Date 18th August - 24th August
Burke & Wills Roadhouse, Queensland
Weather - 13℃ to 31℃, blue skies
Total Distance Travelled - 18,650 km
Staying 1 Nights,
We drove about 1.5 hours on Thursday morning, heading east to Cloncurry. We stopped briefly, before turning north onto the Matilda Way. We arrived at the Burke & Wills roadhouse (Four Ways), just after lunchtime, and grabbed a spot for the night. The van park got pretty crowded - people were still arriving after dark looking for a spot, and a helicopter decided to land just after 6pm for the night.
We were woken Friday morning by the helicopter taking off from the field adjacent to the roadhouse - a bit rude! Probably working on one of the cattle stations that surround us here. Then everyone started leaving by about 6:30am, so we were up & packing after a quick breakfast.
Our next destination was Karumba, a small town on the Gulf of Carpentaria, at the end of the Matilda Way. It was another 3 hour drive or so, our fourth day in a row of driving.
On the way into Karumba, just on the roadside we spotted a flock of Brolgas - we reckon we saw over 100 of them - pretty amazing sight to see.
Karumba Point, Queensland
Weather - 14℃ to 33℃, blue skies and some wind
Total Distance Travelled - 18,960 km
Staying 4 Nights, Karumba Sunset CP
Well we arrived in Karumba Point, pleased that we are setting up for the next 4 nights.
We were looking forward to a quiet few days after the driving we’ve done recently (over 1,700 kms in 4 days). We walked around to the Sunset Tavern for dinner. It was packed at 5:30pm, and we had to share a table at first. We watched the sunset before we had dinner & walked back to the camper trailer.
Saturday morning and we headed into Karumba town (about 8km around the corner). After coffees, we drove to the barramundi information centre, and bought fresh cooked local prawns for lunch.
Whilst walking and driving around town we saw Brolgas (so weird that they were everywhere), white corellas, and loads of wallabies. We also did a heritage walk saw some old wrecks from WWII and the beach.
We had booked a tour for the afternoon, and at 3:15pm we boarded a Ferryman cruises flat-bottomed boat for a “sunset & croc-spotting” cruise. Our skipper steered us up the Norman River, and we soon spotted 2 saltwater crocs sunning themselves on an island in the river.
Close by was a Black Necked Stork (Jabiru), which the cruise host fed with frozen barramundi (it floats). Apparently this Jabiru had been hand-reared, and has been fed daily its whole life. When the fish pieces were thrown into the water, the black kites & whistling kites dived in for their share, but the Black Necked Stork got most of it. We also saw some sea eagles, egrets, and another Black Necked Stork. We then had drinks and nibbles at sunset, before heading back to shore.
We had been keen to see any of the local wildlife up here on the gulf, so on Sunday morning, we headed south to “Mutton Hole Wetlands”, just north of Normanton. It was a bit disappointing, as there is not much water around - hence, not much birdlife to photograph. Spent the rest of our time in Karumba relaxing - it was nice to have 4 days in the one spot where all we did is read, walk and just doing nothing.
The last day in Karumba was Mike's birthday. He had a nice day - sleeping in, walking around the beach, which is a bit strange in itself -is more like mud flats than a beach and the top half of the beach is compressed with the mud which is dried with thousands of shells - you wouldn't walk barefoot on it - pretty to look around but not a place to go swimming. We also saw a pair of Brolgas feeding on the beach. The rest of the day we just sat around reading a book and a walk to dinner and a beautiful sunset. I think he had a pretty good day.
By now we have been on the road for over 11 weeks, and in that time we had only stayed in a hotel/pub room 3 nights - the last time had been in Fremantle, WA which was about 7 weeks ago. So we decided that we needed a day’s break from setting up the camper, and to sleep in a bed. We drove a couple of hours south to Croydon, where we booked into the pub for the night.
Croydon, Queensland
Weather - 13℃ to 31℃, blue skies / Windy night
Total Distance Travelled - 19,350 km
Staying 1 Night, Club Hotel
We walked around the old town, and drove out to a man-made lake, but overall it was a quiet, relaxing day, with a pub dinner to finish. Definitely worth it to sleep in a proper bed for a night (we missed having to sleep in the camper through a rather windy night), and we awoke refreshed.
Croydon (blue dot 40) was our first stop actually pointing towards home, from now we are heading back quickly . We will do the trip we planned for QLD another time in the future.
Looking at the map we are so surprised where we have been, what we have done in such a short amount of time.
We're off to explore the Savannah Way - see you real soon.
Cheers,
Mike & Michelle