There is more in Cooktown than Captain Cook..
A great shock for the town was gold discovery in Palmer River. Cooktown was established as the port for the new goldfield. Thousands of Chinese miners arrived soon. The story is too long for this place. I strongly recommend a book River of Gold by H. Holthouse - details HERE.
Excited gold prospectors did not pay attention to warnings - track to the goldfields was long, difficult and dangerous. There were no established supply lines. Gold miners starved in dry season and when the rain season started, simply died of hunger or were hunted for food by local Aborigines.
Lucky ones brought their gold, more than 1 million ounces of it, to Cooktown, where...
"Gold flowed as freely as the water it was found in, and the population continued it's increase, and by the turn of the century it was the second largest township in Queensland. The population had reached in excess of 30,000 people, and the town was serviced by no less than 65 registered hotels, 20 eating houses, 32 general stores and a multitude of other businesses and outlets. " ( source HERE ).
One of reminders of golden times is this statue...
Chinese miners came in thousands. I mentioned some time ago, that some people expected Somerset to become the second Singapore. Chinese miners came in organised teams fully controlled by powerful masters in China. Then came Chinese merchants and tradesmen and soon ethnic tensions ignited. Reading about this in H. Holthouse book I noticed one detail, which brought back memories from childhood. Both, Aborigines and Australian Police, tied captured Chinese to some tree or branch by their pigtails. This I remembered from my childhood books - Chinese with pigtails. It looks as a completely forgotten habit.
Back to reality. The last evening of the tour started with a visit to the Grassy Hill. Last few steps we walked on nicely decorated pavement...
.. and then just enjoyed the sunset...
The sun went down and we rushed to the local RSL club for a dinner. With full respect for culinary talents of my companion it was a pleasure to have a sumptuous dinner served... including dessert...
And after the dinner we were driven in courtesy bus to our camping site.
Last morning of the tour, it was to be long and exciting ride. and it was, but not exactly what we expected. First thing in the morning, we missed our "guide". He simply disappeared. Anyway, we prepared and ate usual breakfast of cereals and sandwiches and then he arrived with steaming pan - mince meat, eggs - looks like all the remaining food. We already had our breakfast, so most of this landed in the rubbish bin. Communication is the word.
Packing and off we go. Tour itinerary mentioned Black Mountain, Lion's Den, Bloomfiekd Track, Daintree Forest. We reached only the Lion's Den...
What about the rest? Our "guide" drove us to some unidentified place telling us, that someone told him about some waterfalls, which somehow evaporated in the mist. Over 1 hour lost. And what about Cape Tribulation? Well better read THIS, because we MISSED IT! We noticed the road sign and raised our voices, but our bus stopped for lunch some dozen kilometres further on. Lunch, but what about the beach, the swim? We had few minutes for stepping on the beach...
And then I could not resist and jumped to the water for a while.
Our guide apparently reconsidered his plan and drove us back to Cape Tribulation, just for a 5 minutes walk. So we should not complain - the last point of the schedule was ticked off.
Two hours later we reached Cairns. Good bye Cape York.
Conclusion:
Cape York itself is not very exciting place. Surroundings of Cairns look much more attractive to me. Still it has some specific charm of remote and inaccessible place, plus the Tip of Australia of course. Certainly the tour would be much more enjoyable if we had on board someone experienced in guiding tours and familiar with the area and its history.
Our tour operator - Frontier Safaris - was a total disaster. Every possible aspect of the tour - guide, food, equipment, was a failure.
On the other hand I met a bunch of great people, who did not complain, but rolled sleeves and did not spare any effort to make this tour as good as possible. Thank you all very much!
I think, that we could have hired 2 properly equipped vehicles and run the tour ourselves in much better way... and for half the cost. Maybe start planning now?
No comments:
Post a Comment