Day 49 Thursday 29th August Beautiful Colours

One very interesting fact I learnt yesterday and meant to include in the blog but forgot was the existence of a frog that lays its eggs on the land and when the eggs hatch they are a frog. In other words there is no tadpole stage for these frogs. This fact was learnt when we stopped at the Black Mountain National Park. The mountains looked like they were made up of piles of black rocks that had just been dumped there but of course nature had formed the mountains this way. There was a board telling us about some of the fauna that lived in the mountains and this frog was one of them. This morning we started with a lovely breakfast at a café overlooking the Cooktown Bay. From there we visited the very interesting Captain Cook Museum, housed in a magnificent old former convent building. We both enjoyed learning more about the history of Cooks 7 week stay here while repairing his ship. The journals written by Cook and Banks during this time were interesting reading. After this we headed in a northerly direction and visited the lovely Endeavour Falls and then drove on through the Aboriginal settlement of Hope Vale to Elim Beach. Here we drove along the beach to view some beautiful coloured sands. We returned to Cooktown for lunch and then did a quick history walk of the town. Later in the afternoon we went on a magnificent sunset cruise of the bay, Endeavour River, Leprosy River and 2 Mile Creek. Our guide, Nic gave great commentary and had excellent knowledge of the history of Cooktown. We took our own drinks and were treated with a delicious cheese platter during this tour. Returning to the dock, we made our way to the very traditional “Top Pub” for dinner.