Apperently this place is so called bacause Captain Cook’s compass messed up when he sailed past the island on his voyage of 1770. On a related note, there’s a town a little further down the coast from here called ‘1770’, named after that year. These random facts are brought to you by the Rough Guide and the Footprint Guide, my two bibles for this trip.

I didn’t post from my last stop at Mission Beach a little further north, mainly due to it being in the middle of nowhere and thus having no Internet. The town didn’t even have a bank, it was that remote. But it did have beautiful rainforest stretching right down to the sea, which was lined with 14 km of long sandy beaches and smaller bays, separated by outcrops of black basalt rock. There were cassowaries too, which I’d post a photo of if only I could install my camera drivers on one of these damned computers (this time the base unit is locked away in a cupboard so I can’t even get near it…).

I’m here for another day or so here then I’ve got a six hour coach journey down to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands (another place named by Cook, but no points for guessing why). I’m hoping to do some overnight camps for a change when I get there rather than hostels, which I’m beginning to get a little bored of!