Author: Mrs A
Location: from Mount Carbine to Cooktown, far North Queensland
Sunday: We began the day with a sunrise stroll along the Bustard Downs property, and true to its name there were several bustards about – large birds looking like flying roast turkeys, extremely ungainly!
We returned from our walk to have breakfast and pack up and let Tassie have final run around.
Once we hit the road, we headed north through amazing scenery, the roads winding upwards between rolling hills, with several lookouts along the way.
It was around 2pm that we rolled into Cooktown, the final frontier settlement before heading up Cape York. This is the top of the road on the east coast for us on this trip.
It just so happened that today was the finale of the Cooktown Discovery Festival, a three day event celebrating the landing of Captain Cook in this area to repair his ship in the Endeavour River (named after Cook’s ship), in June 1770.
We missed the re-enactment in full 1770 dress, but caught the end of the go-cart races, and watched the winner roll down the hill by the pub and crash through the barrier of hay bales. The local police were there with their speed guns to test how quickly the carts travelled – it all felt very quaint, like a 1980s England local village fete, with a lovely community feeling.
Unlike in other areas of Australia, there is a real feeling of acceptance, with black (Aboriginal) kids running around with white kids, and the same with adults. We later chatted to a local Aboriginal guy who told us that Cooktown is probably the first place in Australia where there has been real reconciliation and acceptance amongst both parties. It certainly feels a lot closer than we have seen elsewhere.
We went into the Cooktown History Centre run by local volunteers. What an interesting place! It covered the history briefly of the local Aboriginal population (likely in this area for 40,000 years, concrete evidence of up to 15,000 years), through to Captain Cook’s landing with excerpts from diaries written on board the ship, right through to the gold rush in Victorian times, the impact of war, cyclones and up to current day. It even covered the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1970, with her royal car delivered by ship two days early.
We walked along the Main Street just soaking up the atmosphere, before returning to the rig to drive another 20 minutes up to our campsite.
Several people had recommended we camp at Endeavour River Escape, a bush camping area at the back of a passion fruit farm. As we drove in, we were so impressed. A beautiful wooded area with defined campsites, each with their own fire and bbq, and plenty of space between each one.
Further still, as we were guided in to choose our spot, we noticed another Zone parked up. We decided to set up camp nearby. Eric and Gail, fellow members of the Zone Owners Facebook site and owners of Zone #92 popped over to say hello and exchange a few notes on how our vans are going. Yet more lovely Zoners – it must be a condition of purchase!
Monday: Tassie decided to forgive us for tearing her away from Bustard Downs and had a nice long stroll around the campgrounds here – blissfully free from dogs and with plenty of interesting smells. Once she was tired, Mark and I headed into Cooktown.
Our first stop was to book ourselves on a visit to some local Aboriginal artworks with a local ‘interpreter’ who can explain the stories and history, as well as take us through some of the bush medicine and plants. We handed over $200 to Willie, a local guide and who we look forward to spending some time with tomorrow.
From there, we drove up Grassy Hill, a local lookout with some spectacular views. It was extremely windy at the top, with a 35 knot wind blowing off the sea, and almost knocking us off our feet on occasion.
Memories of our fabulous Daintree River cruise encouraged us to book a similar sounding trip for Wednesday afternoon on the Endeavour River. Fingers crossed it delivers.
One thing we have no doubt about is the presence of crocodiles. When we checked into camp yesterday the farm owner, Terry, mentioned they had only lost one visitor to the crocs…we thought he was joking. Managing to get a phone signal, I checked on Google, which confirmed that indeed, about 10 years ago, a 62 year old gentleman was taken by a croc here. They never found his body, just his watch, a sandal and a new video camera. Apparently he had waded into the shallows of the river to pick up a crab pot. Nasty.
This evening we sat around the campfire with Gail and Eric, exchanging travel stories and caravanning tips and hints. It’s always so good to learn from those more experienced than us, and with 7 years of travel around Australia under their belts, this is one couple which have a lot to share. They are old friends of the passion fruit farmers, and staying for free in return for their labour picking fruit from the vines.
Gail gave us a couple of passion fruit to try – they’re huge, and Terry gets $1.50 each fruit down in Sydney – they were certainly delicious. Gail told us of how she risked her life to get us these fruit – coming face to face with three feral boars while she was in the vines. Fortunately she kept her wits about her and escaped unharmed. The fruit tasted all the more sweeter for her efforts!
We finished up with a whole range of other fresh locally grown fruit and veg, so with our fridge crammed to capacity, we then turned off the coast road we had followed for so long and headed inland, up onto the north end of the Atherton Tablelands. We watched the scenery change dramatically as we climbed up the range, the Cruiser doing its usual impeccable job of dragging the 3 tons of loaded up Zone up the steep climb. Our destination was a place called Bustard Downs, a working cattle farm with some camp spots we would stay the night on. As we drove down onto the property we were immediately struck by the amount of birds around.
When we met the owner she said around 150 different types have been logged by local birders, so we set off to explore. 
Even the cattle were beautiful!
Only one other caravan was there on the whole of the property, well until 6.30 pm when it was pitch black, and we are in full dinner prep mode for a nasi goreng feast, with me wearing a clear plastic glove on one hand as I was cutting up the turmeric (it stains your skin yellow)..and there was knock on the door. I opened to find a lady at the door, another van had pulled up right next to us. They had been delayed on the road after hitting a kangaroo and she was asking me where the camp office was.
My staff have continued to escort me up the east coast of Australia, and I must admit some of the locations have not been too bad. I have not experienced species discrimination lately (yes, would you believe some camping areas allow those noisy, smelly canines but will not allow felines!), which is always a positive.
In addition to those big lizards, there has also been the occasional snake…they tend to make them rather large up here though – I still prefer to stalk a ribbon in the comfort of my safe-Zone.
Right, time for another nap, so over and out for now.
We took this as a good omen that we might see one of the rare and endangered Cassowary birds – at between 1.5 and 2 metres tall and up to 80kg, they would be hard to miss!
From here we continued north, calling next in at Dubuji Boardwalk and Myall Beach. The short walk was very informative, and as always full of incredible sculptural rainforest trees and vines.
We drove up as far as the 4WD commencement of the Bloomfield Track which leads up to Cooktown, before turning and calling in to more short walks at Cape Tribulation and then Noah Beach.
There’s so much to learn about the rainforest, and incredible that this has been around since the time of dinosaurs, many of the plants changing very little in that time.
Oh and the Cassowaries? Nowhere to be seen…
This was Tassie’s first trip across water, she was looking a little puzzled out of the window, not too impressed with seeing water in all directions.
The caravan park we had selected (oddly called the Rainforest Village, given it was a petrol station and a lovely open space for camping) was the furthest pet friendly one travelling north along the Cape Tribulation road.
The bitumen ends in another 20km or so, then its a rough four-wheel drive only track surrounded by National Park all the way to Cooktown.
We spent several hours here, it could have easily been longer, there is so much to see and read about. 
For instance, the Daintree Rainforest contains 12 of the 19 oldest plants on the planet and many other species found nowhere else on earth. The fauna coverage is also huge as well, the Daintree has 20% of Australia’s bird species, 35% of its marsupials, frogs and reptiles and 65% of our bat and butterflies species!
We could have stayed longer – much longer – but we decided to head off for a walk, hoping really for a cassowary sighting. Alas, it was not to be. However, we did get to experience again the majesty of being immersed in this unique ecosystem. Some of the trees we spotted were huge, especially next to the lovely little package of Mrs A. Some of these are over 500 years old apparently. Brightly coloured cassowary plums littered the floor, and crystal clear streams regularly meandered across our path.
Spotting birds up in the canopy isn’t easy, particularly when you have my poor eyesight, but thankfully eagle eye Mrs A was there to draw my attention, and my trusty bins soon picked them out.
Back at the Zone we then spotted two Wompoo Fruit-Doves up in the tree next to us. Their calls are very distinctive, which is a good job as despite being so colourful, they are hard to spot once they are stationary up in the canopy.
As I hope you will have decided by now reading this blog, if you haven’t been to this area before you simply must. It’s hard to describe in words just how special it is, Mrs A does a much better job with her images I think. It’s sensory overload from the sights, to the sounds and then those smells unlike anything else.
It is such a sweet area, with tin roofed pub/cafe/Australia Post, an information centre, general store and campground. Right beside the campground (which has a viewing platform across the river) is a boat ramp and wharf, which from the 1800s up to 1933 (when the road from Mossman was opened) served as the main route in and out of the settlement. It was from this wharf that residents exported butter (it is a dairy farming area) and brought in everything else they needed to live relatively comfortably. Today it is where small craft take visitors out on crocodile spotting tours, or bird and wildlife spotting tours if you choose to go with a local expert as we did.
Next we travelled back along the road to Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa. I had booked in for a two hour session as my birthday gift from Mr A. Needless to say it was luxurious, a massage with essential oils, body scrub, hot mud and washed down with warm water from the local waterfall, followed by a more intensive massage and deep conditioning hair treatment. I emerged smelling like a geranium joss stick, tingling all over with slightly greasy looking hair!
What a cruise. Not just the birdlife (to name a few we saw Striated Herons, Wompoo Fruit Doves, Great Egrets, a beautiful Sacred Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Sunbirds, Spotted Catbird…) but the stories of other wildlife (the snakes, the bats, the crocs) and the flora (Ylang-Ylang tree flowers – the main ingredient in Chanel No 5, the numerous fruits and seeds from the mangroves, the reason for the changing colours of the native hibiscus – yellow on day one, which drops off once pollinated, turning to orange and later a deep pink on further days until pollination is successful).
Apparently several years ago, Crocodie Hunter, Steve Irwin, flew up the Daintree River in a helicopter checking out the crocodile numbers and investigating all the waterholes on the way up. They found crocodiles as far up as 40km from the estuary in a waterhole at the top of a high waterfall – somewhere that traditionally people (including us) would have thought was safe from crocodiles. It made us re-visit all the beautiful waterholes we have swum in across the Kimberly, Lichfield and Kakadu in a new light!
Sunset was a whole new deal. Our skipper asked whether we would mind heading back a little late so we could watch the incredible phenomenon of the flocks and flocks of Eastern Great Egrets flying along the river to their roosting spots. Absolutely incredible. The breeze had totally dropped and as we sat there waiting the sky changed dramatically, from salmons and peaches to a deep Pinot red. Even the locals raved about the sky later on and the following morning!
The birds were also magical, and kept on coming…the photos do not do it justice, you really need to hear the flap of their wings and the frantic cries of the stragglers asking their mates to wait up.
I won’t steal her thunder other than saying it’s a cracker. More minor successes followed, storage space is limited for clothes even in the Zone, so both our wardrobes are showing signs of wear. I’ve decided to continue with the worn and faded look. After years of spending far too much money on clothes I’ve now mostly given to Vinnies, I can’t bring myself to over indulge anymore.
Mrs A picked up a few more things, then indulged in a chocolate sorbet – yes that is just chocolate, not rotten teeth!
We found some locally grown tea and locally made chocolate, and I even caved and bought myself some new shorts – all in all a successful little foray into civilisation before moving north tomorrow.
We returned to encourage a sleepy cat to go for a walk and to get started on packing up in preparation for moving on. After questionable first impressions, we are going to miss sleepy old Newell Beach.
The walk was a tip from the waiter at our restaurant last night. He did try to diplomatically point out it was quite a tough walk, casting his eye at me when he said that. Little did he know the young beast that lurks under this ageing frame.
After nearly 3km of bush bashing up this path, we beat a tactical retreat. Three kilometres doesn’t sound like a lot, and its not, unless every step is fought uphill and against the scrub. So it was a slip and slide back down the path, with a “ouch” punctuating every few minutes from one of us.
Back at Newell Beach, birds were everywhere – Australasian Figbirds (yellow one with red eye band), Rainbow Bee Eaters, and honeyeaters:
And down at the boat ramp a view towards Port Douglas looking tantalisingly close, but further by road.
After returning to the Zone we decided to bite the bullet and have a go at fixing our Dometic window, as the fly screen was failing to retract and flapping about. Now we had been given some tips by the ever useful resource of the Zoners Facebook group, but still, this was new territory for us. Screws were undone, and the window taken off, (quite a feat given I barely know one end of a screw driver from the other)! Thank goodness for my ever practical wife.
It was pretty obvious what had happened, one of the retaining lugs had fallen off the bottom. So that was pushed back on and after a few attempts we had it re-assembled, with a very timely phone call from Peter Thomson, a fellow Zoner with deep expertise from his past life with Bushtracker Caravans. Peter recommended we glue it to prevent future issues, so we took it off again and did so. The proof will be after 24hrs when the glue has dried, does it work? Your lives will be a chasm until then right?
We moved swiftly on to the fortified wines which were a little more palatable. We walked away with a bottle of Kaffir Lime, which would be lovely with a splash of soda water as a light aperitif, and a Chocolate port for those moments which require a little more decadence. We have a delivery of delicious Margaret River Amelia Park wines being delivered to Palm Cove ready for our return to Cairns, which will much better suit our palates.
Once away from the swimming areas it is relatively peaceful, moss covered rocks with a crystal clear creek tumbling down all around, surrounded by old growth rainforest of the Daintree National park. 
Birds flitted around, perching sideways on the vines that hang down from the canopy above and swooping across our path to catch the insects we disturbed as we strolled along. Being rainforest there was a lot of rotting wood, and with that an amazing array of colourful fungi – I drove Mark crazy with my gasps when I saw the next amazing colour scheme I had to capture.
Giant fig vines which had long overtaken their host tree were a key feature, looking like incredible sculptures with their expansive roots and vines, often more than a century old.
It is definitely a photographer’s paradise, with often two or three people already set up in front of lovely waterfalls with their cameras on tripods, stealing the best positions for their digital artworks.
We returned happy, having had our taste of nature and got showered and ready for dinner.
Fortunately we were pleasantly surprised – not only an interesting menu (for example an entree of prawn & crab salad, burnt corn, pickled coconut, chilli, shallot, green pawpaw and a ginger citrus vinaigrette, and mains of Spanish Mackeral with a rainforest salad – mesclun, Quandong, rainforest lime, roasted macadamia, lemon myrtle & vanilla vinaigrette) but also a great wine list. Top marks Mojo!
Returning to the caravan we found a pair of Ulysses Butterflies fluttering around the Zone – attracted to flowers planted specifically to entice these beautiful insects. Such a treat to see them.
We had booked the Toyota Landcruiser in for its 100,000 km service and so dropped it into the workshop while we went into the city.
The service did not reveal anything untoward on the car and gave us peace of mind for the next few weeks. We have booked it back in to get new shocks when we return to Cairns at the end of the month.