Isabella Falls, Cape York
Cooktown is as far north as we are travelling on Cape York. While it would be an adventure to go all the way to the tip it would also be quite a journey. A dusty one, requiring a 4WD that we’d have to hire along with camping gear. Or pay for a tour, but finding a tour for a family of six is difficult and pricey. We’ve heard the trip takes something like twenty hours. That’s a long journey to get to the sign that says you are at the northernmost point on the Australian mainland. So, it won’t be happening on this trip. At the visitor centre in Cooktown we asked about waterfalls in the area. This far north you have to be careful of crocodiles, but there are some falls that it is safe to swim at. About half an hour or so northwest of Cooktown are the Isabella Falls. 
The creek runs right across the road. There were no crocodile warning signs here and they’d told us at the visitor centre that we could swim here. We decided to play it safe and stick close to the falls just in case. 
There was plenty of climbing to do and all the kids ventured onto the ledge at the top of the falls. They stayed well back from the edge and didn’t freak mama out too much. 
JitterBug lost his second tooth, right before his eighth birthday! The adult tooth from the first tooth he lost has already grown up into the empty spot. Still can’t believe that both my boys have been over seven and a half before they lost their first tooth. The dentist is happy, though, since it gives their jaws more time to grow which means more room for adult teeth. Here’s hoping at least some of them won’t need braces. But back to the waterfall… 
Does anything make a toddler happier than playing in water? 
They all had turns in the various cracks and crevices and mini waterfalls… 
This was just over the road and the water moved so swiftly, crossing the road and into the falls. Much leaf racing and then shoe racing commenced. (Shoes were rescued before going over the edge!) 
We didn’t venture in here. No crocodile warning sign at the road, but who knows how far up the creek you’d need to go before you see one. We saw quite a few vehicles crossing this creek headed in both directions, some towing caravans. 
One happy kid after all that water play! 
Here’s one of those crocodile warning signs, this one at a different point on the road. ‘Crocodiles inhabit this area – attacks may cause injury or death.’ Nice. 
And…a tattered American flag at the side of the road. Not a current one, but one with only thirteen stars for the original colonies. Weird and random. 
We did try to see other waterfalls in the area and we were hoping to swim in some waterholes, but our plans were foiled by rain and closed roads and a lack of signage on really long dirt roads. The kids didn’t mind and were happy to go to the pool instead. Honestly they’d be happy to go from the pool at one caravan park straight to the pool at another one, but their terrible parents make them actually leave the park at times and see all the things there are to see in this country. 😉
Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse
After Mulambin we drove several days in a row to get all the way up to Cooktown. It was tiring, driving for several hours and staying for just one night at our stops along the way. Cooktown is as far north as the sealed road goes, so this is as far north as we will be going on this trip. The plan is to make our way back down the coast as far as Mackay, then we’ll head inland all the way to Uluru before going north to Darwin. 
Cooktown is where Captain Cook came ashore after his boat hit the reef and needed repair. They ended up spending seven weeks in the area. Lots of history here. We drove up Grassy Hill to the lighthouse. You can walk up, too, and do a walk around town to visit all the historic sites. We opted to drive up this hill. This is the view from one side of the hill, looking down on the town. It’s not a huge place, that road you can see with the buildings is the main road in the town. 
The lighthouse was very small, one of the smallest we’ve seen! 
The area was revamped at one point with help from the community. There are signs and plaques all over the place. Including this seemingly random rock with a dedication to Captain Cook. 
And this compass marker pointing out what lies in various directions. I told the kids to point to their favourite. SkeeterBug chose the Coral Sea, LadyBug chose Melbourne, JitterBug chose Tokyo. 
TurboBug felt left out and needed a turn too. 🙂 
The community did well to make the area surrounding the lighthouse an attractive feature for the town. The design on the walkway followed the circular path, making it look like a giant snake was painted on the path. 
Captain Cook himself climbed this hill, hoping to see a way out of the harbour without damaging his ship on the reef again. 
Insert lovely random kid pics! 
Mt. Cook is not too far away. We stayed near the base of the mountain. We didn’t do the hike since it was a four hour return. With our four kids it would have been more like six or seven! 
There were several signs like this around the area with journal excerpts from both Cook and Banks. 
Joseph Banks journal 14th June: The Captain and myself went ashore to view the Harbour and found it indeed beyond our most sanguine wishes: it was the mouth of a river. 18th July: Indians were over with us today and seemed to have lost all fear of us and become quite familiar; one of them at our desire threw his lance; it flew with a degree of swiftness and steadiness that really surprised me, never being above 4 feet from the ground and stuck deep in at a distance of 50 paces. After this they ventured on board the ship and soon became our very good friends.
Town of 1770
On the way to Mulambin we made a quick stop in the town 1770. I’ve always been curious about the town but it has always been soooo far away on the map. But suddenly we were nearby! We decided to stop in for a quick look. The town is called 1770 after the year that Captain Cook landed there. It was the first place he landed in Queensland. It turned out to be a holiday spot. A beautiful one. If you ever visit and choose to stay in a caravan park, choose the one furthest up the peninsula. (If you zoom in on the map, you’ll see 1770 is at the end of a small peninsula.) It’s right on the beach. Right on the beach. As we made our way along the beach to the cairn we were walking right past campers. It looked lovely. 
It wasn’t far to the cairn marking where Captain Cook landed on the 24th of May 1770. 
Such a simple monument for such a momentous occasion. So momentous they named the town after the date it happened! 
I’m not even sure Cook came ashore here, it just says he landed here. One of the signs above says Joseph Banks came ashore, though, and collected various plant species. Can you imagine how fun that must have been for him? As a botanist, to see all these new plants would have been so exciting. 
Such a peaceful spot, it looked like a great place for a holiday. We were here in winter and all the caravan parks were full. Mostly Victorians trying to escape the cold, probably! 
See the name on the ‘ship’ in the playground? 🙂 
After a good play we were back in the car. Since we had a long car ride that day (we’d started near Bundaberg) we let the kids watch a movie in the car. That’s a rare treat for them, though we have a dvd player in the car we don’t use it much. We want them to look out he window occasionally. TurboBug does exceptionally well in the car so we are able to do four hours a day or so without too much trouble. Four hours doesn’t sound like much, but include packing up the van at the beginning of the day and setting up at the end and it makes for a long day. Nothing like when I was at uni and my roommate and I drove more than twenty hours across America all at once!
Bluff Point Walk in Mulambin, QLD
Is this not the prettiest kookaburra ever? He looks so soft and fluffy. 🙂 
While in Mulambin we did the Bluff Point walk. We’d read you could get a 360 degree view of the area and see turtles swimming in the ocean. Sounds good! 
The trail does a circuit and we soon found out it’s one of those popular fitness tracks. You can choose your direction and do the steep part first or last. We opted to do the steep part first. See all the steps? During our walk we were lapped more than once by various people doing their workouts. 
Doing the steep part first meant that turtle lookout was our first stop. 
The lookout has a really beautiful view. Breathtaking. 
The sign said the turtles are there year-round so we had our eyes peeled. 
It didn’t take long! Look, there’s a turtle! Really, that speck that looks like a floating rock is a turtle. 
See? All zoomed in and you can see him. We saw a few turtles and watched for awhile as they rode the waves. 
Well, most of us were watching the turtles. Some of us were more interested in sticks. 
One last look at that beautiful view… 
Then on to the next lookout. Or outlook as the case may be. (Why was the first one a lookout and this one an outlook???) 
(You just scrolled back up to check the picture of the turtle lookout sign, right? I had to.) 😀 Here’s a view of the beach, looking back the way we’d come. It was interesting to see how different the landscape was on the other side of the road. So dry, and there were even people riding dirt bikes over there. 
The view from the summit. That’s the beach where we rode our bikes! 
From the summit you could see the caravan park we were staying in, tucked in behind the housing subdivision. Our caravan is almost smack in the middle of this picture. We enjoyed this park, it was really packed but we had an unpowered site out the back where it wasn’t as crowded. They had an outdoor cinema where they played family movies each night, great fun to get our jackets and winter hats on and brave the cold. Those Queensland winters, you know. 
It was all downhill from there. (I’m terrible, aren’t I?) 
We saw this lovely green ant nest in a tree. So cool how they stick the leaves together. 
And, um, a log. I thought it looked pretty and I have the camera. 😉 
We saw a few termite mounds in trees. We read that birds will use old ones as nests. 
This guy just turned two. He looks closer to three in this picture, doesn’t he? 
When we got back this little guy had a fall into a bicycle wheel. He tripped and slammed his forehead against part of the tyre, not sure whether it was a spoke or the centre. Never fear, after a cuddle he was ready to accompany the others to the front desk for some ice cream. He did have to be locked out of the van until he was finished. He didn’t mind. 
A Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD
Jumping ahead again! Emu crossing! Yay! We soon found out why… 
The caravan park had its own resident emu! He was not shy and often came over when he saw us outside. He wasn’t afraid of the kids at all, he probably knew they were likely to have food. 
This is officially my favourite kind of palm. It’s like the branches are in 3D. I think it’s a foxtail palm. 
We went across the road to have a bike ride on the beach. I know. We’re horrible, horrible people. Bike riding on the beach while everyone else endured the whole Antarctic vortex thing. We did have our jackets on, see? 
To get from one end of the beach to the other is a much longer ride than you’d think. I know, poor us. The kids took a break and did some exploring. 
At least they had their helmets on! 
Look at that cute bike! I wonder who that belongs to? 😉 
Those little specks down the beach are my children. It was a big beach. 
When we got to the other end there was more exploring to be done. 
And when we returned we were greeted by our new friend! 
Hello, Queensland! Nice to Meet you.
I’ve always wanted to visit beautiful, sunny Queensland. After more than six months in our caravan, here we are! Suddenly it feels all official, we are headed north! There is so much of Australia still to see. But now we are one step closer. 
First stop, the Gold Coast! Of course. We could get away with not visiting the theme parks if our kids were younger. But they have this inconvenient awareness of these things. 😉