the lost rail bridge - walkabouts 03

My GPS told me it had found a shorter route to town. The normal way is to take the first right on the dirt road, which is a gravel road. Take a left where the gravel road ends. That one is new bitumen and leads right up to the Cooktown developmental road, which has been there for a couple of years. From there is is still about 12 kilometers winding down into Cooktown, going against the ever-present wind (did I mention I was taking the pushbike?) with the sun on your bare head. You might protect your head with one of those silly egg-shaped multi-purpose shopping baskets Australians always carry around when they transport themselves on a bicycle.. oh, they are not shopping baskets? They are helmets you say? Ah.. that explains a lot. Although I am not sure a little helmet would protect me if I was hit by a car but it might do some good against the sun, grant you that. But I am not used to cycling with a helmet on and untill I will have been ordered to do so by a police person under violent threat of financial loss I will carry on bare-headed.

Now I have lost my thread.



Instead of over 12 kilometers bitumen and 2.5 kilometers dirt and gravel, according to my TomTom there should be another way only a total of 12.5 kilometers long. I soon discovered this route would probably be all dirt road. After 3 kilometers it turned into a sand road, closely following the river. The road narrowed into a path. I was enjoying the ride very much and did not mind occasionally having to step down because the sand was too soft in places. Then the path turned rocky. Then it stopped.



I had found the old disused rail bridge. There used to be a railroad going all the way up to Laura, but it was never used and these are the tragic remains.


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