Blogs from Normanton, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

After leaving Normanton, it was time to head east for the coast, travelling the Savannah Way. Many fellow grey nomads were recommending we stop at Leichhardt Lagoon, and although it was only thirty kilometres east of Normanton, we decided to try it out. Leichhardt Lagoon is a semi off grid camp site, with only toilets and hot showers provided. We managed though to score a lagoon front caravan site, with an amazing view of the wildlife that inhabits the camp ground. After setting up, we walked down to the lagoon, and there was a freshwater crocodile waiting in the shallows for it's next meal. When walking back to the caravan, I saw something moving through the trees, and it was a Yellow Spotted Monitor, or Goanna. I walked over to the Goanna, which is Australia's largest ... read more

It was a long drive from Mount Isa back to Cloncurry, and then to head north towards the gulf. We had planned on stopping overnight at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, however, we reached the Roadhouse around 1.30pm, and there was nothing else there but the Roadhouse. After eating lunch, I felt well enough to keep driving, so we filled up with fuel, and kept driving through to Normanton, stopping at Normanton Caravan Park. For outback Queensland, it was a great caravan park, with a very clean 25 metre swimming pool, with a hot spa. The next day we drove around Normanton, stopping off at Krys, the monster crocodile that was caught in the nearby Norman River in 1957, and was 8.63 metres long. Krys was shot in the forehead by famed croc hunter Kristina Pawloski. ... read more

We were up early today for the Gulflander “Billy Tea and Damper Excursion”, a special run they do on Saturdays in the dry season. We’d been told not to eat anything as there was always heaps of food but it wasn’t coming until around 11ish so we had a light breakfast. We towed the van to the Station car park, which had plenty of room, and paid the fare (rather more than we had realised as you pay for the food – but it was worth it). There were three carriages, the front having the diesel engine and driver in it and the back, where we went, had the guard with his brake wheel and other equipment plus all the water for the toilet. The carriages were built in 1950 to a 1937 design (must have ... read more

Barry decided not to stay here any longer as he’s worried about a change of weather system which may leave us driving into a strong head wind, something we prefer not to do as it strains the ute and costs a lot more in fuel. We can look around the town on the return, if we want to. Just as we were about to leave, I saw some people looking up at a tree and taking photos. I went to see what they’d spotted and found it was a small brightly coloured parrot which they had hoped was the Cloncurry Parrot as they’d come especially to see it, but it wasn’t. I think it was a Red-necked Lorikeet. It was quite similar to a Rainbow Lorikeet but had more dark blue underpants and a red collar. ... read more

After spending a few weeks at Tully heads in Googarra Beach Caravan Park we headed past Innisfail & turned left onto the Palmerston Highway through Milla Milla & then left on to the Savannah Way to Georgetown.The road is all bitumen but a few places are narrow which can be a bit awkward to pass another vehicle coming in the opposite direction especially if the edges are wet.Common sense usually prevails & the trip to Gilbert River where we spent the night was uneventful.The Gilbert only had a bit of water in it due to the "wet season" being very dry, none of the gulf rivers had managed to flow but you don't have to look far to see how mighty they would be in a decent wet. Next morning we headed for Croyden which was ... read more