Awesome Aussie Life: Day 3

Day 3 (Destination - Lakefield National Park)

It was a peaceful night after all, we woke early and packed up so we could get on the road. We are heading into Lakefield National Park today and eagerly awaiting the feeling that we are away from civilization and really beginning this epic adventure.

We stopped at Black Mountain for a few photos. An interesting landscape with lots of black rocks and very little green vegetation.

We continued on to Cooktown where we went to the lookout which provides a magnificent view across Cooktown and beyond, well worth the stop. We also had a look around Centenary Park and the shorefront area of Cooktown where there are several monuments and memorials marking the landing of the Endeavour and Captain Cook. Not much was open as it was a Sunday but we did find a small café offering coffee and some snacks for morning tea.

Cooktown lookout

Where the Endeavour landed on the beach

Captain Cook memorial

We headed north toward Hopevale, passing a Commodore sitting on the side of the road which had clearly been there for quite some time as it was covered in a thick coating of red dirt - again stopping for a photo.

Not much further on and we were surprised to find beautiful new bitumen roads laid out ahead of us along Battlecamp Road - this we were not expecting. It was broken up with intermittent sections of dirt road every 10-15 kms which were corrugated and we did have to swerve to avoid a few hidden dust holes, still we were able to average about 80km/hr.

Battlecamp Road - good dirt section


Battlecamp Road - bitumen section

Creek crossing along Battlecamp road with bull to pass

Not sure whether he was happy to see us or not

We stopped briefly at Isabella Falls which were just off the side of the road and not running enough to be very spectacular, but pretty just the same. Once we turned into Lakefield NP there was no more bitumen but the roads weren't too bad.

Isabella Falls

We stopped at Old Laura Homestead which was interesting - worth the stop - before continuing the short distance to our campsite at Six Mile Waterhole. Passing the Lakefield Ranger on the way in, he told us we were about a month too early for good fishing. They don't start biting until it warms up more apparently.

Old Laura Homestead

Lakefield National Park is one of the few NP you can actually fish within. Six Mile was a lonely desolate sort of place, very dry and dusty. We camped beside the river, and although we didn't see any, would've been full of crocodiles. Luckily the river bank was quite high and steep. We tried our hand at fishing, only catching a stick and several snags, and loosing 2 good lures in the process, before giving up. The temperature seems to have suddenly increased dramatically. It's not humid surprisingly, just hot dry and windy. I decided to wash some clothes in a bucket of water and they only took about an hour to dry. The day ended after hunting around for some firewood, building a camp fire, cooking/eating dinner and playing a couple rounds of Uno. Another early night for us.