Cooktown is four hours drive north of Cairns in Far North Queensland Australia, there are two roads from Cairns the coast road and the inland road.

The coast road is a more scenic route, involves a ferry, river crossing and gravel roads and is best undertaken in a 4WD.

The inland road is now mostly bitumen and can be driven with common sense in almost any car, most locals take this road when going to so called civilisation.

Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, well almost, it's tucked just round the corner protected from the rough seas and ocean winds.

Cooktown was built as a port supplying the gold fields, if it were to be built today it most likely would be built around Finch Bay a kilometre or so east with a fantastic beach and views of the Great Barrier Reef, as it is, it is still paradise with a fantastic beach a kilometre or so east.

It is easy to see how Cooktown developed, first Captain Cook found a sheltered spot to repair his barque Endeavour in 1770 then a hundred years later they wanted a port to supplying the gold fields, the place Cook found in 1770 was ideal.

Walk up from the wharf and you can see how the town expanded, Charlotte Street first with pubs and other necessary establishments, camps all round with chinese gardens etc following soon after.

Then the gold ran out and Cooktown all but died for another hundred years until the 4WD crowd found the place. In those a 4WD was almost a necessity despite the fact most locals still drove normal cars with a little intelligence. Now with black top almost all the way south the white sports saloons are taking over.

Once you get here what do you do? Good question, I stayed and enjoyed a way of life hard to find elsewhere.  

 

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