The caravan brake problem that we had in Cooktown turned out to be not a problem at all. Water had got into the back of the caravan power connection, probably when we crossed the 600-700 mm deep Normanby River a few days before, and the dust that had built up inside the adapter turned into mud.  This caused a short circuit, preventing power from getting to the brakes. It would eventually have dried out but with a quick clean it was ready to.

It’s hard to believe that all that happened almost a month ago. Since then we have enjoyed a week in Melbourne with 3 of our grandchildren, a few days in Cairns with friends who live in the beautiful Goldsbourough Valley, 5 days at Wonga Beach and a week at Port Douglas. These places are all close to each other so we haven’t done much driving, apart from 2 days when we went to Cooktown via the Bloomfield Track and stayed overnight in a caravan park cabin.

The Bloomfield track is a 4WD track along the coast going north from the Daintree National Park. Driving was not difficult but we would not want to take our caravan along it because we would have to take up all the road on some of the tight corners and that would be awkward with quite a lot of traffic coming toward us.  We would also be slow and vehicles would have to overtake us on the narrow road.  It was an interesting drive with a few creek crossings, some steep climbs and beautiful rain forest beside the road.  We did see a very large crocodile near the Wujal Wujal Falls – that’s why we didn’t swim there.

We have been able to do some bush walking in the rainforest; here is Jo climbing a steep track, known as The Bump Track, which was first used 150 years ago by bullock and horse teams pulling supplies over the mountains.

It was much steeper than it looks in the photo but the view from the top, and the welcome rest on the only seat on the track, made it worthwhile.

Sometimes we come across unexpected sights, such as a peacock at Wonga Beach Caravan Park (not to be confused with the blue tent in the background), a kookaburra digging for worms at the caravan park near Port Douglas and a wild pig crossing the track in the National Park at Mossman Gorge.

It has been a relaxing month and we are enjoying ourselves. As the weather is very pleasant (maximum daily temperatures of mid 20’s and minimum nightly temperatures of about 18 to 20 deg) we have decided to stay in this area for another couple of weeks.  Tomorrow we will go back to Cairns for a week, then somewhere else for a week. Then we’ll do a quick 10-day trip to Adelaide rather than working our way gradually home, so as to spend as little time as possible in the cold weather once we leave here.

As usual, we are thinking of our friends and family while we are away. Hope you are all well. Bye for now.

Ted and Jo