We are on our 3rd glorious night tonight at the Lions Den Hotel at Helenvale, just south of Cooktown. We got in late Thursday afternoon, introduced ourselves to the Nulleys and set up camp.
I thought waking up to Mt Molloy's fog was an anomaly but I was mistaken, the fog on Friday morning was just as thick and everything was just as sodden. It cleared rather late also, with the sun not peeking through until around 10am. Geoff woke up with a rather crook stomach (no, not alcohol related) so Carolyn and I caught up on a little hand washing of laundry while waiting for him to feel well enough to daytrip to Cooktown. This suited the girls fine as we couldn't tear them away from the playground even if we tried.
We had an explore around the campground and ended up down at the creek where we met up with another family holidaying, small world, the father worked with my brother at Cairns Port Authority and they know each other well.
We left around 11am and headed straight up to the Botanic Gardens. Geoff, Erin and I had visited there last year (April) but I was keen for a revisit and Carolyn hadn't been there before. We also walked to Finch Bay which we ran out of time for last year, very pretty spot. We stocked up at the IGA and picked up fuel before heading back to camp for a Roast Beef in the Cobb oven, beautiful.
Today, Geoff and Terry made a quick trip to Cooktown to pick up some bolts for their camper so that it wouldn't fall of its hitch, the heads of their bolts had almost completely sheared off from hitting the road on a previous trips, not realised until now, very lucky. No fog this morning, but the dew was still very heavy.
When they returned we set off to drive the Bloomfield Track and visit Cape Tribulation for a bit of rainforest experience. When we drove it last year, the creek crossings were plentiful and somewhat deeper than what we experienced this trip. A bit of a let down, but a good drive none-the-less, lots of dust and a few major potholes. We stopped at Bloomfield Falls for a photo op, then had a picnic lunch by Woobadda Creek and watched heaps of 4wds and a few trail bikes cross the creek before setting across it ourselves. Tough life, isn't it?
Had to get our nature fix and stopped at the Kulki walk at the northern end of Daintree NP to see the beach followed by the Marrdja walk, further south, to do the rainforest walk, well worth it. Erin did a fantastic David Attenborough impersonation reading all the information signs with the voice and hand actions, all on video of course, to be shown at her 21st. Might even have to send it to Funniest Home Videos.
We now have our "I survived the Bloomfield Track and made it to the Lion's Den Hotel" stickers and Erin is looking everywhere for a sticker that says "I survived a trip with my parents". If you know where to get one, please let us know.
Tonight we discussed our next destination as we had decided against going up the Cape, okay, maybe that was me. Although the roads are reportedly brilliant at the moment, we weren't as prepared as we'd like, food-wise, and wanted to spend a bit more time with our travelling companions and they didn't have time to go further north. We'll make time to go another time, hopefully with them next year, or so, always better with friends.
