Cooktown



8^th July – Cooktown is the place where Captain Cook brought his ship The Endeavour, to repair the damage after he scraped the bottom of it on the Great Barrier Reef near Cape Tribulation.

We saw the statue commemorating Captain Cook and played on a musical kids version of the ship The Endeavour.



 

It was really windy there.  We went up to the lighthouse to look over the harbour and nearly got blown away.  There were branches falling out of the trees in our campground so we had to choose a safe spot carefully.

 Getting blown away up near the lighthouse

 

 

 

There was a shop in the main street that sold all sorts of souvenirs and Bella finally got the cowboy hat she had been wanting.

 

 

Bella and her cowboy hat outside the Museum

 

Then we went to the Museum which was in an old Convent and boarding school. There we saw the actual anchor from The Endeavour.  It had been found on the bottom of the ocean where it had been thrown overboard when Captain Cook was trying to lighten the load of his ship to stop it from sinking. The anchor was HUGE!



 

 

9^th July – We had an early start the next morning to get packed up before we went on a tour with an Aboriginal man called Willy Gordon. He took us north to a place where his ancestors came to stay for a few months before the birth of each baby. His dad was born there.

He showed us the caves and cave paintings along with some of the local native plants and animals. He ate witchetty grubs and ants and we saw 2 snakes. He also showed us soap that was made from leaves and how to make paints from rocks and how to make axes and rope and so many other things.

 



A big, fat witchetty grub...breakfast anyone?

 

 Will and Willy looking for hidden rock art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This painting behind Willy and below is a really important one.

It shows you and me (on the left) and plants and nature (the thin thing on the right)

in the glow of the light which represents goodness (the pale thing behind)

 

 

 

Willy also said that aboriginals are always trying to sell white people hollow sticks (Didgeridoos). Then he taught us how to play the didgeridoo. He also taught us how to play with bush pegs and some other games he played in the bush as a kid.

After we got back to town we headed off to a place called Lion’s Den where we camped next to a river.  We swam in the rapids and found a gorgeous turtle.