DiNo's Travels Around Australia - 2014/2015/16/17: 13 June 2017

Today dawned fine and clear for our trip to Cooktown and to the local Goodyear Tyre Agent. We had to replace a tyre on the van and one on the car. We feel much happier driving now that all tyres are in good condition.

We came to our first road sign out of Mareeba which was the Wheelbarrow Way. Sadly that was not our route. The Wheelbarrow Way heads up to Chillagoe.

130617 Sign at Mareeba but it wasn't our route

There were some very beautiful wetlands just out of Mareeba.

130617 Wetlands just outside of Mareeba

The road to Cooktown passes along the western side of the Great Dividing Range so we were effectively out of rain forests and into dry sclerophyll forest again. On one side of the road the mountains were dark green and on the other, pale green between rock outcrops.

130716 Lightly wooded mountains on our LHS

130617 Heavily wooded mountains on our RHS

It was here we came across Lighthouse Mountain.

130617 Lighthouse Mountain. There is a vertical structure
on the mountain top. Not sure if it is man made

The road was excellent and compared with our more recent experiences, was very busy, mostly with caravans, going in both directions. We passed through small towns such as Tolga, Mount Molloy, Mount Carbine, Palmer River and Lakeland, before arriving at Cooktown mid afternoon.

130617 Mount Carbine, site of a tungsten mine. The nearby town
of same name has a population of 90 or so.

We crossed the Byerstown Range, which going up the range and at its top, gave us some spectacular views.

130617 Video from the Byerstown Range as we ascended

130617 Video from the top of the Byerstown Range

As we moved towards Lakeland we came across acres and acres of redness. The grass had red fluffy seed heads.

At Lakelands we passed the turnoff to Laura and all points north along the Peninsula Development Road, which takes you to Weipa and Cape York. We are not going there this time.

As we neared Cooktown we crossed the Little Annan River and the Annan River. We weren't able to get a shot of the Annan River, but it is a substantial river.

130617 Little Annan River

Our last stop before Cooktown was at Black Mountain, so named because of the thousands of large black rocks of weathered granite, which form part of a range on both sides of the road. The site is of great significance to the aboriginal inhabitants of the area.