Cooktown

Right, I have set myself a goal to finish the blog posts about our Fealy Family Adventure 2015 by the end of January as this is just getting ridiculous blogging six months after the trip!

Ok, so after we spent a day on the Bloomfield Track and set up camp at the Lions Den Hotel for a couple of nights – it was time to spend a day exploring Cooktown.  We have to put a disclaimer out here that Kipp did not sleep much at all at the Lions Den for the whole time we stayed there, so we must admit that we did not tackle seeing the sights of Cooktown with our usual vigour, instead opting for some very ‘cruisy’ driving around, long lunch at the playground kinda visit.  We will definitely need to make a return trip to check out some more of the sights!

The first stop on the half an hour drive from the Lions Den to Cooktown, was of course ‘Black Mountain’.

Fealy Family at Black Mountain

Very interesting to read about how the mountain was formed

Black Mountain is located right on the highway into Cooktown so you can’t miss it – it is definitely worth a stop to have a look around and read some of the very mysterious tales in relation to the mountain.  The local Aboriginal Kuku Nyungkal people of the region, have long shunned the mountain, calling it Kalkajaka, meaning “the place of the spear” and sometimes translated simply as “The Mountain of Death.” There are also many non-Indigenous stories about the mountains too, with tales of people, horses and whole mobs of cattle disappearing into the labyrinths of rock, never to be seen again – it definitely feels a little spooky when you are stopped there – especially if there is nobody else around when you are visiting!

Our next stop was to leave the highway and head 17km’s along a fairly rough and muddy (at the time we were there) road in to check out Archer Point.  We had read lots about and had heard it was a beautiful spot to camp, but we were truly surprised by how spectacular it was!  We spent a good hour driving around – looking for a perfect campsite.  We had heard that there were crocodiles at Archer Point but we did not see any while we were there, however it did look like perfect crocodile country – such a shame!!

The view from the lighthouse lookout at Archer Point

There were lots, and lots of tracks to check out at Archer Point.

A beautiful, beautiful campsite – such a shame about the crocodiles!

We had planned to come back and set up camp for a week at the campsite in the photo above – however, we decided against it after talking to the people at the visitor centre in Cooktown who strongly advised us against camping there with young children as Archer Point is notorious for it’s many crocodiles in the water.  We were so disappointed, but in the end we didn’t want to risk it and turns out some people we met further along in our trip – did camp at this very spot and said there were crocodiles in the water the whole time they were there – eeeeek!

We dragged ourselves away from Archer Point and headed straight to the Visitor Centre in Cooktown to plan out what we wanted to do for the day, grab a map and get some local recommendations – we love Information Centres!  We took a walk through the Botanical Gardens while we were there which were really beautiful and super interesting.  The historic Solander Garden has living specimens of the 325 plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on board the Bark Endeavour with Captain Cook at the Endeavour River, Cooktown in 1770. They were here for longer than elsewhere in Australia, having run aground on the reef. This makes the area the basis of the European knowledge of Australian flora of the time and therefore a very important part of our heritage.  There were heaps of other little gardens to explore too – an easy way to let the kids burn off a bit of energy and it was nice and shady and cool in the gardens!

We took a walk to Finch Bay through the gardens and the kids whinged the whole way, but the beach at the end was spectacular – such a shame we were to scared to swim due to crocodiles!

Finch Bay

After the hot walk back to the car through the botanical gardens, we had a quick morning tea in the lovely shady grounds before we headed off to the popular Lighthouse Lookout for some stunning views out over Cooktown.

View from the lookout in Cooktown

Cooktown was the site where Captain James Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, came to shore in 1770 and the site of the first European settlement on Australian soil.  The kids found all of the history really interesting and the signs around Cooktown explaining bits and pieces were super easy for them to read.  The lookout is a spectacular spot to view sunrise and sunset – we wished we had of headed up there for some photos at those times – never mind next time!

By this point everybody was starving so we headed into Cooktown to find the promised Fish and Chips for lunch!  We set up in a nice picnic spot at a table right beside the singing ship down by the water and it was a beautiful way to spend an hour relaxing over lunch.  The seagulls were very pesky trying to eat our yummy fish and chips though!

The Singing Ship in Cooktown – kids loved playing with all the instruments in the ship

Great playground for the kids with a great view for the parents

After lunch we spent a few hours at the James Cook Museum which was really interesting (and not too expensive $23 for a family) – an absolute must do for everybody.  It was very well done and the kids were happy to wander around looking at everything and loved reading the excerpts from Captain Cook’s diary on the wall in the museum – we easily spent a few hours here without anybody getting bored!  After that it was a quick stop at the supermarket to stock up on groceries before heading back to camp for the night!  A great day out – add it to your lists if you haven’t already been!

Next post is my favourite part of the whole trip – Elim Beach – can’t wait to share it with you all!

Love The Fealy Family xoxoxo

Fealy Family in Cooktown

PS.  This post by AdventureMamma is also a great resource when planning a trip to Cooktown!