Mount Molloy – Cooktown

Well the drive was really quite interesting. I guess we were both expecting the lush tropical stuff to start once entering the Cape. We couldn’t have been further from reality. The tropical palm tree look we were expecting to see just isn’t the case. I am really blown away. Apart from the fact that Climate Change is alive and well up here. Its as dry as dry can be. There have also been lots of fires that we’ve seen on the drive up.

Stopped off at Blackrock Mountain on the way through. These were originally old volcanoes that erupted and as the waste built up around them, they became smaller and smaller. As the magnum set and cracked in the cooler air outside, the water eventually got in through the cracks causing erosion and then they have eventually turned into rocks and the sand had fallen through the cracks causing the collapsed look on top.

It was mentioned on the signs that several people have disappeared and have never been seen of again. It’s an eerie place. We took off pretty quickly.

Arrived in Cooktown and were hit with a blanket of humidity. What a shock. It was hot and humid all at once. What a cute little spot. There is a lovely inlet that makes for an nice boat landing, I guess hence Cooks landing here in 1770. They have a nice little harbour and a few lovely heritage buildings. Being Sunday nothing much was open. Ended up in a caravan park, and paid for our first powered site so we could put the airconditioner on. I had a swim and hid in the van. Steve went fishing. Didn’t get much sleep. It was hard to regulate the AC temperature properly so ended up turning off the AC. It was weird as we’re so used to free camping, it was strange listening to the guy in the campsite next to us snoring. Cant wait to be on our own again. @ $26/night it was the most expensive park we’d been in.

Locals have said the weather is better in Cooktown than Cairns as they get the sea breezes that Cairns misses out on. They did get lots of wind. It certainly cools things down no end when you get a breeze.