Day 34 – Karumba (Sun May 27^th)

Another chilly, windy morning, at 15 degrees, it’s cold for us north queenslanders!

The Sunset Tavern at Karumba Point holds a market on Sunday, so we went and checked it out. We grabbed a few great bargains, and discussed with the locals, the out of ordinary cold weather they are having at the moment. No one can get over how dirty and murky the river is, which is normally blue. This would of been nice to see, but it’s not going to be the case this time.

After the markets we drove into the town of Karumba, which is down river a little from Karumba Point. There isn’t a lot here really, its a little fishing town.

It’s started to warm up this arvo, although it was still windy, it was lovely in the sunshine.

Our stay at Karumba had a wonderful finale, with dinner and a nice sunset at The Sunset Tavern. The water seemed a little clearer this afternoon.

Damon has had his heart set on a bucket of prawns and a beer at The Sunset Tavern, whilst watching the sunset! I had a prawn and fetta pizza, both meals were delicious. 

We were pleased the weather fined up for us to enjoy our last afternoon here.

We are heading west tomorrow, and it's back on the dirt. We are aiming to free camp at Leichhardt Falls.

Day 33 – Croydon to Karumba (Sat May 26^th)

It was even colder this morning, at only 14 degrees, we didn’t want to get out of bed.  It was therefore a slow morning, and we didn’t end up leaving until 10am.

We called into the Croydon General Store, which was opened in 1884, making it the oldest store in Qld. They have some of the original gold rush equipment on display in their mini museum, which was very interesting.

Croydon Butcher

Museum at Croydon General Store

We saw 2 wedge tail eagles along the way, but it was the Brolga that showed its face the most today. The area around Normanton is surrounded by floodplains and wetlands which are home to abundant bird life, including the Brolga. 

We had lunch at Normanton, which was established as a port for the gulf’s cattle industry, and later grew in importance with the discovery of Gold at Croydon in 1885. So, became the port for Croydon's Gold Rush.

One of the town’s greatest tourist attractions is The Railway Station and The Gulflander, which celebrated 120 years of service last year. The Gulflander travels from Normanton to Croydon on Wednesdays, and returns to Normanton on Thursdays. The road follows the train line, it would of been great to see the Gulflander on its weekly trip. We missed the location of the train station on the way into town, so we will call in and take a look on our way west in a few days time.

Krys – The Savannah King resides here, he is an accurate artists impression of the largest recorded saltwater crocodile captured in the world. Measuring at 8.63m long, he was captured in 1957 in the Norman River.

The LEW Henry Park is behind where Krys hangs out, this would be a nice lunch stop. Its shady, with green grass and tables out of the wind. We didn't see it until after our windy, chilly lunch at a rest stop on the Norman River 2km north of town.  

The purple pub in Normanton

The Burns Philp Building which houses the information centre, is well worth a visit. With friendly staff, great displays and heaps of useful information.

The sun has come out this afternoon for the first time since we arrived into Cairns 4 days ago, so it has been very welcome. We are now on the opposite side of the Qld coast!

We continued on from Normanton, through the Muttonhole Wetlands onto Karumba Point.

Karumba is well known for its fishing and prawning, and is on Norman River. Karumba Point, where we are staying, is at the mouth of the Norman River.

Mouth of the Norman River

We are camped at Karumba Point Tourist Park for 2 nights. We tried to get into Karumba Point Sunset CP, but it was all booked out, this CP is across the road from the Norman River and closet to The Sunset Tavern, which probably makes it the most popular of the two.

Karumba Point Tourist Park, is also pretty full, apart from the unpowered sites which we have all to ourselves. It is known for its famous free fish BBQ every Saturday night, with fun entertainment afterwards provided by anyone and everyone. It's a big event for everyone in the park, they all rock up with their drinks, plates and chairs. One of the guys came down especially to make sure we were going. The kids had already been fed, but we wandered down with our drinks and chatted to a few of the park locals. 

We seem to be the youngest people in town, with both caravan parks full of grey nomads escaping the winter down south. I spoke to 2 ladies today, both staying in each of the caravan parks, and they have both been coming here, every year for 10 years. 

I think this is the same story for most of the people here at the moment. They come for the fishing, the laid back warmish winter and the comradery of all their friends that come too!

The park where we are staying has a happy, friendly, close nit feel about it, and they all love chatting to the kids! I guess they all miss their grandchildren.

A lot of them have Barramundi signs out the front of their camps which have their names written on them. All the lane ways have funny names, and there are places like 'have a chat tree' and the whinging tree.  

Unpowered sites are $28/night for 2 adults. I think this is the cheaper of the 2 parks at Karumba Point.

The moon is out tonight, smiling at me as I write this, so I am hoping for a clear, warmer day tomorrow. A night cap of Port is keeping me warm at the moment though, which is nice.

Day 32 – Undara to Croydon (Fri May 25^th)

The clear, starry night didn’t last long, the sky opened up about 2am and it poured with rain.

So much for our sunny day today, it’s a bleak 16 degrees, with an icy strong wind! We had to dig out our bag of winter woollies, which we didn’t expect to be using until we were in the NT desert and Perth.

By the sounds of it though, we were lucky to get out of Cairns when we did. They have had some horrendous weather, including Port Douglas, with roads being cut along the coast north of Cairns. The Rex Range we came down the other day, was also closed due to landslides. So, we are thinking ourselves lucky that we missed all that!

The 2 hour Archway Explorer Tour we did this morning was awesome, and made up for the yukky weather. The 2 lava tubes we visited today were formed 190,000 years ago, when the Undara Volcano erupted. The lava flows here, are the longest formed from a single volcano in modern geological time.

We packed up after our enlightening tour, and were very lucky to get it packed up before it started to shower again. Phew, we like a nice dry camper!

At 11am when we left it was still 16 degrees, we wanted to drive until we found sunshine, but didn't think that it was going to happen somehow L

The road towards Normanton follows the Old Telegraph Line, the poles are all in good condition with most of their insulators still on. No one steals them out here.

We saw heaps of kangaroos today, and 6 Wedge tail eagles, they sure are impressive creatures.

Lunch was at a shelter shed in Georgetown, which is a small gold mining town. 20 kms out of town is the Historic Cumberland Chimney, which is all that remains of the gold crushing plant that was built by Cornish Masons. This is a nice rest stop, with a billabong which is home to many different birds.

We arrived at Croydon CP at 4pm, and yep, it’s still 16 degrees, Brrrrrrr!

Unpowered sites are $19.50/night for 2 adults, it’s a council run CP. They have 2 free washing machines, which I utilised. Dryer’s are the normal $3. The showers are really clean with slate floors. And the people are very friendly.

We opted for a pub meal tonight, it’s too bloody cold to be outside cooking, and along with the risk of rain, we trotted off to the Club Hotel for dinner. 

On the walls outside the pub, there is this great 60m mural, which was painted by Rod Lucas as a gift to the hotel. These pics are sections of the mural.

The hospitality from the publican at The Club Hotel Croydon was fantastic. She made us feel so welcome. She gave the kids balloons to blow up, and colouring pencils and paper, she even stuck Sienna’s picture up on the hotel door. 

When we were eating dinner, she went and got cushions for the kids so they could reach the table.

They had Toss the Boss on at the bar, and we ended up winning a free drink, yippie! and the chicken parmy was delicious to, which topped it all off.

We bumped into some people that were on the Undara Tour with us this morning. One of the guys said to Cam “are you following us”, to which he replied “no, we’re waiting for our dinner.”  Hehe, too cute.

Day 31 – Cairns to Undarra Lava Tubes (Thurs May 24^th)

We were on the road by 8am, and it was another showery day in Cairns. Our journey this morning took us up the Gilies Range from Gordonvale to the Atherton Tablelands. We stopped at the cute little town of Yungaburra for a coffee at the whistle stop cafe, which has heaps of character. Unfortunately Damon’s cappuccino wasn’t up to standard, but my Mocha was ok. We had lunch here last year, and the food was awesome, so just unlucky today with the coffee.

Coming into Atherton we grabbed a bargain bag of Avo’s for $2 on the side of the road, they’re perfect too!

After ringing Main Roads and finding out the Burke Development Road was still closed, we turned left and headed along the Herbeton Range to Ravenshoe, which is the highest town in Qld. It was like driving through clouds, with misty rain and clouds all around. We now know why this area is called the Misty Mountains!

On the rolling hills before you come to Ravenshoe, are these impressive wind turbines which generate green energy for this area.

The info centre at Ravenshoe is fantastic! Very informative with great displays, and well set out. The lady here was extremely friendly and helpful.

Lunch was at Innot Hot Springs, about 20km out of town along the Savannah Way. The springs were a warm welcome to such a chilly day up here. Although I burnt my foot, the edges of the springs are a lot hotter than in the middle. Ouch!

Innot Hot Springs

The road into Undara Lodge

We arrived at Undara Lodge in the Undara National Park by 2pm, set up camp, took the kids for a swim and had a wander around the resort. Some of the accomodation here is in old original train carriages, so too is the bar and bistro area. You can dine inside these train carriages.

This carriage has been turned into an Info centre

We have booked ourselves for a tour in the morning of the Lava Tubes, which we are looking forward to.

Unpowered camp sites are $22/night for 2 adults, our kids were free.

Here is the link for the resort and lava tube tours

www.undara.com.au

There are a heap of Kangaroos here, all around the camp sites and lodge.

We had a quick fire in the arvo, there isn’t a lot of firewood around, you can buy it at the resort for $9 though. 

Luckily the kids got to toast some marshmellows before it started to spit with rain, and our fire went out.

Damon and I enjoyed a night cap of Port, and were happy to see the night filled with stars. We could be in for a sunny day tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Day 30 – Cairns Clean up (Wed May 23^rd)

We’re glad it rained last night and again today, we don’t feel so bad now for cheating and getting a unit for our clean up.

The truck had a service today, and is now ready for our trip along the Savannah Way! We wiped most of the red dust and mud off everything, did loads of washing, and shopping.

We leave tomorrow, heading inland, over the tablelands to Undara National Park.

Day 29 - Laura to Cairns (Tue May 22nd)

4 weeks ago today we left home on our big adventure!  A nice easy drive today, along the bitumen we covered 317km in about 4 hours.

The grey nomads were out in full force heading north!

We came down the Rex Range to the coast and followed the lovely coastal drive into Cairns. Rain has been forecast for the next few days here, so we bit the bullet and booked 2 nights in a self contained unit. Our plan whilst here in Cairns is a huge clean up, before we head off along the Savannah Way, and the next part of our trip.  All of which would of been difficult if camping in the rain.

Our unit looks like a bomb site! We unpacked everything out of the car and plan to free it all of that lovely red dust.

The car and camper had some pampering this arvo, we took them to a car wash and gave them a good scrub, and managed to get rid of most of the red dust. The car is also booked in tomorrow for an oil and oil filter change. After their bath, we ducked into Cairns Central for a quick stock up for dinner. We had an interesting entry into the car park. It's paid parking here, so after grabbing our ticket we proceeded through the boom gate. This boom gate didn't sense our trailer we were towing, so it was ripped clean off in the process. Oppppps!!!

On return to our car, we noticed the boom gate had been put back in place, and was working again. To avoid the same problem on the way out, i had to stand and catch the gate as it tried to drop down on our trailer again.

Back at the unit, we did some washing, cleaning and enjoyed the creature comforts a house/unit brings. The kids were most excited, and a little hyped up.

We were hoping to do the Burke Development Road from Cairns to Karumba, but unfortunately a large section of it remains closed. So, it looks like we will be taking the bitumen highway to Karumba.

Day 28 - Weipa to Laura (Mon May 21st)

After swapping blogs with our fellow Camprite campers, we took off for a long day's drive, on our way to Cairns.

Loading Bauxite at Evan's Landing Wharf

We didn't exactly know where we were going to get to, but ended up in Laura after a 498km drive along a dirt road.  The road has deterioated since our trip north 2 weeks ago. A lot more corrugations, loose large stones and traffic!  The road crews are still out grading the roads.

Most of the creek crossing have dried up now, and it's dustier, with the bush on the sides of the road turning red from the dust.

Rest, stretch and pic stop

Where the road veers left to Weipa or right to The Tip

We noticed some of the original telegraph poles today, they are on the left hand side of the road heading south. Most of them have been stripped of their insulators by travelers for souvierns.

We passed through the Quarantine Station, where they checked our fruit and vege, and asked about any driftwood we may be carrying.

Lunch was had on the banks of the Coen River, which was really nice. We watched some of the local kids spearing fish and yabbies in the creek.

Checking out the water snake cruising along
the banks feeding

Coen River

   































After a Happy 4th Birthday call to cousin Sophie in Perth, (whom we are all excited to see in 3 months), we were on our way again.

We made it to Laura about 5pm and set up a quick camp at the Quinkan Hotel camping grounds. The grounds are grassy and with only a few other campers there was plenty of space. It's nice and cheap at only $16/night for 2 adults.

We were all pretty buggered and hit the sack nice and early.

Day 27 - Weipa - Day trip to Penefather River and beach camps (Sun May 20th)

It was a magic day today, we started it of by watching our Jabiru catching some fish for his breaky. Damon got some great pics of him.

 

  

After our breaky we drove up to the Penefather River to check out the beach camp spots for future reference.

The Penefather River is about 70 km north of Weipa, and is a very popular spot for locals, and travellers like us to camp. One local told us, some of them camp for up to 6 weeks, even growing they're own vegies!

The camp spots are either on the beach, under the sheoaks south of the river, or up near the river mouth and also along the Penefather River. We didn't actually venture to the river mouth this time, but kept south of the river mouth and had lunch on the beach. We could easily spend a week here, especially if we came with a group of mates, with one of them bought a boat, hehe. The only thing that gets me, is that we can't swim! Camping right on the beach, when it's hot, and this beautiful is like tortue.

 

We chatted to some campers who had been camping here for a week, they had a perfect spot under the sheoaks, in the breeze. They said they had seen a croc cruising past, and also one up on the beach, maybe the same one. We had our eyes peeled, but didn't spot him.

 

The track into the beach is narrow, with some soft sand. Once closer to the beach and amongst the sand dunes, the tracks are very soft. The first camp spots are on the sand dunes where the track pops out, then it's a further 8km drive north to the river mouth. A permit is needed to camp anywhere around here, and these can be obtained from the Weipa Camping Ground or the council office in Weipa.

We saw this amazing little waterhole on the road out to the Penefather River, some locals were enjoying a refreshing dip when we stopped to have a look at this waterhole.

We wanted to have a dip, but didn't pack our swimmers as we didn't expect to be swimming, or find anything like this. I will have to make sure our swimmers are in the car at all times now.

Back at camp we had our swim in the pool. Whilst having our swim, we saw a 4wd towing a Camprite rock up. I had to go say hi to our fellow Camprite campers! They are from Grafton, and are on a 6 month trip around Oz as well. They are 2 weeks ahead of us into their trip, have 2 kids, and are pretty much heading in the same direction as us. So we're bound to bump into them along the way somewhere.

The day ended with yet another beautiful sunset!

We leave tomorrow, heading for Cairns, with an over night stop, somewhere along the way. We've enjoyed our time here, and could of spent longer. Next time we will, when ever that may be.