Rev. 2/2/13.
Today, we landed at Cooktown, Australia the northernmost town on the east side of the continent. Although the weather was in the high 90's, most folks were just glad to set foot on terra firm again!
Today, we landed at Cooktown, Australia the northernmost town on the east side of the continent. Although the weather was in the high 90's, most folks were just glad to set foot on terra firm again!
Cooktown's claim to fame: It is where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavor, in 1770 for repairs and, fortunately, the aboriginal natives just watched and didn't stop him. Cooktown is at the mouth of a river, now named the Endeavor River.
This is a pic of the city map. Yes, it is a VERY small town with only a little over 2000 total residents. The pier where we came in is toward the upper left, the little black line that sticks out into the river.
Looking off our balcony, we see a tender making its return from the pier. It was about a 20 minute ride each way from where the ship was anchored.
Our tour left the ship at 10:15am. Tom and I were fortunate to have a seat right at the door, fortunate insomuch as we could feel the slight breeze and it offered some clear photo ops! Looking back toward the ship's tender dock, we see another coming in for the next load. Tenders are rated at 100 passengers as a tender, 150 passengers as a lifeboat. I think our tender had over 100 people and with the size of today's people, there is no way on this green earth that it would hold 150!
Looking back at the ship, we can see our current "home", actually, our home for 66 nights. 22 down and 44 to go! Tonight will mark our 23rd night and the longest we've ever been on a ship before! Ironically, it was this same ship! Tomorrow, we'll celebrate our new record of 24 nights!
Photo of the pier as we arrive. It truly gives an idea of the small size of the town. Some folks have personal boat docks larger than this!
Our first stop was at the James Cook Museum. There were quite a few artifacts from the 1700's related to what the area was like at the time. For some reason, I was totally fascinated with the dental equipment… maybe because of spending sooo much time in dental chairs. I will not bore you with those pictures!
It was actually a beautiful old home. I don't remember the history of the house itself but, I shall ALWAYS remember that it was not air-conditioned!
The view from the second floor porch was gorgeous and, from up there, we could feel a little breeze.
From the museum, our little 20 passenger bus (with 16 passengers), headed up the switchback, steep (45° incline in places) road to the top of "Grassy Hill", height ~800' above sea level. From there we had a beautiful view back down to the mouth of the Endeavor River.
After our visit to the top of the hill, on our way back to the pier, we stopped at the Botanic Gardens for a 30 minute visit. The gardens were not great, it was miserably hot, now over 100°F with no breeze so we headed to the nicely air-conditioned "interpretive center".
After our visit there, we headed back to the pier and boarded a tender back to the ship. This time, we had fewer passengers, perhaps around 90, YEAH! We secured a seat near the front and at first, the window was open but, as we got closer to "home", the waves picked up and were splashing over the bow and into the boat. They closed the window but not before I got this picture! Yes, it is water splashing up, NOT snow coming down in 100° weather!
Happiness was being back on the ship! I told Tom I'll never again complain about the cold in some of the public areas of the ship!
rf
PS: Cooktown was a nice little town but, it is NOT on our "must go back to" list!
Additional note - 2/2/13:
Looking down from our cabin, we see the last of the tenders pulling away from the dock of the ship. He then went out and around the aft of the ship for his hoist into his berth.
And a look to the west, a thunderstorm rapidly approaching... we couldn't have been out of there too soon! After we were underway, bound for Darwin, the rains came down hard. We were safely back on board!
Additional note - 2/2/13:
Looking down from our cabin, we see the last of the tenders pulling away from the dock of the ship. He then went out and around the aft of the ship for his hoist into his berth.
From here we would spend two days at sea before reaching Darwin. We sailed into the Coral Sea and through the Torres Strait into the Arafura Sea.
rf
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