Today we are up early as I want to try and visit Cooktown. Now I should let you know I have this absolute hatred of going over the same road twice. Fortunately there are two ways to get to Cooktown. The inland road and the coast road. The inland road is about 300km of regular country highway. The coast road is more interesting.
Firstly we cross the Daintree River by Ferry (punt), then drive up through the Daintree rainforest and up to Cape Tribulation. The talk about the Daintree being the place where the rainforest meets the ocean could not be more true. Cape Trib is nice, but is a little bit of an anti-climax. Anyway from here is where it gets really interesting, it is a 30km 4×4 road called the Bloomfield Track (It’s better than a track, so I’ll call it a 4×4 road). Most of it is ok and I’m sure a few 2wd have made it through. There are a few creek crossings, but the deepest was only probably 20-30cm (it is towards the end of the dry season). One of the issues, and the reason I didn’t want to take the van is the there are some really steep climbs and descents. I think the largest was signposted at 31 degrees, doesn’t sound like much, but it sure looks steep when you are on it.
Cape Trib 
Cape Trib, not sure what the fuss is about?
We pass quite a few vehicles on the road, with a few towing camper trailers. After about an hour we make it back to the bitumen.
All up with a few stops along the way it we arrive in Cooktown about 4hr later. Lunch at the local Fish and Chip shop on the river.
Then a quick trip up to the lookout, which is fantastic, and a driving tour around town. We wanted to go to the Cook Museum, but it’s closed today as apparently the 1st of October is the start of their “Low season”. It gets too hot up here so all the grey nomads from down south start heading home around this time.
In fact when we pulled into the van park here at Newell Beach yesterday, we parked up alongside an older guy from Melbourne. He’d been here for several month but he was heading home today.
It is just over 3hrs to get back on the inland road, so we make tracks. Not far from Cooktown we stop at this amazing mountain called Mt Black. It is just millions of large black boulders piled up, as if someone had placed them there. Some of them larger than cars. I’ll post the photo rather than explain the process myself.
The scenery on the way back could not have been any more different that the rainforest on the way up. It’s hard to believe they are only a 100km or so away from each other. Massive valleys of arid woodland and grazing country.
We finally make it back at about 5:30 and I’ve got to admit I’m a bit stuffed.
Pizzas from the Takeway next door for dinner then to sleep.
Tomorrow we will quickly visit Port Douglas, stock up on some groceries. And start to head inland
Postscript.
When researching this loop, at the end of the Bloomfield track you need to cross the Bloomfield river. Street View has an image of this and shows a concrete causeway. Some have reported this to be a bit of a challenging crossing, often with crocs, but that’s mostly in the wet season, so I thought it should be OK and look something like the first photo. Although the YouTube video did leave a possible concern.
Imagine my surprise when we arrived at the river and saw this. Built it 2014 apparently, so not particularly new. I was a little disappointed.
