The big boys, T and S, went to Opal reef today with Calypso to do 3 scuba dives. We dropped them at the marina before 8:30. Given this, and given that D wanted to do a 7 hour return drive to Cooktown we continued on from the marina and begun the 254 k journey to Cooktown.
After we filled up with Petrol, I was allowed to drive(shock horror) which was a good thing as the drive up the range to Mount Molloy was very windy and I was feeling quite nauseous and I was at the wheel!
Once we turned right towards Cooktown the landscape changed to dry savannah and was quite different to the rainforest.
An interesting sight was the black mountain range that was covered in big black rocks and very little else.
Cooktown itself was much smaller and much more parochial than I expected.
A beautiful town though having said that and we drove up to the lighthouse to have lunch and look at the view.
The council had erected many signs with extracts from James Cook and Joseph Banks' diaries. The endeavour couldn't have picked a nicer harbour to fix the hole from the reef.
We went to the info centre and then walked through the botanical gardens before we drove on to Finch Bay where we took innumerable photos of driftwood on the beach.
At the info centre we were advised that the coast road was a viable alternative to the mulligan highway so we considered that as a way home.