Day 35 – Karumba Point to Leichardt falls (Mon May 28^th)

It’s another cold, windy, yet sunny day. Although it is warmer than yesterday which is a bonus. We grabbed a kilo of prawns for $15 on our way out of Karumba Point CP to have for lunch on the road, yummo!

Olga the Brolga

Our first stop was the Normanton Railway Station to check out the Gulflander Train. The gulflander was built to connect the once bustling river port of Normanton to the rich goldfields of Croydon.

After leaving Normanton we continued to head west along the Savannah way. 

We stopped at the Burke and Wills camp 119 and enjoyed some Australian history! This was Burke and Wills second last camp before they perished on their journey home during their expedition in 1860/1861.

Many of the trees here are marked or Blazed as it’s called, King and Grey marked 14 trees whilst waiting at camp 119 for Burke and Wills to return from their dash to the ocean.  They can still be seen today, it was awesome to see and feel the history here.

It was great having this special place to ourselves too, we were the only ones here this morning.

Frank Walkers Blazed Tree

After our history lesson we stopped a little further on for lunch at the Bynoe river. We sat on the side of the road and enjoyed our prawn rolls.

The road today was like a dirt track most of the way, it has only opened within the last few days due to water and damage. We did see one grader working by himself, he has a lot of work ahead of him.

The animal of the day today was cows, and heaps of them. The cattle stations around here keep their cows close to the road. Unfortunately we saw a few lying stiff on the side of the road!

We haven’t come across many people today on the road, only our Camprite mates we met in Weipa. It’s a nice feeling being out here in the middle of nowhere by ourselves, and away from civilisation.

Collecting firewood Savannah style

Leichardt falls is a pretty well known free camp spot on the Leichardt River, we arrived here about 4.30pm and set up camp for the night.

There were a few people here, but there is plenty of room to spread out, so you don’t feel like your on top of each other.

The kids loved it here! Playing in the sand with their trucks, collecting firewood and pretending to build their own fire too. We kicked back with a rum and enjoyed the view of the falls before Damon got the fire going.

This would have to be one of our better camps, we could only imagine how perfect it would be without this wretched wind we’ve copped over the last few days. We weren’t too sure how the fire would go with the strong wind, but Damon managed to get it going for us all to enjoy!

We spent another clear, cool night by the fire thinking how lucky we are to be doing this and seeing our fine country.