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Published: August 19th 2009
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Day 110 - Chasing the sunset at Karumba
Just a quick birthday shout out to Sarah (Kowalik) at Tradeteam. Hope you have a great day chick. Thanks for the facebook message, great to hear from you. We both slept pretty well last night, one spate of dog barking but that was it. At first light Dar went off for a shower and I buried my head back in the blogs trying to catch up! When we’re doing so much in the day and early evening there’s obviously less time to write it all but we want to keep doing it so we don’t forget what we’ve seen on this amazing adventure. The fact that anyone else is reading it is rewarding and uplifting bonus so do please carry on! In fact, whilst we’re out here if there’s an Australian subject that anyone is interested in hearing more about then let us know and we’ll try to do some sort of feature on it! It would also give us some added focus which is always good!
I was still typing away and sorting through photos when the clock struck nine. Enough’s enough, we need to get a wriggle on
or we’ll be spending the hottest part of the day trapped in the car!
There was no time for a morning swim in the lovely pool before leaving Croydon but we did manage to stop by the Old Police House and walk through the Chinese exhibition set out in there. It’s very informative and describes how Croydon was once the fourth largest town in all of Queensland boasting 36 hotels! It’s very interesting to learn more about the Chinese contribution to the growth of the town and the prosperity in what was considered to be a remote and isolated place. The Chinese flourished in North Croydon supporting the miners as cooks, bakers, butchers and storekeepers. In 1904 the Chinese Temple was opened and the remains are recognised as an important archaeological site today. An interesting element of Chinese culture is the wish to return to the ancestral homeland after death. For many Croydon Chinese residents however this was not the case and therefore the local cemetery features the largest quantity of hand made Chinese tombstones in Queensland, a poignant reminder to those who lived and died here.
We bid Croydon a fond farewell and we’ll be sure to
tell everyone we meet what a great place it is to stop for a day or two or three or four, oh go on, stay a week!
Back on the Savannah Way the road conditions are good and we don’t encounter much traffic once we’re past a caravan experiencing a bit of a tail swing! Further along the road, Dar pointed out the railway line running alongside, it must be the rails for the Gulflander. We’re not expecting to see that today as it left from Croydon early yesterday morning before we arrived, seeing trains appears not to be our thing at the moment!.
It turns out that the whole journey from Croydon to Karumba is on sealed two lane bitumen which is in good condition! Always a bonus and fantastic for us and the preservation of our vehicles! This also means the time travelling from A to B is a lot less, no cattle to slow down for, no need to get off the road for oncoming traffic unless of course it’s a wide road train but we encounter none of those today!!
We drive through Normanton with its Purple Pub. It looks a nice place
but we were happy to stay in Croydon last night so don’t feel like we’ve missed out at all.
On the road to Karumba Point we pass hundreds and hundreds of Brolgas in the billabongs on the side of the road! We’ll have to stop and take some photos tomorrow when we come back along the same route!
Karumba Point is on the mouth of the Norman River in the Queensland Gulf Savannah. It’s renowned for spectacular sunsets and for its fishing!
We arrive at the Karumba Point Tourist Park which is well placed being only a km from the main town but on a hot day like this there will be a welcome breeze coming across the bay! We toyed with the idea of staying a couple of nights but despite the lure of a free Fish BBQ tomorrow we’re heading off in the morning.
The first couple of hours here is spent unloading the car to see if there is actually enough room in the back for us to sleep. Not that we want to sleep in there tonight you understand, we’re checking it out because we want to travel to Lawn Hill National
Is this an Osprey?
We just can't be sure! Park. We can’t take the van there as the road is apparently rough so we’re going to sleep in the back of the car instead! We try it for size and we think that we’ll fit if we curl our toes! We try booking a spot at Adels Grove, the campsite slightly outside the National Park but try as we might we can’t get in there on the nights we want. Nevermind, we’ll think of something but right now we should get out in the sun and search for ice cream!
We grab the bikes and hit the road to the Gulf of Carpentaria! It’s an easy cycle and we’re there in no time at all. We cycle around to the far side and watch the fishermen for a while. There’s a bit of activity out on the water and Darryl thinks he may have spotted a saltwater crocodile but it’s a long way off so we really can’t be certain. There’s plenty of birdlife down here too and it seems we’re not the only ones watching the fishermen, the birds keep stealing the bait! We think there’s a mixture of Whistling and Black Kites but there was a
possible Osprey hanging around at one point too.
We need to get our fix of ice cream so cycle back down to the general store to get a couple of their finest then cycle over to the beach to watch the sun go down. As Darryl was proudly eating his ice-cream he had a close encounter with a Black Kite who quite fancied a bit of it too and cheekily stole the top chocolate bit from right under his nose! It’s quite un-nerving with these birds circling above us!
We meet a lovely couple, the Danns, from Castlemaine Victoria. They’re great fun and are travelling around in their car on an 8 week or so trip. They say to look them up if we’re down that way, they should be easy to find, they’re the only Danns in Castlemaine in the book! Shortly after sunset we got chatting to another group including a lady, Leonora and her husband who give us their card and urge us to visit them in New South Wales if we go back in that direction! It was very unexpected but we gratefully accept the card and we’ll try to look them up towards
the end of this trip or the start of another!
The sunset was lovely, not mind blowing but lovely all the same and shortly afterwards we cycle back to camp for dinner, cooked by Darryl of course!
We’re chuffed to get a message from Kangaroojack on Skype asking how our day has been, they’re now in Undara at the Lava Tubes getting ready to celebrate their anniversary! Next up was Mum K who sent us a couple of photos she’d taken in a fabulous looking garden, ours!! It’s almost unrecognisable! There’s obviously been some very hard work going on there, thanks Dad and thanks Mum!
New to Skype are Darryl’s Mum and Dad, Maureen and Ken. We’re really grateful to Nick, Darryl’s brother, for sorting them out with a webcam and setting up Skype too. It was excellent to be able to see you all looking so well and thanks very much for the call, it made our night.
With the blogs up to date and the time still only twenty past eleven, things are looking up!
Love to all
Dar and Sar
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Bill White
non-member comment
Greetings from Helen and Bill
It is great to hear you are enjoying such a fantastic trip. I would love to do a similar trip, just need to convince Helen. I don't know how you manage to do all these blogs, as I struggle to read them all but do enjoy them. Helen and I have just returned from Mooloolaba (Sunshine Coast ) for 9 days which was a good break, but now back to work. Jordan stared with us this week so he is on a steep learning curve. All our family are well and it sounds as if you are both well. Continue to have a good time love Helen and Bill