Cooktown

Four hours north of Cairns on the other side of the Daintree NP is Cooktown. We took a couple of nights midweek to revisit this historic region.

We stayed in very secluded Milkwood Lodge just 1km before Cooktown centre. Plenty of birdlife, Cairns Birdwing butterflies and a resident peahen on our roof.

Cooktown ...visited by Capt Cook in June 1788 for a month, named the Endeavour River where he did repairs to the Endeavour  after hitting the reef. 

We had a lovely visit to the museum to see the Endeavour’s anchor which was retrieved in 1979 and also a canon. The museum is housed in a convent c1888.  The streetscape is very historic, as Cooks Town became the thriving frontier town for the Palmer River Goldrush in the 1870s some 100km further east.

Hand carved curbing  lines all the streets

We drove up to the lookout on Grassy Hill

Walked through the Botanical Gardens to Finch Beach, 

explored Archer Point, and revisited Black Mountain NP 

and Endeavour Falls on the upper reaches of the Endeavour River.

A lovely lunch at the historic Palmer River Roadhouse and a scenic drive back home over the mountains via Julatten and Port Douglas finished off a great mini break.