Tuesday 16 May 2017
No early start today, 8:00am away, our first stop will be the Lion’s Den Hotel at Helensvale, we had originally planned to have an overnight here after Cape Trib and may have done so if we had done the CREB track.
The dirt road from Cape Trib to Helensvale was very uneventful, with more bitumen, and one of the [previously] better water crossings with a new raised concrete section. This a spot where we stopped on the last trip and watched a few people crossing including one van of locals who hit the water at speed and survived.
We arrived at the Lion’s Den about 11ish, so not too early for a beer – is it ever?. Unfortunately, the new owners who had only been there for a few weeks did not have draught beer on tap only bottles. They did have a reasonable Pizza menu so any early lunch and then on our way after a few of us bought souvenirs (shirts & stubby holders).
View from Cooktown Lookout
Next port of call was Cooktown, the days are starting to get warmer now, and it was a brilliant blue sky day in Cooktown.
Our plan was to go out to Cape Melville, and once again we had conflicting information about whether it was open or not, some of the locals insisting that we could get through although the roads were listed as “closed”. There are heavy fines if you are found in a National Park that is listed as closed. Checking with the National Parks assistance line we were once again disappointed to find out that the National Park was closed and we were not allowed to head out to Cape Melville. From being behind in our schedule we were now going to be ahead of schedule.
We went up to the Cooktown lookout which is a very steep climb (drive), and as I remember from last time very windy. Captain Cook came to this vantage point as well to get an overview of how he could sail out of the area, for him, with great difficulty as the prevailing winds did not provide any assistance whatsoever.
Almost went past a roadside seller of fresh seafood and prawns, needless to say, we bought a couple of kilos of prawns.
Nothing else to see here in Cooktown, so we fueled up for the next part of the journey and hit the road.
I was amazed to find that there was heaps more bitumen as we headed up towards Hann River, which has a camping area adjacent to the Servo and Roadhouse. This was another easy run, arriving at about 4:00pm. Pitched our tents and settled down for a few beverages and a relax.
Discussed where we would head the next day, north east towards Chili Beach was one of the few places that we could get to as the roads were open.
Win’s birthday today, she was too busy having a good time as I missed her whenever I tried to call when we were in mobile range which was patchy at best, c’est la vie
