Round Australia By Motorbike: Cape York

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.