Last
night we stopped at Mt Carbine Caravan Park after leaving Trinnity
Motorcycles fairly late in the afternoon. Got new chains and cogs,
oil changes and back tyre on my bike and a light bulb for Scott's bike.
Headed
up the lush tropical rainforest in the Kuranda ranges onto the tablelands to
Mareeba, Mt Molloy and stopping at Mt carbine Caravan Park. The
people here claim that in the area are 295 different birds. We could
see the galahs, and bower birds and were greeted with loud bird calls
at sunrise.
There
is an old tungsten mine along the road which they are going to
re-open, but first they are going through the tailings to remove the
tungsten that was left behind last time. We had dinner at the pub
and they had a tungsten rock on the counter not very big but very
heavy.
The
Mulligan highway heading to Cooktown winds and weaves it way over
many mountain ranges of open Savannah. It is mostly in really good
condition most of it having been re-sealed fairly recently. We could
see that we were going to run into rain so stopped and put on our
rain gear. Didn't matter though coz it is still so warm. The
animals seem to come out to play in the rain, an emu wanted to race
down the road, kangaroos were either on the side of the road or
crossing and many cattle grazing the side of the road. At the pub
last night one of the road train drivers stopped and asked if we were
traveling at night, he was warning us of the cattle on the road.
Very good of him.
Stopped
for breakfast at the Palmer River roadhouse. The Palmer River
Goldfield was once Australia's richest alluvial fields which led to
Queensland's largest gold rush in 1872. Went by the Black Mountains
which is steeped in myths and legends.
Got to Cooktown and went up to grassy hill upon which Captain James Cook
stood to view with uneasiness the predicament their ship Endeavour
was in, they ran aground the Great Barrier Reef and badly damaged
the hull. To avloid sinking, over 50 tonnes of stores had to be off
loaded in order the free Endeavour from the reef. Cook needed safe
waters, so sailed his ship into the closest river he could find.
This river he named Endeavour.
Once
we got back down nearly to Mt Molloy we came across another accident.
This vehicle has passed us by when we stopped for Scott to have a
look in the creek for a rock of gold. It looked as if the driver may
have gone to sleep and hit a bank on the opposite side of the road
and then rolled. It was a mess. The passenger was out and was ok
but sounds like the driver was not going to make it. We left the
scene before the ambulance and fire engine got there and it was
raining again and there were enough people there. We heard later that the driver died in hospital.
We
had another mountain range to come down to the coast at Mossman and
then ride down the coast to toward Cairns. Stopped for the night
right on the coast at Ellis Beach in a cute little Bungalow with the
sea just metres away and dinner across the road. Just perfect.
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| light house Cooktown |
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| cattle roaming the roadsides |
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| Bower bird hide (note all the rocks and trinkets in front, gold miners used to check these hides for gold) |
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| Mt Carbine Caravan Park |
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| Bob's lookout at the top of Desailly Range over remote and harsh savannah |
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| another view from lookout |
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| Canola and Bananas growing along Mulligan Highway |
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Ellis Beach Bungalow
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| Black Mountain |
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| Black Mountain |
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| Lighthouse-Cooktown |
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| Curlew |
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| Scott down in the creek looking for gold |
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| Coral sea-Cooktown |
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| Mulligan Highway |
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Endeavour River
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