17th May - Cooktown - museum - shopping - extreme hospitality - Lizard Island

Friday 17^th May

Cooktown wasn’t necessarily on our agenda.  But how lucky that we called in to this far northern outpost.  Apart from the fact that we had a most frabjous serendipitous day, we were also very good for the local economy – I bought a huge amount of groceries in the IGA.  We probably won’t get to a shop for another 20 days and we quite obviously didn’t have enough fresh food.  We would have got heartily sick of baked beans, tuna and weetbix…

We anchored near a little jetty/café arrangement, where we could tie up the dinghy and have a sustaining hamburger, then we set off into town, about ten minutes walk.  Along the way we met some tourists taking photos of each other so I offered to take a photo of the two of them together, as you do… They in turn took one of Pete and me with our friend James.  This will probably be the second most touristy photo you will ever see of us – No #1 being the one on the Skyrail.

Cooktown is small, with a population of 2,000, and has many houses like this one, with a FOR SALE sign:

It also has some majestic buildings in the main street, probably from the Gold Rush era.

However we also noticed, up on the hill, what looked to be a splendid wooden pole house overlook in the river from a big bush block.  We gawked a bit then went on to the IGA, where we filled Pete’s backpack with 20 kilos of food, and mine with about 6.  We got very hot and weary walking back to the boat…

Our plan was to unload the food then go back into town to look at the James Cook Museum (our friend James is ubiquitous in his namesake town.)  It was so hot, and we were so discombobulated from our exertions, that we didn’t actually get off the boat again until nearly four.  And the museum, of course, closed at four…

When we got there the door was still open so we went in, a bit tentatively, and found a very nice National Trust woman, who said that if we would just like to make a small donation we could have a quick look around.  This is my sort of museum style, a quick look around, so I enjoyed this very much.  The museum had been a convent and there were photos of the Irish nuns, in their thick black habits.  Oh how they must have suffered in the heat… One of he older ones, so he caption read, spent most of her time in the chapel, praying for the wind to blow…

Also in the museum was a lovely woman with her two lovely daughters, aged 7 and 8.  (I can say with some authority that they were all lovely because…they are our New Best Friends Forever!!!)  The mother listened to us thanking the kind museum guide, and explaining why we couldn’t come back at 9.30 to do the museum justice.  She stepped forward and said, “Would you like me to drive you back to your boat?”  We laughed and said it was fine, we didn’t have far to go, and she said, “Well I would love to take you for a drive around Cooktown.  Please say yes!”  I had already made friends with the girls (Amber and Savannah) so all was well.  Julie’s friend Rosetta, also a relative newcomer to Cooktown, was in the front seat; we had the middle, the girls were in the back. 

The lookout is just fabulous, with 360 degree views over the ocean, Mt Cook, the Endeavour River, the town.

Julie drove us all round town, to see the girls’ school (Endeavour Christian College) and the local facilities.  (Everything in Cooktown is based on our friend James – if it’s not called Cook, it is called Endeavour.)  She had heard us asking about restaurants and said, “If you REALLY want to go to a restaurant, yes, the Italian one is fine.”  (The local police, also having  lunch at the jetty café, had told us to go to Joe the Wog for a meal…)  “But,” she continued, “Wouldn’t you rather come to our house? My husband Alistair would LOVE to meet you!” 

She was very persuasive and very soon there we were…in the beautiful wooden pole house on the hill overlooking the river… We weren’t sure that Alistair would really be all that thrilled to meet us. He works very hard as the chief doctor at the Cooktown Hospital.  But indeed he was just as wonderful, hospitable and friendly as Julie.  They have been in Australia for seven years, and are originally from Zimbabwe.  Rosetta was also persuaded to stay – of course – and we had a most delightful night sitting at the big dining table on the deck, eating delicious food and drinking Wirra Wirra Church Block – Pete had managed to find some of this splendid wine in the local bottle shop, so we were able to make a very small contribution.

Photo below - Julie and Alistair front L and R, Pete and Rosetta behind them, then the girls whose eyes are gleaming alarmingly but...I don't know why!!

Alistair drove us back to the dinghy at about 11; he was still happy and seemingly delighted to have had unexpected visitors although we KNOW he gets up at 5.00 every morning…

And today…off to Lizard Island!!!  Where we can SWIM with no fear of crocs!

Not sure about internet connections from now on...I have my fingers very much crossed...