Blogs from Karumba, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

After some weeks in the Northern Territory, it was time to move east and into Queensland. So we headed north from Alice Springs expecting to cross with some other friends who we thought were headed southbound, somewhere around Tennant Creek. We didn't see them along the way and they didn't respond to our UHF radio calls. As it happens, they didn't see us and we didn't respond to their UHF radio calls either. Friends they were travelling with had a caravan problem so we had settled for the evening at The Pebbles (or Devils Pebbles) camp spot about 15 ks north of Tennant Creek, and had done so before they finally arrived at Tennant Creek. The Pebbles (down about 6ks of average dusty, rutted road) is a very pleasant spot to stop overnight. There are smaller ... read more

Well we left Victoria Point on 8/3/2013 so nearly 2 months and we are still in QLD. Having left Atherton we headed up and over the tablelands, the car performed well up those hills, we ended up pulling in at Croydon around lunch time and settled in to the only C/P in the town electing to stay for 1 night.Like a lot of these outback towns it grew out of the mining boom in the late 1800's, and like so many of these towns they have attempted to preserve some of their heritage,here they have 4 well preserved buildings dating back to 1887 when the court house was built,an interesting history we enjoyed the heritage walk. 4 ks out of town is Lake Belmore where water sports of all kinds are available as well as fishing ... read more

Well we have made it to the Gulf of Carpentaria, not actually planned for today but we decided to push on and get here a day earlier, We are all spent!!!( We travelled around 510 ks today ) Not a great nights sleep last night, we slept between road trains wizzing by, the free camp was close to the road,as they say you get what you pay for. We stopped in Cloncurry to top up on fuel,then headed off for Burke and Wills roadhouse, a tiny Oasis in the middle of nowhere, we stopped in there and all had steak sandwhiches for lunch then headed for the Gulf, Our car copped two stone chips one has now turned into a rather large crack, we only replaced the windscreen about 4 weeks ago, so not happy!!! We ... read more

1-9-11 today we are heading toward Karumba, through Mt Surprise, & Georgetown, where we got petrol for $1.54 & we did not get gas as it was $1.21. We decided to camp at Cumberland Historic Mine Site (249) a great free camp. We set up & it was so hot, Margy & I got into our sarongs & wet ourselves, it was great. We put the chuffa on & cooked tea & sat by the fire that night, it was good. We did 350 km today. 2-9-11Today we went through Croyden & stopped at Normanton where we had our photo taken with a croc statue. It was killed in 1957 & is believed to be the biggest croc killed in the world .On to Karumba where we booked into The Sunset Caravan Park at Karumba Point. ... read more

Saturday 13th August 2011 We managed to get away by 8.15am going south through Cairns continuing until just before Innisfail. The 90kms or so to the town of Ravenshoe was up and down, but nowhere near as hilly and steep as through Kuranda or Mareeba. We had no problems with the Jeep, our confidence in it slowly increasing. We stopped by the oval in Ravenshoe for morning tea where we talked to a couple from WA going the other way, and another couple headed to Normanton. The latter couple before us but it didn't take long to catch up and pass them. Perhaps we'll see them at the Gilbert River stop-over we are headed for. Lunch was had in Georgetown, a pretty little town from what we could see, with clean conveniences and a 'dump point' ... read more