Tuesday morning, we anchored in Cooktown. It was a sleepy little town that really didn't have much going on at all. It probably didn't help that it was New Year's Day and most things were closed. But still, I can't imagine growing up there! There is a main road in and out of the town but apparently, it gets washed away almost every year by a cyclone or heavy rain. It's very far from any main town or city.
The ocean was amazingly still on our trip. Even the crew were shocked at how still the water was for days. It was like glass. Even with the water being that still, it still took a bit of getting used to when it came to walking around the ship. I can't imagine if it were really rough seas!! Steve and I both walked a little silly for the first few hours that we were off the ship, just because we were so used to moving with our sea legs.
This little guy came to chill out with Steve.
Cooktown used be a gold mining town but came crashing down by the middle of the 20th Century, leaving it a ghost town of only about 300 people. It's slowly building itself back up through tourism but still does not measure up to it's glory days when it had over 30, 000 people, 163 brothels and 94 pubs. Surprisingly, from what we saw in the windows of real estate offices, an average house sells for about $300 000 to $400 000.
Fact: Cooktown has more crocodiles than people. Unfortunately, we didn't see any crocs. It's my goal to see a real croc in the wild before we leave Australia.
This is a staue of Captain James Cook. Someone decided to dress him up in protest...something to do with cricket...I know nothing about cricket, so I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.
The statue's costume was well done.
Lots of very wide, very quiet streets.
Very large flying bugs, about the size of small helicopters kept attacking us! I think some locals sitting out on their stoop got a good laugh at Steve running from one!
There were dead frogs everywhere on the roads. It was a bit sad. Steve thinks the locals probably kill time by making hitting frogs with their car a sport.
Tuesday morning, we anchored in Cooktown. It was a sleepy little town that really didn't have much going on at all. It probably didn't help that it was New Year's Day and most things were closed. But still, I can't imagine growing up there! There is a main road in and out of the town but apparently, it gets washed away almost every year by a cyclone or heavy rain. It's very far from any main town or city.
The ocean was amazingly still on our trip. Even the crew were shocked at how still the water was for days. It was like glass. Even with the water being that still, it still took a bit of getting used to when it came to walking around the ship. I can't imagine if it were really rough seas!! Steve and I both walked a little silly for the first few hours that we were off the ship, just because we were so used to moving with our sea legs.
This little guy came to chill out with Steve.
Cooktown used be a gold mining town but came crashing down by the middle of the 20th Century, leaving it a ghost town of only about 300 people. It's slowly building itself back up through tourism but still does not measure up to it's glory days when it had over 30, 000 people, 163 brothels and 94 pubs. Surprisingly, from what we saw in the windows of real estate offices, an average house sells for about $300 000 to $400 000. 
Fact: Cooktown has more crocodiles than people. Unfortunately, we didn't see any crocs. It's my goal to see a real croc in the wild before we leave Australia.
This is a staue of Captain James Cook. Someone decided to dress him up in protest...something to do with cricket...I know nothing about cricket, so I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.
The statue's costume was well done.
Lots of very wide, very quiet streets.
Very large flying bugs, about the size of small helicopters kept attacking us! I think some locals sitting out on their stoop got a good laugh at Steve running from one!
There were dead frogs everywhere on the roads. It was a bit sad. Steve thinks the locals probably kill time by making hitting frogs with their car a sport.
1 comment:
Cool photos. A couple comments. I guess Cooktown gets lots of German speaking tourists hence the large "Auctung" on the croc sign.
I also heard that a foriegn species of toad was introduced to Australia in the past and,without an indigious predator,it has become quite a nuissance and competes with local frog/toads to their detriment.
I wonder if the squashed toad was one of the interlopers?
Geo
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