TUESDAY 30 JUNE     COOKTOWN

We had a touring day – another fine, sunny day.

Took a picnic lunch and drove to Keatings Lagoon, beside the main road, between the town and the Annan River. Purpose – bird watching. Took a short road from the main road to the carpark, then walked the 800metre track, via the bird hide, to its end at a picnic point.

We made slow progress, stopping to look at birds in the bush, through the binoculars, pointing them out to each other, and slowly seeing how close we could get, to identify same.

At one point, whilst doing this, we were rushed at by a snake – maybe a metre long, thin, with a browny top and lime yellow belly. It stopped short of us – mind you, we skipped back pretty fast – then it waited by the track as we walked quickly past, as far from it as the vegetation would allow. Hoped it might prefer us to speed away, rather than try to inch past! It was a pretty aggressive message and we got a fright. Another life lesson – it is best to lower binoculars from eyes, when advancing upon a bird, and pay some attention to the ground level as well as the treetops.

At the Lagoon, we saw Jacana birds, amongst others. These birds have huge feet and can walk on slightly submerged lily leaves, and the like – giving them the appearance of walking on water. Hence, they are also called Jesus birds. Overall, there was not the populations of water birds here that I had expected.

Back to Truck and our next stop – at Black Mountain. Crossed back over that single lane bridge over the Annan, on the way.

At Black Mountain, we looked at the information boards, but did not go scrambling up amongst the boulders. The mountain consists of large, loose, jumbled, granite boulders; a type of algae growing on their surface makes them look black. As there is no soil or similar between the rocks, it looks a bit like some giant hands have dumped them there. I found it an eerily unpleasant place and can see why the legends of lost people and the like have grown up. Apparently, there are big hollows, caves and passages amongst the jumbled boulders that might account for some of the strange noises that have been heard here, and maybe the missing people also. I didn’t like it at all!

We drove on to the “little” Annan River, which is simply that river, but in a smaller form, where the road crosses it, some 30kms from Cooktown. I wanted to come here to look at the falls, upstream from the bridge, and the gorge, downstream. This was a pleasant place, with a  few potentially good bush camp spots. We had our lunch there and walked to both features. The gorge is a very narrow little chasm through the rock.

Between the Little Annan and Black Mountain is where the Bloomfield Track route emerges onto the main road. A little way along this road – here the Helenvale Road – is the Lions Den Hotel. This hotel dates from the Palmer River gold rush days, and is a “must do” for travellers on the Bloomfield Track – and for other travellers in these parts. We each had a beer – expensive at $6.60 for us both – but we can now say we’ve had a drink at the iconic Lions Den Hotel!

We saw a big, thick, slaty coloured python (we think) sunbaking by the side of the road near the Lions Den.

It has been very much a wildlife day, today. This morning, I got a real fright when I went to open the back door of Truck. That recessed handle area is an attractive hidey place for all sorts of undesirables, it seems – in this instance, one nasty looking spider that did not like being disturbed! Got to remember to be careful in the future, and look first before going to open door.

Back in Cooktown, I had another film processed – from the “instant” camera – because the shop here seems to do such a good job. Having had some batches of photos processed rather unsatisfactorily, I am a bit fussy these days. The business is for sale for $130,000, as the owner wants to retire. That seems a lot to me, for a place where the trade has got to be very seasonal, but he says his profit is about $50,000 a year.

I bought some meat for tea and a few other grocery items.

Tea was camp-made hamburgers.

The wind that was around earlier in the day dropped in the afternoon. There were many flying ant type bugs around the camp, so many that we sat out in darkness after tea, as they were everywhere and the light brought them in. Seems the wind serves some purpose – what a choice: a noisy gale that threatens to bring down trees, or a plague of bugs!