Fully Cooked in Cooktown

'Captain Cook, chased a chook, all around Australia. Lost his pants in the middle of France, and found them in Tasmania.' So we are told in the Cooktown Museum. Must be true, because Cooktown is all about Cook, and the time he spent here in 1770.

He'd pranged his boat near Cape Tribulation and managed to get it to the Endeavour River here, where he was able to park it at a suitable angle against the bank, and carry out repairs.










Cooktown today is a very pleasant and relaxed little town, ideal for spending an easy day at the end of a Far North Queensland bus tour. The day tripper people got only an hour here - the bus driver called them the 'half Cooked'. The two- and three-day people like us got a whole day (the 'fully Cooked').


There are nice cafes and a good Bowlo. There's an excellent Botanic Garden, plus Cook's Lookout on Grassy Hill. And that excellent museum.



The museum also tells you all about the original inhabitants of the area, and the usual quota of misunderstandings and reconciliations that took place during his stay.

Cooktown has a a souvenir shop or two as well. There's a rather nice one where you can buy an unfriendly life sized crocodile.

Through the Daintree to Cooktown

We did a three-day 4WD  bus tour from Cairns to Cooktown and back via the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation. Here's driver Matthew leaning nonchalantly against his bus. (He did nonchalant rather well.)

There were kangaroo pettings, rainforest walks, swims in crocodile-free swimming holes, and a billy tea swinging demonstration.

We did appreciate very much a nice little tropical fruit-tasting session, where driver Matthew gave us samples of several exotic tropical fruits which are nowadays grown locally. I'd never heard of some of them (like the chocolate pudding dessert fruit, or the delicious chiku). But I was well aware of jackfruit, custard apple, and pineapple!

There was also a mandatory visit to an iconic outback pub or two.