Day 237. Gregory Downs to Karumba

Aye Karumba! It's the ocean again...
  

Old Man Emu dodging death





With a big drive ahead of us today, we were up and packing at the crack of dawn. We managed to be on the road and saying goodbye to the lovely Gregory Downs by 8am. The sun was already high in the sky and the temperature was nudging 24deg. Beautiful 'Agile Wallabies' lined the road eating their last meal of grass before finding some shade to retire to for the day. There were 'Whistling Kites' and 'Crows' circling the mornings road kill around every corner.

It wasn't long before we encountered our first road trains, and as usual being on a one lane highway it was a hairy experience. We pulled completely off the road and parked many times when we saw them approaching in the distance. It just isn't worth it to go any other way; if a four trailer road train drops it's wheels off the left hand side of the road by the time the fourth trailer goes off, the swing can be devastating. The rocks they can throw up would do your windscreen in for sure, not to mention the dust they throw up. At one stage we pulled over for a convoy of four x four trailer road trains that shook the van even sitting on the side of the road nearly over on it's side.



Brolga taking off in flight

We stopped at the Bourke and Wills Road house for fuel. I promised Scarlett an ice-cream for being such a good girl in the car, but alas their ice-cream freezer was all but empty. Lucky I had some frozen yoghurt's in the van to soften the blow. An ice-cream here would have been $5 for sure anyway, so it was good for me though.

It was here we now finish our back tracking from Adels Grove/Lawn Hill and again started the trek North. We are all excited to see the ocean again today, even though we wont be able to swim in it. Not long after lunch we hit Normanton, where we were straight into the first shop to grab some fresh (well thawed out today) bread for lunch. We haven't been able to get bread for a few days now and we are all over 2 minute noodles for lunch. So armed with some bread and cold roast beef we hit the local park for a bite to eat, and stretch our legs.


Scarlett outside to visitor info centre - closed of course!

The park was also home to 'Krys the Savannah King', who is an accurate artist impression of a crocodile shot on the Norman River by Kyrstina Pawlowski, who was a local croc shooter back in 1957. Krys measured in at 8.63m, and is the largest authenticated crocodile ever shot as listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It's a real pity there are no crocodiles left in the wild today this size; she must have been well over 100 years old.

Krys the Savannah King

There isn't much else here in Normanton, but we will come back through here next week and check out the 'Gulflander' train. Today we only had 70 more km's to go, so we jumped back in the car to get it over and done with. When we arrived at Karumba we booked into the 'Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park', and it is so tropical and beautiful. The beach is literally across the road, and the place is filled with fisherman. The owners here are some of the nicest I have ever met, and they made us feel so welcome.


A Pelican in amongst the Brogas is a sure sign of the ocean


Our site is right across from the pool, which Scarlett was stoked with. There are palm trees everywhere, and we feel like we are truly back in the tropics. We went to the local tavern and sat in their lovely beer garden and watched a beautiful sunset over the water again. It was a luxury this evening we have not been privy to since way back in Derby. The seafood here is so cheap, and we have decided for both lunch and dinner tomorrow it will be seafood all the way. We have only booked in for two nights here, but I can see it becoming three or four quite easily.

Sunset over the ocean again