1st to 4th September Cooktown and fishing

     28th August we were at James Earl lookout but left late afternoon to drive about 20 minutes to arrive at Lakeland where we parked outside the hotel so Jim could catch up with the latest footy on Sky T.V. in the bar.

Great fishing on the Annon river

          Saturday 29th August

Prawn trawler at Cooktown wharf

     On to Cooktown today, remembering all the sights we saw over 2 years ago. Stopped at one of our favourites, the Annon River.
    The fishing was pretty good back then, we will spend a day or two here.

     Parked at the Cooktown wharf first up to buy lunch at the  Gill'd & Gutt'd takeaway. A nice feed of fish and chips for starters. Watched heaps of fish being caught from  the wharf then grabbed a kilo of prawns fresh from the prawn trawler. Spent the night at the free camp in Adelaide street.

          Sunday 30th August
     Back along the highway a few kilometres to the Annon River bridge for a few days. Went to take the Jimny off the trailer and found the battery dead flat, so back to Cooktown to get a new one then finally parked up in a nice spot at the southern end of the bridge.

           Monday 31st August
     Caught a nice bream off the bridge at Annon river today, not big, but legal!! tasted great for lunch, from the river to the pan with lemon and down my gullet - oh my!! so sweet.

Huge Groper in Annon River Cooktown

     Another camper  had his mud crab pots in the river, he was being troubled with the pots being wrecked. Thought it was crocodiles, there was one about 3 metres long that we saw  and it had been at the pots, but eventually discovered this huge groper having a go at them as well.  There were actually 2 of them, this monster and a slightly smaller one. Watched them feasting on the baits in the traps, they made a bit of a mess of the pots. I felt very priviledged to have witnessed this unique sight.

          Tuesday 1st September
     Lazy day today, fishing and reading. Never caught anything though. We went back into Cooktown this afternoon, making our way back south tomorrow but will catch up on the domestic chores first.

          Wednesday 2nd

The creek at the Lions Den Hotel camp ground and Dot

Entrance to the bar

     Only a few kilometres today to the Lions Den Hotel camp ground in the Rossville area. It is a lovely spot, nothing here except for the pub and camp ground. A fresh running creek borders the camp site and we took great advantage of the nice cooling water for swim for the pups and a paddle for me.

       I visited the bar in the early evening to listen to a couple of elderly diggers playing piano-accordions, had a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours, they both played by ear, most of the songs they played I knew and sang and clapped my hands along with them, not bad at all.

        Thursday 3rd
  
                      Heading south again.

Rocks on the hill out from the Loins den Hotel

     Back on the highway toward Lakeland I spied this rock formation in the distance. Having just left the Lions Den Hotel, was it just coincidence that this looked very much like a lion on the hill!! What do your reckon? am I seeing things or what?
   
         Moving along now.!!

Bower bird bower at Lakeland

 We parked up outside the Lakeland Hotel again for the night. While here the other day I found  Bower Bird Bower under a tree, they make a great nest area and decorate it with all sorts of stuff that they find lying about, bits of glass, coloured plastic and any thing bright usually, this one had a great number of land snail shells about it. there were a couple of bowers but the main one was in use as we saw the birds going in and out of it often. The other was maybe last years and a little in disrepair.I took this photo before we left the next morning.