We take the short drive from Cooktown, Qld to have lunch at the famous Lion’s Den Hotel. It is a curiosity pub of the highest order. Set on the banks of the Little Annan River the back paddock is spacious and available to campers for a small fee. The pub has been operating since the tin mining days of the 1880’s when the miners would record their beer tab on the walls. Tourists still write notes on the walls. Hanging from the ceiling there are: shark jaws, cattle skulls, T shirts, bras, g strings, ski goggles, caps, miners hard hats, coconuts, a guitar, snake skins, a set of traffic lights, a snowboard, thongs and a thousand other things. There’s even a mural made from beer bottle tops. We should have ordered the pizza but the beer is icy cold.

As we drink in the surroundings I can’t help but hear a gaggle of grey nomads sharing stories at a nearby table…”and don’t go to the toilet in the bush or you’ll get leeches on your bum”!