Pretty Little Cooktown Qld: Friday, Saturday 21, 22 Sept 2012

Friday; a working day for normal folk who haven't retired, so Dave and I walked a short distance into the little town of Cooktown to post off some birthday presents back to WA. It's not worth firing up the motorbikes to ride such a short distance, and the views of the coastal town are so pretty, why rush? The locals seem to be friendly; everyone says gidday and we thoroughly enjoyed our day of sightseeing round the town. We saw Captain James Cook's statue near where the Endeavour ship landed to get repairs done back in 1770 after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef. They were on shore for 48 days, desperately repairing the Endeavour so they wouldn't be marooned on this lonely northern tropical coastline.

Of course I browsed through every little gift/craft shop along the main street, and we had a really delicious mackerel burger on the shore front for lunch. We also popped into the local police station to give a report about a "hoody" intruder being in our tent last night. The policeman was very helpful and we got the impression they know who it is who is slipping into caravan parks around town and opportunistically stealing, but they want to catch him red-handed to prove this. It made Dave and I glad we have always been diligent about locking away small valuables in our trusty trailer, though finding a scumbag had been rifling through our stuff in the tent made me feel sick. A pox be upon this loser lowlife!

We got back to have a nice cooling swim in the caravan park pool, then a yummy cook up of an evening meal in the excellent Big4 Caravan Park camp kitchen. The warm weather makes it very pleasant too…some of the camp kitchens we've been in before have been good but too damn cold to enjoy.

Saturday: Up and off the air mattresses early today, as we have a bit of walking to do. First to the Saturday town markets, where I had a delicious tropical fruit frappe and Dave enjoyed some spicy Asian food. Then we walked up to the top of Grassy Hill, which overlooks the Cooktown sea views (Coral Sea, reefs and the winding Endeavour River) and this is the hill that Captain Cook walked up to the top of in 1770 so he could see how best to navigate the Endeavour ship out to safety again. Most folk drive up….we Mighty Intrepids were the only walkers up there, and lovely views were our reward, not to mention the fitness aspect of this jaunt. I need to lose a bit of weight again anyway.

Our next visit was to the Cooktown Museum which is housed in a beautifully built for the humid climate old Mercy Sisters Catholic convent. We saw the original Endeavour anchor (huge!) and some of Capt. Cook's journals, plus some fascinating information about the local Aboriginal impressions of the Endeavour Englishmen arriving on their tribal lands. Plus there were stories and documentation of the unhappy consequences of white settlement 100 years later when gold seekers and settlers came to Cooktown. More stories of massacres after the local Aboriginals objected to white people taking over some of their sacred sites and the attempted fightbacks with spears.

We had lunch at the Cooktown Pub (the "Top Pub"), enjoying the ambience of regular town drinkers, a "toppy burger and chips" and a beer each. Then it was a quick trip to the local supermarket to buy some yummy local food, the fruit and vegies here are great, and back home to the camp for a welcome swim to rest our weary, walked-out legs.

Just before sunset we enjoyed a walk to the Cooktown Cemetery, which is near the caravan park. Lots of old tombstones and a kind of spooky atmosphere to this place, as the bushland and old trees are guarding the spirits here. About 3,000 bodies are buried but a lot don't have headstones as the people were just too poor to afford such luxuries, especially the numerous Chinese and the Aboriginals. So we were walking on top of a lot of unmarked graves.

We have pre-booked our next stopover at an Atherton Caravan Park as it is now school holidays in Queensland and places could get busy, though with all the Queensland government's cut in jobs to save their budget, I don't know whether people here can afford holidays!

This afternoon while we were enjoying lazing by the Cooktown Caravan Park pool and enjoying listening to the happy sounds of some kids playing in the pool , a straight looking old grey nomad woman came up to us and said "It's better when it's only nomads here isn't it!" meaning she didn't like having noisy kids around. We told her we love the kids, they remind us of our 12 grand kids, but she didn't understand this. We've come across this attitude before with some selfish old grey nomads; the world is supposed to revolve around them only, and they seem incapable of sharing the nice things in life. Maybe this old biddy and others like her have been on this planet too long?

On another sharing theme: We've noticed that some caravan parks these days have gone over to bathroom facilities having fully ensuite set ups, with shower, toilet and vanity all in one room, not the usual ladies and gents sections with rows of showers and toilets and a communal vanity section with mirrors after you have finished your shower. We find the individual ensuite set ups are annoying, as they always seem to be busy if the caravan park is full; you have to wait to go to the loo or have a quick shower, as the setup is not designed to be quickly used. And I really miss the friendly chats with other women when I've left the shower and am "putting on my face" in front of a communal mirror. I've picked up the best where to travel tips that way.

Today we decided to make a point of not staying at any more caravan parks that have these individual ensuite arrangements for campers, unless we have no choice; they are wastefully inefficient in design and they are antisocial devices, in our opinion, meaning they are trying to turn campers into isolates who don't have to share. Which is why we carefully chose an old-fashioned caravan park in Atherton for our next adventure tomorrow.