C AMPING & outdoors
A lookout on the road between Mossman and Port Douglas.
At the mouth of the Bloomfield River at Ayton in far north Queensland.
Fantastic family trip to the tip – Part 3
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FTER a break at Hann Crossing, we headed towards Cooktown. We crossed the Normanby River – a lovely looking area – then continued up the road for a few kilometres to some big ranges covered in a northern species of small messmate trees – which is very similar to Gympie messmate but
Heading North by CRAIG TOMKINSON
nowhere as tall, mature Gympie messmate trees are huge. If you’re ever around the Como forestry area, check out the doggerel trees – they are massive, some of the biggest trees I have seen. I grew up with Gym-
pie messmate on our family farm – a fantastic timber for building houses, farm sheds and stockyards. From there into Cooktown we spent an hour or so checking the place out. It featured a fantas-
The stunning Wallaman Falls near Ingham. Page 88 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2021
tic foreshore precinct with green-grassed areas, barbecue plates and play gym gear for kids and adults, and with what appeared to be free power because I saw four or five caravans and motorhomes with their 240V cords plugged into the council power outlets – how good was that? After exploring the Cooktown area and visiting the various statues, monuments and displays, we did a quick grocery shop, fuelled up and headed south past the Black Mountain – famous in the area for the black granite rocks. We then drove past the Lions Den Hotel and on to Ayton, which is a small town on the northern side of the Bloomfield River (Banner Yearie). We found a tight windy track that popped
out at the Bloomfield River mouth. As we pulled up, we saw a big 4.5m crocodile on the other side of the river… just sunbaking. There were a few people about, so I had a chat to a local who said they were catching good-sized javelin fish and bream on prawns. From there we drove through the steep hills of the Bloomfield – a dirt road with steep pulls of 20-degree angles up hill and about 30 degrees down. We were lucky because while it had been raining, the road was wet but dry enough to tow our wind-up van – there are big signs saying no trailers or vans past a certain point. It was a fantastic drive along that road to the ferry and over the
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