Back on the road heading south the weather was gradually clearing as we made our way past yesterday's destinations. By this stage I'd established that the old road from Cooktown to the Palmer followed a different line to today's Mulligan Highway, so I wasn't too concerned with trying to piece recollections together. I suspected there might be a turnoff to Butchers Hill somewhere along the way, but failed to spot it, if it actually existed.
After a brief halt at Lakeland Downs we were back on, or close to, the old road to the Palmer as we went up and over the Byerstown Range.
Having halted at the lookout for a view back towards Cooktown (we'd been in a hurry to get to Laura on the way up, and, in any case, the lookout was a better fit for southbound motorists) where I'd been hoping for an aspect across the once-golden gullies of the Palmer, we headed back south, giving the Palmer Roadhouse a miss this time around and making another scenic stop at the Mt Bob lookout.
As the astute reader might surmise, there isn't a whole lot to occupy the mind on this section of highway, and the journey out always seems longer than the outwards leg, though there's no scientific reason why that should be so. More…
