“Any one home?”

We had contacted Gerry, a couchsurfing host, and he had kindly said we could stay at his place while we were in Cooktown. Couchsurfing is a great organisation and a great way to meet people. Staying with a local person gives you a better insite into the town and information on where to go and what to see.

Gerry was a charming host, originally from Germany he has lived in Cooktown for 10 years.Every Couch surfer we have stayed with has an interesting garden and Gerry was no exception, he described his garden as “my little piece of rainforest”, it was only an average size suburban section but you could lose yourself in the tropical vegetation.

So for 3 days we had a comfortable bed and as Cooktown is only a small township and Gerry’s house was only one block from the main street we could walk every where, with one exception, that was going to the top of Grassy Hill lookout point. The 360deg view spread from the Ocean round to the Endeavour river and up to the distant mountain ranges, it was a stunning view, but the wind was gale force, the wind blows all year round in Cooktown. We stayed to watch the sunset. It was a very steep pull to the top but Matilda, when down in bottom gear, chugged steadily up. The Down hill was a white knuckle ride taken in very low gear….