Day 376 | 3 km past Endeavour Falls: bush camping behind that long grass

39 km | zzOz total: 10,342 km

I planned on staying at a campsite at Endeavour Falls tonight so I could spend most of the day in Cooktown.

I had earlier wandered up Grassy Knoll to a superb 360ยบ view. Captain Cook, who first mapped the east coast of Australia back in 1770 had spent a few months repairing his ship, the Endeavour, and climbed the very same hill to plot his way out of the maze of reefs not so far offshore after he had hit one, named Endeavour Reef, near Cape Tribulation and then tentatively navigated his way through.

There’s a bit of Cook history around but the town actually started as the supply port for the Palmer River goldfields over the hills in the interior in 1874. You just wonder how they found these things when you consider the ruggedness of the terrain and the density of the vegetation. Oh, and the somewhat inclement weather for itinerant Englishmen in hobnail boots and tweeds.

But I didn’t investigate another gold rush history here instead spending time in the library, cool conditions, a comfy seat with table and an unguarded powerpoint updating blogs and communicating with the rest of the world. Then a second visit to the surprisingly good IGA style supermarket to load up excessively for the next section of travel, not much in the way of foodstuffs until I reach Bamanga near the tip of Cape York in 3 weeks time or so.

I did have the joke idea to spend half a day climbing the nearby Mt Cook, just to say I’d done it but instead I shot through town, because, err, well, I’ve had enough civilisation, socialisation, to last a while, don’t want to overdo this, but also because of last night’s unsympathetic accommodations, stuck back in the 1970s mentality, ie, Thou shalt not have access to electricity.

Hunh?

It was even specifically written on my $15 receipt. (What exactly am I paying for?)

I had to plug things in at the toilet block at 4am to avoid eviction, there just ain’t any power outlets hanging around, so not much point in me doing the same.

When I reached today’s planned stop at the caravan park at the falls I’d lost enthusiasm for ponying up cash for a similar lack of amenity, or with coming up with cash at all. The only thing going for them was that it was after 4 pm, darkness falls abruptly around 6pm, and so not leaving much time to find an alternative spot. But the choice was easy, they were unrelenting on price, excessive in my opinion, now $15 is my limit, and when I had to go through the well groomed grounds, only a solitary camping party, to visit the underwhelming falls, all of 6 feet, I noticed a similar dearth of power outlets: the electric jug, the only camping facility perched on a high bench was directly wired to the post. Almost as absurd as the small padlocks on the outlet covers in Happy Valley in Kununurra.

Not sure of the maths here but with power costing, say, 40 or 50c a kilowatt-hour, and even my laptop drawing a max of 60W, the cost of recharging is 1 or 2c. My camera batteries, much less.

What’s the deal?

But just as Cook managed to find a great, (if indeed the only one for a long stretch of coast), camping spot for his stay on the Endeavour River, I was also.

The library provided the power for nix.

Things worked out OK for me in the end.