Endeavour Falls - 273 km

Grandma got run over by a reindeer – oops. Wrong song

Grandma got run over by a wallaby
Bounding through the campground late at night
Grandpa heard the thumping in the background
And he made sure that Grandma was alright!

Ok, enough of our lame poetry. Actually not sure who was more startled, us or the poor wallaby as we came out of the toilet block at bed time in the dark. We have seen so much road kill it is a wonder there are any live ones to see. We think we were averaging about a dozen bodies per km of travel at one stretch. Having said that we did see two live ones on the side of the highway today that we told to stay off the road.

We were woken by a loud cacophony from the galahs. We watched dozens of them all try to perch in the same tree, fly to the roof above us and drink from the gutter and generally make lots of racket. We are finding the temperatures are generally getting a little lower the past few days with it dropping to 16 degrees last night. It was back up to 27 today so we will see what we get over the next few days as we head south and inland.

Galahs

We started our morning with a steep, rocky half hour hike to the Split Rock Aboriginal Rock art site. We were glad we had made an early start as it was really warming up by the time we were on our way back down. It was well worth the walk. They think the artwork is about 13,000 years old. There is an admission of $5 each on the honour system so not sure how many actually pay. There was a wooden viewing platform and plaques on the railing to describe what you were seeing in case you couldn’t decipher it all.

Rock Art viewing area

Rock Art

With finally getting some good internet access last night we were able to identify the ants that Norma had been bitten by twice. They are green tree ants, that pack a real wallop! Wonder if the aboriginals used them for some kind of torture.

Our route today took us back to Cooktown where we picked up a few items at the bakery and minimal groceries as we are handing this rig back in tomorrow and picking up the bigger one so don’t want too much stuff to have to transfer over. We also managed to find a car wash as well and left pounds of mud behind!

We passed many banana growing areas with all the bananas covered in plastic, we assume to help them ripen and protect them from bugs and/or birds. Having said that bananas were $5.99 a kg today, pretty pricy.

We decided to check in here at the Endeavor Falls Tourist Park on our way to Hope Vale and are glad we did as we were at least assured of a powered spot for the night. It is slowly filling up.

Had a nice drive to Hope Vale where we needed to purchase a beach permit for $10 to enter Aboriginal land. It is a very tidy little community. We just made it in time for the purchase as the gas station where you can purchase the permit was closing as we got there, being a Sunday. Not sure what would have happened if we went in without the permit as we certainly were not stopped and asked for it.

More dirt roads, one water crossing, through stabilized white sand dunes and finally to Elim Coloured Sands beach. We were able to drive on the sandy beach as it was low tide. Saw a rare black necked stork on the beach fishing. Again signs warning of a recent croc sighting. We are beginning to think they just put up these signs as a CYA!

 

Black Necked Stork

A short walk from our camp spot is Endeavour Falls, which the campground is named after and which is supposed to have a resident croc. We walked down to the falls with great expectations but again were disappointed.

Endeavour Falls