Sundays in Cooktown

 In the post-Yasi period wehad a lot of rain but now are experiencing beautiful sunny days. Despite the sun, the roads and rivers are still boggy and full which makes getting about and exploring difficult.  So last Sunday it was time for a walk to one of our favourite haunts - Cherry Tree Bay. After a hefty walk up Grassy Hill we hit the beautiful path that takes you down to Cherry Tree Bay.

The wildflowers at this time of year are plentiful and there is a great variety. As we headed down to the bottom of the hill, the usually dry gully was a racing creek.  At the beach we found several large but broken sea urchin shells and then we found one perfect and intact one. 

There are lots of croc signs around at the moment as everyone knows there is a huge croc that travels from the Endeavour River to Quarantine Bay. People have stopped walking their dogs in the evenings at Finch Bay because the croc watches and waits. Despite that, Max went for a swim and then played games with a very stroppy crab.

We checked out a turtles nest but the edge of the beach but found that with all the rain and high tides, they have been washed away. Nice to know that a few green turtles have been coming into Cherry Tree Bay to lay their eggs.  The sea is still a dirty colour - the river is still full of mud and debris and its still washing out to sea. Despite that, I hear there a few fish around and people have been doing ok with fishing at the wharf and off the rocks. 

Anyway we had a lovely walk and felt much better having expended lots of energy and drunk litres and litres of water.

Yasi

Early 2nd Feb - watching and waiting

Sitting here a day after cyclone Yasi arrived close to Cooktown, the kids are upset that they didn't feel the full force of the Grade 5 cyclone!!!!!!! Personally I am relieved, although after so much preparation and bunkering down for a whole day with buckets and baths filled with water, having moved all our 'precious' belongings to our friends safer house and and taped up and cleared up our own house, the absolute lack of anything was a little bit of a let down.


Cooktown has to be one of the windiest places in Australia - during the dry season here the wind whips through here and the house groans and shudders constantly. I think its great because it keeps the heat and humidity away but if you dont like constant whistling wind then Cooktown is probably not for you.  So Yasi was a weird experience - all ready for it to let rip and there was less wind and rain yesterday/last night than there has been today or will be tomorrow. 
Anyway it was a great experience in what to do to prepare and our one failing was lack of battery operated radio, if the power had gone out. I twittered long into the night watching some guy in Cairns who updated every few seconds or so - fascinating this whole social media thing - up to date reports to the moment and a very real sense of community and personal experience rather than being fed the media dirge. One tweeter put it nicely - the worst thing to land on FNQ was not Yasi but the seething media of Today and A Current Affair. Too right!