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Greetings
from Cooktown, FNQ (Far North Queensland for the uninitiated!). It is
named in honour of Captain Cook whose ship Endeavour limped here
after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef just south of here. If
Cook hadn't successfully repaired his ship then Australians would probably
be speaking French now!
Cooktown
Harbour is small and estuarine - complete with crocodiles. We arrived
at low water springs with a blustery NE wind creating a nasty chop. After
trying to anchor 3 times (each time ending up on the sandbank!), the local
onlookers took pity on us... We are now tied up alongside a fishing boat!
We now have sympathy with Captain Cook's plight!
It's been
a slow haul along the Queensland coast. We have been day sailing with
lots of stops, averaging around 20 miles a day. With over 1,000 miles
still to go to Darwin, I think we need to get our skates on - cyclone
season is creeping up on us!
Not to bore
you with a blow-by-blow account (the photos show a good cross-section
of our travels), I thought that I would just put together a synopsis of
the top six places we liked:
- Bowen
- a sleepy little town, waiting for the good times to happen. Lovely
beaches, a happy-go-lucky attitude, the mining boom may or may not happen
here!
- Magnetic
Island - good anchorage, unpretentious, lovely walks, a lovely place
just to chill -so we did!
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- Cid Harbour
- the best anchorage in the Whitsunday Islands, great walk to the summit,
beaches OK, lovely surroundings - we came back here three times on our
trip around the Islands.
- Cairns
- a town, with lots going on and good facilities. Welcoming (we stayed
three weeks, mainly to repair our refrigeration), and grew to love the
place.
- Low Isles
- best snorkelling so far - took us back to the islands of the Pacific
and Caribbean.
- Hinchinbrook
- visually a spectacular island, unfortunately most of it is inaccessible.
With a little imagination from the Department of Parks and Wildlife
this could be turned into a great getaway holiday destination for walks
and outdoorsy types.
In general
we feel that a bit of tourist development would go a long way and could
be done without risk to the environment. There seems to be a policy of
herding everyone to the major spots (Whitsunday Island, Airlie Beach and
the Cairns-to-Cape Tribulation strip). The rest, it seems, pick up a few
crumbs and battle with the environmentalists to develop/expand their facilities.
Commercial fishing could also be expanded with better infrastructure at
the ports and better use of trains to move freight speedily. (It took
a week to get the parts for our fridge from Brisbane to Cairns!) The overriding
impression on our slow trip north is that there are thousands of miles
of coastline with no signs of human habitation!
Sailing does
get you close to the creatures of the deep. Whales and dolphins were common
sights - although not very easy to photograph! The Great Barrier Reef
snorkelling has been good and the giant clams have been spectacular. We
also picked up 4 Remora on our trip. These amazing fish (about 60cm long)
have evolved a special gill on the top of their heads, with which they
can adhere to moving objects, normally whales and large fish, although
the hull of a boat is just as good - as long as you feed them, they will
stay with you! We've seen koalas, platypuses, kangaroos-a-plenty and reptiles
of various sorts. No sharks or crocs yet! Fishing has not been successful
and I am planning a trip to the local bait shop to pick up some tips!
We will be
heading north again shortly around Cape York, across the Gulf of Carpentaria
and past Arnhem Land - the next major urban area will be Darwin where
we are due by 1st December. From here to Darwin (covering tens of thousand
square miles) is mainly bush, Aboriginal land, and crocodile country.
Mmm interesting!
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