The Gulf of Carpentaria and beyond

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Georgetown Rodeo, what a coup! We had resigned ourselves to the fact that getting to see a rodeo wasn’t going to happen, and here we are right in the thick of it, soaking up the thrills, the skills, the spills! Hey, when you’re in the front row and a very large and very angry bull charges right at you, there are a few extra spills!! (especially when it ends up 50% in the arena and 50% in the spectators stand) After 3 hours Deb took Steve home deciding too much excitement at his age was not good for his health…
Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria was our next stop. We stopped at Croydon for lunch by the side of lake Belmore, then turned right and headed north. What’s in Normanton? Bugger all, so we took a day trip out to Karumba - if you like fishing great, if you don’t, don’t. When the temps are in the 30s as you walk along the shore looking at the crystal clear turquoise water, knowing that you can’t go swimming because of them pesky little crocs, it’s very annoying. Before we left though, yes, we did have a pot at The Purple Pub.
Our next three nights we bit the bullet and went free camping by the river at Gregory Downs some 148km north west of Burke & Wills Roadhouse. What a great spot, and we met some great people, one being Stuart from Roadtek who not only changed our punctured tyre but then drove it over to 100km to Burketown for repair and then promptly returned it to our door. The cause of the puncture being the 190km drive on unsealed roads to get to Lawn Hill Gorge and back, but well worth the trip (have a gander at the pics). Our last day at Gregory was spent very lazy, but Steve floated a couple of times down the river on an inner tube.
Next we headed for Cloncurry which meant doubling back to Burke & Wills then turning south. We left Cloncurry on Monday morning for Mt Isa with ¼ tank of diesel…plenty! So why did the light go on some 45km still to go? (all will be revealed) We took the safe option and pulled over, calling for help on the radio. Within minutes a convoy of 3 caravans had pulled over to lend a hand - people we had met on previous camp sites - Debby was left behind whilst Steve set off for Mt Isa with jerry can in tow. 10km down the road Chris & Bev had a blow out, so the next 20 minutes were spent changing his wheel!!! Eventually Steve got back to the caravan having found Allan (another nomad who we had got to know very well) and begged a lift. We managed to make it to Mt Isa about 3 hours later than planned! (Steve has said several times over the years, who the f**k would want to go to Mt Isa? And here we were!!!!)
The following morning we were waiting to go on a mine tour when Debby returned back from Lucy Land Rover (Debby’s name for her) to say ‘Houston we have a problem’. There is a trail of diesel round the car park and it leads right to the back end of Lucy…we quickly discover that it is coming from the fuel filter and it takes the nice RACQ man 5 minutes to fix it - is this why we ran out of diesel????? (YES) We postpone the tour to the following day and spend a few hours shopping in the ‘metropolis’ of Mt Isa! Essentials like sweatshirts and thermals (it’s freezing here), mats for outside the caravan, couple of new chairs on sale at half price and some more food and wine!!!
We end this blog with thanks to Stuart from Roadtek, Chris, Bev and friends for the lift to Mt Isa, Allan for taking Steve back to the caravan to rescue the stranded Debby The State of Origin team for making it three nil and Mr Who (?) our nice Chinaman from RACQ.

Below we have shared some alternative definitions

Road Trains - Wing mirror eaters

Excursions - Money eaters

Red Wine - Liver eaters

Unsealed roads - Tyre eaters

Diesel $1.89 - Expensive Litres!!!!!!!

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Comments

[Wendy]

Great pics!