I have  wanted to visit Cooktown for as long as I can remember. I’m not a Captain Cook oficionado, but I have read a lot about him and his travels. His journey to Australia was epic and his ships stranding on the reef off Cooktown is a central part of his and the Australian story.

As well as my interest in Captain Cook, a trip to Cooktown provides a reason to travel through  the Daintree which is a stunning part of Australia’s landscape. To get to Cooktown from Port Douglas also took as over the Bloomfield Track which in a our previous visit to the Daintree we hadn’t taken.

Cooktown in a day makes for a long day, but we found a small tour that fitted the bill. Run by Dale Forsyth, his Air s to Cooktown 4WD Tours is his personally curated way to see the region. Our pick up at 7.45am, seemed early to us, but for those on the tour from Cairns, their trip had started an hour or so earlier.

The Daintree is north of Port Douglas and covers the area from the Daintree River to Cooktown. Bounded in one side by the sea and the other the Great Dividing Range. It is dense rainforest said to be amongst the oldest in the world.

We’d seen the Daintree on a previous visit  and had taken the opportunity on that occasion to visit the Mossman Gorge, so we were not disappointed that our first stop was the vehicle ferry across the Daintree River. To do the journey in a day a visit to the stunning Mosman Gorge is really a step too far. The ferry is the only connection to the small population that lives in the region. Without it there is a very long and difficult drive that was effectively the route of the remainder of our tour.

Our first stop was the delightful Thornton Beach.
We had it to ourselves. It’s hard to know where to look once you walk through the dense rainforest and reach the beach.  Out to sea to a small island, the rolling waves that hit the beach, along the coast or back to Thornton Peak.
From there it was north and more stunning views before we started on The Bloomfield Track. I’m glad someone experienced in 4 wheel driving was at the wheel , and that we could just enjoy the views of this rugged terrain.

The story of the building of the road through the Daintree and Bloomfield Track was controversial, as it traversed what was until then largely untouched wilderness.  Its construction completed in 1984 was the subject of many protests.

The track provides an incredible opportunity to see the Daintree between Cape Tribulation and Cooktown. It traverses both the Donovan and Cowie Ranges. The compromise with environmentalists was that switchbacks would be kept to a minimum, meaning that  gradients on some parts of the track through the ranges reach 30%.

We had glimpses of the secluded Cowie Beach, crossed multiple creeks as well as, the larger Bloomfield and Annan Rivers. Driving along the track the evidence of the floods associated with Cyclone Jasper were evident.  The rivers and creeks had flooded knocking over all in its way including massive trees,  and the forest undergrowth. It had also destroyed the Wujal Wujal Art Centre and the community’s sports fields. There was no evidence of the art centre and the sports fields were just wasteland.

We had a short stop at the famous Lions Den Hotel. It was thriving and definitely worth the visit. Lunch looked good , but it was a bit early for us and we had booked for lunch in Cooktown.

From there it was onto the Mulligan Highway and past the amazing Black Mountain, before arriving in Cooktown.
Our first stop in Cooktown was the lookout on top of Grassy Hill which Captain Cook had visited. Cook’s  visit was to have his artists draw what they saw so that once their boat was repaired, they could navigate safely through the reefs that had bought them unstuck on their voyage. The 360 views from the lookout show the reefs that had caused Cook so much difficulty as well as then the Endeavour River and township. It was also an opportunity to be pictured alongside the now decommissioned lighthouse.  We then went down to the River’s edge where Cook’s Endeavour was  moored for the necessary repairs.  It’s a flat piece of land which was apparently a place that the local indigenous communities used as a meeting place to sort out their differences. They spent around 7 weeks fixing the boat before continuing their voyage. Looking out from the landing place across the bay it was easy to imagine what they would have seen.

We had lunch at the Sovereign Resort Hotel, which for my favourite person and I were the most fabulous prawns, served just with tartare sauce and lemon. My favourite person could not eat all of hers so she shared the reminder with our  tour party, resulting I think, in food envy on their part. Washed down with a very well priced Chardonnay we were delighted.

It was a brief stop before we were off to the James Cook Museum which is  in a converted convent. The cook memorabilia includes the anchor thrown over board to help raise the Endevour off the reef. There is also quite a lot about the old convent. It was a well spent 45 minutes.

From there we started the long journey home which was inland over the Great Dividing Range along the Mulligan Highway.

It was a memorable but long drive. We stopped at the Black Mountain lookout. Black Mountain is  the result of the earth’s plates crashing together and throwing magma into the air which solidified into huge boulders. It’s quite incredible and has huge cultural significance to the Kuku Yalanji people, who refer to the mountains as Kalkajaka or place of the spear. There are also more than one or two mysteries associated with the site for Europeans as well. We just marvelled at the site of these lichen covered rocks and the fig trees that are sporadically located on the mountains.

From there we progressed along the Mulligan Highway over the Great Dividing Range. It was a reminder of how the terrain changes so rapidly. We’d exited rainforest and were now in the country side we more usually associate with Australian bushland – red dirt, eucalypts mainly and sun and sky rather than an overhead canopy of rainforest.

Our next stop was the Palmer River Roadhouse which was quintessential Australia. A fuel stop, pub, and campsite on the banks of the river. The river was a major goldfield in the 1870s.

From there our last stop was a lookout to take in the stunning views of the Desailly Range. Our tour host suggested it might be the most stunning view of the day. He could also have said, he’d kept the best until last and wouldn’t have been far wrong. The Views were stunning.

Another hour or so and we were dropped back to Port Douglas, but not before we crossed over the Great Dividing Range and back into the rainforest.