Cooktown

James Cook, the finest mapmaker and navigator of his time, was the first European to sail up the east coast of Australia in 1770, and, unaware of the Great Barrier Reef, his ship Endeavor stuck fast near what is now Cooktown. After freeing the ship they made their way into here to carreen the ship and repair her. Had they not been able to Australia's history would have been very different.

His naturalist, Joseph Banks, collected botanical specimens and recorded kangaroos and many other strange animals, reporting them back to an incredulous Europe.

He climbed what is now known as Grassy Hill, which for many years now has contained a lighthouse, and observed the landscape around, a view for many miles up the Endeavor River. Cook stayed here some 77 days, meeting local Aboriginees before setting off home with accurate charts of the coast.
We visited an excellent Cook Museum, housed in a 19th Century convent, which contained cannon and anchors that Cook had to throw overboard to lighten ship dusring his stranding.

It was over 100 years later that another white settlement took place here, as a result of the discovery of gold on the Palmer River. A small community took shape, growing rapidly to service the goldfields which were inaccessible by road at that time. After the gold petered out the town survived on tin mining, and timber and cattle exporting.

The main street of the town paralels the Endeavor River for most of it's length, and the historical charm  still prevails, many of the buildings date from the mid 19th century, despite many devastating cyclones, and a fire which destroyed part of one side of the road. Last night we ate in a restaurant that was built by a Norweigan furniture maker called Seagren, built as a workshop and home above in 1880, and still as good as the day it was built.

There are many spiders in Australia, many with a bite that can cause a great deal of pain and illness such as the Redback and the Black Widow which eats the male after mating. We came across one today which while painful is a little less venomous, but rather decorous, with yellow stripes across it's back. about four inches from end to end of it's legs, it sits motionless on it's web until some unsuspecting creature touces it and it then moves rapidly to tie up the prey and consume it. Fascinating.

We move on tomorrow down the coast, offroad again for a few miles, by the time we get to our destination tomorrow we will have completed over 2300 kms (1500 miles) on gravel roads and 4 wheel drive tracks in the past ten days, quite a feat for a 14 year old car!