2010/10 Australia trip - Mt Cook and Endeavour River |
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We drove around looking for the trail head to Mount Cook, the small mountain that dominates Cooktown. The plan was for me to set off from the campground in the early hours to climb it the next day.
Tuesday October 19th
I was up before dawn, not hard when our bird alarms go off so early. The day was warm and windy, and I had a half hour walk to the climb. The trail had an easy beginning, then there was a warning that the trail is “indistinct” and that navigational skills are necessary. The coastal vegetation changed to rain forest, dotted with massive granite boulders. 
The trail was marked with small arrows tacked to trees, and it was easy to lose the trail then have to backtrack and look for the arrows. Even when I could find the trail it wasn’t too easy: see the picture to the right.
The trail wound around the back of the mountain, high above the sea, and came out eventually to a platform overlooking the coast south of town, and the Annan river estuary. There was no sign of habitation. We’d be crossing the Annan and those mountains ranges the next day on our way to Cape Tribulation.
I was still about an hour from the top and Sandie was going to be waiting for me at the bottom, so I didn’t do the rest; most of the trail seemed to be much the same anyway. On the way down, I saw no arrows and managed to completely 
lose the trail, and had to bushwhack my way back to it, harder than I thought through all those branches and vines. I whacked one of my camera lenses while climbing down; fortunately they all have a neutral filter protecting the lens glass.
We booked up for a cruise up the Endeavour River, named after Cook’s ship. This brahminy kite was hovering over us at the wharf. There was only one other passenger, and Lyle and Renee, an Estonian, took us out to the harbour’s edge giving us some of Cooktown’s history. Renee was responsible for showing us their collection of specimens, including this head from a small estuarine crocodile, a saltie.
Then Lyle took us up the river, showing us the different kinds of mangroves that line its banks. He also found three crocs for us, a small one mostly hidden by the mangroves, a good sized one, sprawled out and ignoring us, and a monster that was swimming in the river, ready to take on the boat if need be. All in all, it was a good reminder not to swim in the area.