Cooktown, Qld

The highway up to Cooktown is excellent and only 265kms from Port Douglas. Cooktown is one of those special places with a character all its own. One must hope that the developers never get their hands on it, because it has a certain colonial outpost kind of charm.

We stayed out at Endeavour River Escape, a working farm on the Endeavour River 16kms north of town. This remains one of the best farm experiences we’ve had with huge camp sites carved out of the rainforest, but don’t go fishing the crocs do get hungry up here.

In town there is nothing better than to watch the sun set over the valley from the veranda of the Top pub. Your typical Queensland pub, built of timber with the supporting beams on the outside. Up on the veranda, French doors open bedrooms up to the evening breezes. They use French doors a lot on pubs up this way. It has been explained but I can’t remember whether it was to allow horse and rider in or to keep the horse out.

There’s a park where Cook once brought the Endeavour ashore for repairs and fresh seafood is plentiful. The Cooktown Botanic Gardens are a tropical wonderland for aspiring gardeners and the Cooktown museum will keep anyone captivated for hours with its history of all the peoples that have made this place quite special. They also have the anchor that Cook left on the Great Barrier Reef after the Endeavour founded.

Now if you’re into iconic pubs, the Lions’ Den is not far out of town and is one of those crazy places where people write on the walls and leave their underwear behind. If you enjoy the odd beer under someone else’s well-worn undies, then this is the place for you.