Day 48 Wednesday July 23rd 2014 Cooktown

It has been raining since the wee hours. But a little rain won’t stop us touring. Keatings Lagoon which is a paperbark swamp filled with waterlilies and crocodiles, of course. There is a croc warning sign telling us not to go near the water’s edge, yet the dirt path is so close that the water is lapping! We walk very quickly and pray.

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Black Mountain is a huge mound of black volcanic rocks with nothing growing on it except fig trees that have long enough roots to find nutrients, somewhere. We have the time to explore Little Annan Gorge. The rocks look as though they’ve been sliced with an angle grinder. This causeway must be terrifying in the wet season. Even today the water is gushing with frightening force.

We 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 available to campers. It 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 today. From the ceiling hangs all sundry: 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 cold.    

Towing Kms: 0