off for a missionary lady who has been staying here and is heading back to Indonesia. (and Kerry & Peter cooked us a roast dinner while they were here - yum!) Even the library had free books that you could help yourself to (on the proviso that it never ever came back to the library again). Blessed we are, blessed.

And to top off our time here we were visited by the sweetest little dog yesterday afternoon who just wandered into our camp and stayed here and we fell in love with her but handed her over to the pound this morning cos she was so lovely and looked after that we just knew that someone would be missing her (and her owners picked her up this afternoon.)

So, next time someone tells you that there is nothing to Cooktown just remember that it is all in what you are looking for and give it more than a few hours to see if you can find it.