Cooktown to Mareeba

We moved on again today, leaving behind the historic town of Cooktown. It has been wonderful to come back to a lovely little town and confirm my thoughts from last year.

As we left town, we took advantage of the discounted fuel available by using our Big 4 membership card. It does add up more so than the Woolworths and Coles discounts as the card cost is not that high and we have already recouped the cost in staying at Big 4 Caravan Parks.

Our destination for the day was Mareeba, but before there we had a few small communities to go through. Our track was along the Mulligan Highway to Lakeland.  

We stopped at Black Mountain National Park is home to an amazing imposing mountain of black granite that was formed by a freak of geology back when this area was active volcanically. 30kms south of Cooktown they present an eerie feel as you get closer towards the lookout.  The look is actually down to the moss that grows on the rocks.  This area has a reputation both aboriginal and modern for people disappearing.  One can literally slip between the rocks and descend into the mountain never to be seen again.

At the Lakeland  BP Roadhouse, we had a magnificent cappuccino made using local Laura Valley coffee. It was beautifully made and the flavour was great. We have encountered many variations of coffee recently.

The next stop was 'Bob's Lookout' on the top of the Desailly Range which offers incredible views of the mountains in the surrounding area. Also, it was very evident where Lakeland was due to the large green irrigated patch near the village. This lookout is second in height to Mount Kosciusko in southern NSW, so we are informed.

From the lookout we travelled along passing by a constantly changing landscape. We made our lunch stop at Mount Mulligan. An interesting area to read about. 

As we drove closer to Mareeba, we could see smoke arising from a bushfire that we had heard about on the car radio. Late in the evening it had flared up lighting the sky with an orange glow.

Finally we arrived in Mareeba and booked into the unusual Riverside Caravan Park. The main reason we are here is to have the Mazda serviced tomorrow. The Riverside Caravan Park is very different in that it not a high standard although very clean. The owner/manager, Raymond, is a real character. He has been here 4 years and is attempting to upgrade the park. He has travelled the world and lived in Texas, USA., for some years. He, and everything, is very casual.

After setting up, we went for a drive to the Tourist Information Centre to get some information. Then a quick visit to Coffee Works. Just a quick look and no coffees there. 

Nest we drove out to Granite Gorge Nature Park. I stayed there last year and just wanted to show Prue the sights of the area. We then drove a different road out to the highway and returned, passing the Mareeba Airport.

So ended another day of moving to another destination.