Cooktown Tour - 3 Day 2 Night Cooktown Tour | Daintree Rainforest | CCWD

Cooktown Tour - 3 Day 2 Night Cooktown Tour | Daintree Rainforest | CCWD

The terrain might be rugged, but your bespoke 3 day 2 night Cooktown tour will be as smooth as butter in these purpose built four wheel drive overland vehicles.

This unique area is the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites meet, where a reef - the Great Barrier Reef, meets a rainforest – the Daintree Rainforest.

Three days and two nights of exploration and discovery still won’t seem long enough, as you experience up close crocodiles sunbathing along the Daintree River or walking amongst rare ferns and trees taller than office blocks in the Daintree Rainforest. 

On your journey northward you will travel through creeks and rivers on your drive to remote Cooktown on the mountainous rainforest trails along the old Bloomfield Track.

Cruise the wilds of the Daintree River and then go deep into the Daintree Rainforest to see some of the rare wildlife that only inhabit this region.

Sleep comfortably in your rainforest accommodation amidst the rainforest’s beauty, with only the sound of insects and birds as a soundtrack and then wake for your overland journey onto Cooktown, where you will spend a day and a night steeped in the history of this historic old Gold Rush town.

Cooktown, 3 Day 2 Night Overnight Tour, Cape Tribulation, Daintree Rainforest Safari Adventure

You will travel with a small group of like-minded guests in your air-conditioned comfortable custom built 4WD (four wheel drive) overland vehicle on an adventure of discovery to explore stunning Tropical North Queensland at its best. 

Much of Far North Queensland is an undiscovered gem in Australia and your safari trip will take you through the wilderness and rainforests that are over 150 million years old. 

From the Daintree Rainforest in Cape Tribulation along the Bloomfield Track to historic Cooktown it will be 3 days and 2 nights of adventure, fun, awe and amazement with some overnight accommodation and fun with your travelling companions.

Right from your initial Cairns holiday accommodation pick up, you will be amazed at the changing flora and fauna of the scenery.

Your route will meander northward along the Captain Cook Highway coastal road, passing through the World Heritage Area.

View the stunning miles of the pristine empty beaches and offshore tropical islands.

You will head past the waving leaves of the sugar cane fields plantations through the quaint local sugar town of Mossman north towards the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation.

At the Daintree River you will cruise the wild river and the backwaters. 

Be awestruck at finding yourself only a few feet away from a magnificent wild basking Estuarine Crocodile.  

You’ll find out that seeing an animal in its true habitat is so different from seeing it in a zoo.

Explore the final frontier as you head up the unsealed Bloomfield Track. Nineteen miles of track that cuts right through the rainforest. 

Built in 1984 under great protest it was subsequently made a Heritage Site.

Due to environmental impact issues the track was built straight to minimize environmental damage. 

This leads to some exciting driving as there are steep hills and inclines to navigate in your overland 4 wheel drive truck.

A trip to the Black Mountains (Kalkajaka) National Park before reaching Cooktown will take you to an area where the granite boulders are bigger than houses. 

These mountains have highly spiritual and mythological importance and are a unique geographical feature to the area.

Cooktown is steeped in history and was founded in 1873 as a supplier port for the gold rush that was happening along the Palmer River at this time. 

One famous visitor to Cooktown was Captain Cook, who after his tribulations at Cape Tribulation (he aptly named it), pulled in to the safest harbour he could find to carry out repairs at the mouth of the Endeavour River (named also after his endeavours whilst trying to fix his ship). 

From this time in 1770 modern history in Cooktown is told through the very bricks and mortar that make up this fascinating town.

For your overnight accommodation you will be sleeping in the jungles of the Daintree Rainforest and in the pioneering town of Cooktown.

Day 1: Cairns, Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation – Daintree River Cruise

They say that a journey is not about the destination.  After your early morning pick up you will be driven in the glow of the new sunrise along The Captain Cook Highway. 

This coastal route must be one of the most beautiful coastal drives in the world.  It is truly magnificent as this natural jewelled necklace of spotted pristine beaches interlaced with palm trees and the blue water of the Coral Sea laps at the road beneath you. 

You will drive on through the quaint local sugar town of Mossman towards Daintree Rainforest and the Daintree River.

After whetting your whistle over a short morning tea break, It’s ‘all aboard’ your waiting river cruise boat.  Relax and enjoy the splendour only the Daintree River can offer.

As you saunter in the boat past the overhanging branches of the mangrove bushes on the Daintree River a well camouflaged sunbather with lizard skin appears on the open bank.  It’s the only type of lizard skin that SP50 doesn’t work for – an Estuarine Crocodile’s.

Nothing compares to that primordial fear of coming beady eye to beady eye close with a wild crocodile.  You might be lucky enough to see it hope its mouth and display its row of glistening white teeth – a dentist’s dream.

As you journey down the river your guide will describe and point out the amazing other wildlife that inhabits these Tropical Wetlands along the way.  Water birds, insects and toads all join together in a noisy background sound track accompanying your adventure. 

Overhead circling Ospreys and Sea Eagles hover whilst the iridescent blue flash of a passing Ulysses butterfly is a colourful sight.  Rare Orchids droop from overhanging branches of trees as you explore the Daintree River backwaters.

This is a great educational experience and with so much to experience whilst learning, who says learning isn’t fun

Thank goodness for digital cameras, if you had a film camera you’d have run out of film by now!  From the Daintree River you will ascend the Alexandra Range.

The panoramic view of World Heritage tropical rainforest merging with the azure colours of the Coral Sea spread out below is just stunning.  

Your night will be spent in the Daintree Rainforest, surrounded by the chitter chatter of wildlife. 

The cost of evening meals are not included in the Cooktown four wheel drive tour price.

Day 2: Cape Tribulation – Bloomfield Track, Cooktown

After all the amazing sights of Day 1, you’ll be eager to start Day 2.

After an early morning breakfast (breakfast at own cost) you will be picked up by your 4WD tour transport to continue your adventure.

Day 2 is the amazing navigation of The Last Frontier of North Queensland, the 4WD, Bloomfield Track.

You will be collected from your Cape Tribulation overnight accommodation where your journey will continue to Cooktown 

The 4WD Bloomfield Track allows you to travel through the heart of this World Heritage Listed area giving incredible glimpses of an Australian landscape hard to imagine.

Your comfortable 4WD smoothly negotiates rugged mountain ranges and river crossings. Look out for the elusive Cassowary and spot more crocodiles along with other Australian wildlife and fauna.

The Bloomfield track, all 30 km of it, was completed in 1984 and connects Cape Tribulation to Cooktown.

The track certainly had its own trials and tribulations when it was constructed as an alternative route to the Mulligan highway. 

Due to environmental pressure the road was designed with minimum switchbacks and bends which led to the track having some amazingly steep gradients – great for the real four wheel drive enthusiast. 

The Bloomfield Track passes over the Donovan and the Cowie Ranges and since the road is only partially sealed it may take more than a 4WD (four by four) to cross it – more like a boat!

We call into the Lions Den hotel for refreshments and obligatory photos before moving onto Cooktown.

As the sun sets on another wondrous day the view from Grassy Hill lookout with its spectacular 360 degree views is worth the wait. 

It was the first recorded place that Europeans first spotted kangaroos. 

Most definitely a view that Captain Cook those many years ago in 1770 must have looked out on and still many centuries later is relatively unchanged.

Your driver will settle you into your accommodation in Cooktown for the eveing and you can wander the streets at your leisure.

Day 3: Cooktown

Make sure you start with an early to greet the day so you can feast on breakfast 

Visit the heitage listed Cooktown Cemetery and James Cook Museum to learn about the fascinating goldrush era.

Explore the Cooktown Botanic Gardens on a guided walk before a visit to Nature's Powerhouse.

As mentioned earlier Cooktown is one of Australia’s most historically significant townships.  Cooktown was where Captain James Cook spent almost seven weeks repairing his vessel, the HM Bark Endeavour.

Some of the most extraordinary discoveries and reported interactions with local Aboriginal people occurred here in 1770, not to mention the sighting of the first kangaroo!

Cooktown has something for everyone, young and old or in-between. Now a sleepy estuary but at one time one of the busiest ports in Queensland during the Gold rush in the 1870’s, itis a wonderful enclave of history and beauty.

• The James Cook Museum (Seasonal opening)

This museum is operated by the Queensland National Trust and has been recently renovated.  It is regarded highly as the best regional museum outside any capital city in Australia. The building was erected during the gold rush era in 1888-9 as the convent of Saint Mary and went on to become the first high school in North Queensland.

It was used during World War II by the US as a command post and the Sisters of Mercy were evacuated, never to return.  After falling into disrepair in 1969 it was restored to its former glory and was reopened by the Queen in 1970 as the “James Cook Museum”. Another refurbishment in  1999 has kept it from fading and it now houses the anchor and cannon of the HMS Bark Endeavour along with Chinese, Pastoral, Mining, and Indigenous collections.

• Nature’s Powerhouse Museum

The diversity of the natural flora and fauna has captured many botanical artists.

Nature’s Powerhouse Museum is home to a priceless collection of botanical illustrations and paintings of flowering plants found along the Endeavour River. Painted and donated to the Museum by highly revered botanical artist Vera Scarth-Johnson, who received an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of her work in 1995. The Powerhouse also houses an exhibition of local wildlife by Charlie Tanner, who spent his life recording information about the bio-diversity of the Cape York Peninsula.

• Cooktown Cemetery

Cemeteries are always a wonderful place to wander around to soak up the history of a place and to find out about the people that have lived there.  The Cooktown cemetery is no different. Within its boundaries you will find a diverse history of the cultural, social, artistic, architectural, religious and cultural practices that were found in Cooktown. Graveyards are not simply to remember the dead but also act as a wonderful testimony to the colourful and varied lives of some of the locals.

Some of the most notable graves were the earliest one of Rev Francis Tripp in 1874 and the sad Memorial to Mrs Watson. She survived an Aboriginal attack on Lizard Island only to perish from dehydration with her infant son on a neighbouring island due to dehydration.

In commemoration of Mrs Watson and her son’s sad demise a monument was erected and at one time was used as a water fountain for the people of Cooktown, so that everyone could re-hydrate themselves.

• Grassy Hill Lighthouse

The lighthouse was actually built in England and shipped to Cooktown in 1885. Between 1942 and 1945 a radar station was added and then was subsequently dismantled after World War II. It served the local shipping in the area for 100 years until it was made obsolete.  Restoration by the Lions Club has now returned back to its former glory.

As detailed at the end of Day 2, the view from the Grassy Hill Lookout is stunning.  Catch it at sunset and see how beautiful the setting sun in Cooktown is.

•  Grassy Hill Sun-Dial

Despite giving the appearance of a sundial this lovely monument is actually a “Global Positioning Monument”.  If you wondered how far away you were from London, New York or Tokyo, this will tell you.  I’m sure you could Google this information, but this Grassy Hill Sun-Dial needs no power and is here 24/7.

• Captain Cook’s Grassy Hill Monument

With Captain Cook being such a prominent part of the history of Cooktown, Captain Cook’s Grassy Hill monument commemorates his landing and trips up Grassy Hill in 1770. To the side of the peak of the hill is a large board that details Cook’s trip and his journals. Imagine yourself here over two hundred years ago, looking out over the town, with Grassy Hill’s 360 degree view.

We also have a 2 Day 1 Night option.

See other Cooktown and Cape York four wheel drive tours.