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Sunset over Karumba
Jackies camera sunset over Karumba 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 for Barramundi, we drove out there and threw a line in but as usual caught nothing.
In the evening we decided to treat ourself's to a pub meal but not before attending the happy hour around the camp fire hosted by the owner of the camp.The meal was as always a good outback pub meal we both had steak yummy.
Next
day we set off for Karumba a fishing haven or so we have been told,we passed through several small hamlets and through Normanton deciding to push on to Karunda and visit Normanton either on our way back or as a day trip,We had been advised of 3 C/P's in Karumba by our fellow travellers at Croydon 1 was in town and 2 on the point next to the water, we elected to stay at Karumba point tourist park about a 15min walk to the water.
The camp is full of tinnies and the talk is all about fishing,not having a boat we decided to take on a fishing charter the day after we arrived.So at 6-30am we followed the charterboat to the ramp and set off for a days fishing,which started off very slow,bu as the day developed we were soon catching fish, including hooking up a hugh ray that refused to be drawn in ,so the line was cut.
The owner of the boat Robert was a bit short on personality but knew how to find fish.Also 3 days ago he had set some crab pots and asked if it ws ok to pull them in and
fishing spoils
Catch of the day see what was to be had, out of 6 pots we gathered 12 leagal mud crabs and a few undersized which we threw back, on our return he gave us 2 of the crabs and all our catch.At the fish cleaning station I enlisted the wisdom of a guy who was even older than me to guide me through the best way to fillet and skin the catch ,which was mainly blue nosed salmon and a few skippys.We now have an abundance of fish in the freezer.The next day we tried our hand at fishing off the beach catching only 1 catfish and 1 puffer, it ws also very warm at 38deg so we didn't last long and retired to the pub for an afternoon cold one.
We decide to pay a day trip to Normanton a return trip of 140ks, again this town was built on the gold rush in the late 1800's and several historic buildings still remain and open for viewing.Normanton is also home of The Gulflander train which conducts overnight trips to Croydon through the Savanna country a return trip of over 200ks and is an important tourist attraction together with the musem and old
fishing spoils
Bluenosed salmon rolling stock. The train and the station are unique in that they are not connected to any other part of the Australian railway system
In town on the main road is a replica of the largest croc known to have been shot and recorded, it was shot by a true licenced croc hunter one of only a few female hunters of her time,Kyrstina Pawlowski was famous in her time and the croc is named Krys in her honour which she shot in 1957, it is estimated to have weighed 2 tonnes
Whilst here we decide to vist Burke and Wills camp 119f which is situated some 33ks out of town on a gravel road.It is marked with a plaque in remembrance of that fatefull journey and camp which was established in February 1861,this was to have been their most northerly camp, from which Burke and Wills set out to reach the coast only to return never reaching their goal.It was humbling to stand in that space where so much Australian history was made.
Whilst here in Karumba and on our camp site we have taken advantage of the swimming pool to help cool off having daytime temps
fishing spoils
Just need filleting of up to 38deg and the local bar serves cold beer and the setting provides for some beautiful sunsets.Today Sunday we walked to the point and broused around the local Sunday market which was mainly crafts and fishing gear.We are here until Wed when we will head off for Adel's grove via Burktown along the Savanna way, providing the road is open and not to full of potholes, we will check with the information centre at Normanton
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Amazing sunset
I love this photo. Great job.