Todays Cooktown has a population of about 2000 and looks back on a short but rough history. In 1770 Captain Cook landed here to repair his ship which was leaking like a sieve after the ride through the Great Barrier Reef. For the next 100 years the place remained quiet until the discovery of gold in the Palmer river raised the necessity for a port. That was the birth of Cooktown.

On Tuesday last week Hiroko and I threw our stuff in the car and hit the road in the early afternoon. Our destination for the next couple of days was Cooktown, a small town 320km north of Cairns. It can be reached either via an inland road or via the coastal road. Unfortunately the latter is only accessible by 4WD so we had to take the somewhat boring sealed road.