The rain went on and on. Rather than going back on the highway to go from Cooktown to Cairns, we decided to take the coastal road that goes south through Cape Tribulation (the Bloomfield Track). We had heard varying reports on the condition of the road, but decided to give it a go anyway - how bad can a 50km road be? Well, it probably would have been fine, except that the days of rain had made the river crossings quite deep and the road itself very slippery. It wasn't long before we hit some very steep muddy inclines and declines, and found the car and camper trailer sliding disconcertingly. The rivers we came to along the way were also deeper and flowing more rapidly than expected, but very difficult to turn back at that point. After getting a little concerned we covered the second half at snail's pace with the car in Low 4, which made it all much safer. We were relieved to finally hit the bitumen at Cape Tribulation a couple of hours later.
Not too much to say about Cape Trib. It's quite dramatic to see the rainforest growing right down to the beach, but you can't enjoy the beach too much due to crocs and stingers. The rain continued incessantly while we were there, so by the time we left nearly everything we owned was wet or dirty, or both. We had been camping in a very basic national park campground, so we were ready to check into a caravan park for a few days to clean everything up (car, camper, clothes, and ourselves). On to Port Douglas and civilization.
Photos below are-
1-2: the Bloomfield Track from Cooktown to Cape Trip
3-5: Photos around Cape Trib
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