Clare was born with the explorer’s gene. Leaving her home in England she set off alone into the unknown on a romantic journey to Australia. A match was born. The Cook story took John and Clare to Cooktown in far North Queensland, where Clare worked as a Dietitian looking after the health of the indigenous Guugu Yimithirr people, and John joined the Cooktown Re-enactment Association, helping to research Cook’s seven week stay there in 1770, and writing and producing the town’s annual re-enactment.
Together they found themselves always returning to the Cook story, which over the years grew several limbs – a self-guided tour of Cooktown’s historical sites followed, then a website describing Cook’s east coast journey, and now this book.
With it they hope to set the record straight, by letting Cook and his companions speak for themselves, saying what they saw and did, without the outside interference of any commentators.