In the morning after our stay at Heritage Lodge we were taken for a stroll on Cape Tribulation Beach. As your history studies have no doubt told you, this was named by Captain Cook, when he was only a Lieutenant, after his ship struck a reef. The beach was very pleasant, and we all heeded the warning to stay at least 5 metres from the water's edge in case of crocodiles.
Bill wasn't the only bird nerd on the tour. Ashley and his wife, Robyn, were really serious about birds. Ashley has a web site “aussiebirder”. They could be a little bit intense, but now and then it was helpful to have someone who could identify a bird we had not seen clearly.
Oddly enough, Ashley didn't spot the birds flying acrobatically to the South of the beach. Bill's photos confirmed that they were swifts or swiftlets, which narrows it down to only 6 possible species. By the parked bus Ashley and Robyn were debating which honeyeater they had seen. By a happy accident Bill had a photo that revealed enough detail to confirm it as a Yellow-spotted.
Cape Tribulation Beach
The Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
After the beach walk we settled down for some real far-North driving. The tour itinerary describes the Bloomfield Track as “infamous”. As we were near the end of the dry season the surface wasn't too bad and the creek crossings not too deep. But we could see why the road would be closed in the wet season.
The scenery was always worth watching, but if you wanted to check your emails the bus had wi-fi. We guess that it was via satellite because cellphone coverage North of Cairns is very restricted.
Another piece of technology in the bus was a 'road cam'. The view straight ahead was displayed on a screen so that we passengers could see ahead. It's not something that either of us had wished for on previous bus journeys, but it was a nice extra perspective.
Towards the end of the morning we stopped at the Bloomfield Falls. The tour information described a 1km walk over a rough, stony creek bed. The reality was about 100m across rocky ground to a good viewpoint, with the falls about another 200m. We admired the waterfall, took our photos and returned to the bus.
Lunch was at the Lions Den Hotel. Shame about the missing apostrophe. If you are saying to yourself that there are no lions in Australia, you are quite right. The hotel is named after the nearby Lions Den tin mine. The mine was named because of a miner named Daniel. Upon seeing Daniel standing in the opening of the tunnel, the owner of the mine characterized him as Daniel in the Lions Den, and the name took to the mine.
The pub is genuinely old for this part of the world, having been founded in 1875. It makes much of its dated appearance, with walls covered in notes left by the miners of the 18th Century. But the food and service were entirely modern.
Also outside the pub, a beautiful but so far unidentified flower. If you can help with ID please leave a comment.
Cooktown takes its name from being the place where Cook beached his ship for repairs in 1770. It is a major town on the Cape York Peninsula, despite having a population of fewer than 3,000. It has a good museum and very nice Botanic Gardens.
From Cooktown the tour took us to the Old Laura Homestead, a cattle station from the early years of European settlement. Then on to Split Rock and some Aboriginal rock art. The art was not as protected from the elements as the examples we saw in Kakadu in 2009, so the images were less distinct. However, there were helpful information signs at the site so we could get an understanding of what we were seeing.
To minimise the risk of devastating bush fires, the Aboriginal people start "cold fires" to remove the underbrush. There is a fuller explanation here.
By now we were getting used to the red earth roads and creek crossings. The bush was much more open here than in the Daintree area, and amongst the gum trees were many mounds of the magnetic termite, Amitermes meridionalis. The colony builds mounds with a North-South alignment, so that it makes most use of the morning and evening sun, while minimising the risk of overheating at midday.
We should have had a compass to check the accuracy of the alignment. 😏
It is impossible to photograph the bus fording a creek from the inside, but here is a random vehicle navigating the Kalpowar Crossing.
We arrived at Lotus Bird Lodge in good time for a pre-dinner drink.
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