We spent our morning at CJ’s house (the Aboriginal man we met the day before) just talking about the land and Aboriginal culture and all of that. He is a shaman and the elder of his Aboriginal community in the Daintree. He shared some of his stories with us and some of the things he told us were pretty out there.
I am not sure I believe everything that he was talking about but it’s difficult to refute something that someone has experienced. That’s their reality. I really haven’t had any supernatural experiences so therefore, I am a bit skeptical when I hear stories like this.
He wrote a book about his life which I ended up reading on the way up to Cape York. It was quite interesting and the structure of the book reminded me of an ‘Autobiography Of A Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda. Not nearly as good but still a decent read.
We got on the road about noon with the intention of heading towards Cooktown, the last “real” town north of Daintree National Park. We made a couple of stops along the way but the highlight was Archer Point. Just south of Cooktown, it gave incredible views of the bay north of the Daintree.
A little history lesson for you. Captain Cook stopped here on his 1770 trip to Australia and repaired his boat close to the spot that hosts the town. If you haven’t noticed already, Captain Cook (who wasn’t even a captain before his trip to Oz) is a pretty big deal Down Under.
After a few days without toilets and showers, it was nice to get into town and reset. We did a little food shopping, found some free showers, and then tried to find a place to camp for the night. We chatted with some locals and they told us Quarantine Bay, just south of town, was our best bet.
Unfortunately for me, it was a rock beach. And rock beaches and sleeping in a tent don’t really mix well. I was really roughing it out there. But I survived.
It was this night, after dinner, that we came to the conclusion that we were going to continue on towards Cape York, the tip of Australia. Everyone in the group, besides Emma, had no commitments or anywhere to be in the following weeks. And we were getting along so great that it felt like the right move to make.
It was an easy choice for me. I had no car to begin with and here I was being offered a golden opportunity to reach one of the remote places in Australia. Sign me up, please.
We decided that Alex would drop Emma off in Cairns and pick up some equipment the next day. We would meet up around Cooktown the day after that and continue north together.
Trevathan Falls was the first stop the next morning. It was a really nice waterfall. We had to drive through a small bush fire to get there which was pretty cool and sad at the same time. I think all of us were dying for a swim and there was almost a natural shower which was amazing.
In northern Queensland, I would say starting at Airlie Beach, there are crocodiles in the water. So you can’t just roll up to a beach and jump into the ocean. You have to find specific waterfalls or rivers to take a swim in. So that’s why we were going days without swimming. The next waterfall or swimming hole was always on our mind and kind of dictated our plans.
Alex, Emma, and Zach left after we were done at the waterfall and the rest of us just chilled in Cooktown for a bit. We made camp at this small beach near Archer Point that night and saw this really cool looking bird. We weren’t sure if it was an owl or a falcon but it did shit on my tent. So that was a bit upsetting.