Day 26 - Merluna Station to Weipa (Sat May 19th)

Sunrise at Merluna Station

It was a chilly dewy morning in the country side. We only had a short drive today, so we were in no rush packing up.

The road was pretty good except for one section that was quite bumpy, we bounced along for a while. Damon was finding it hard to see the potholes from all the shadows of the tall gums on either side of the road. The road crews were working on this section as we bounced past.

We were listening to John Williamson on the way, it was very aussie passing the forest of gums, and seeing kangaroos bound across the road up ahead.

Passing York Downs Homestead and Station we saw they have signs advertising meat/beef for sale, this would be a good place to stock up on meat if needed.

We passed the mining area as we came closer to town, it's interesting seeing how it all operates. We kept an eye out for the huge hauling trucks, but didn't see any, only this guy flying towards us.

We arrived by 11.30am, it was a nice 2 hour drive to the Weipa Camping Ground, where we picked ourselves a perfect camp spot.

The view from our bed

If anyone is coming to Weipa, ask for site UP5, its right on the beach, over looking Albatross Bay. It has nice green grass and some afternoon sun. A few people that wondered past mentioned we had the best site in the park, and we agreed.

We paid $24/night for unpowered, and as seems to be the norm, kids under 5 are free

After lunch we went for a drive around town, the coastal drive from Evan's Landing back to Nanum and the Weipa Camp ground was nice. We ducked down different beach tracks, came across 2 lakes, one was called Patricia Lake and had day use facitlites and a playground for the kids. There is no motorised craft allowed on the lake, but it would be nice to take a canoe or kayak out.

Patricia Lake

Trunding boat ramp - looking back towards our camp

Loading wharf at Evan's Landing

Back at camp, after some grocery shopping we all had a swim in the pool.

A few people have told us not to bother coming to Weipa, as there isn't much here. We're glad we didn't listen to them and came to check it out for ourselves, as we really like it here.

We have a resident Jabiru out on the flats catching fish, the kids had a nice play on the beach, then we enjoyed another awesome sunset. 

It felt a little like Darwin, at Mindil Beach, where everyone comes down to watch the sunset with their sundowners. We all looked like statutes when taking our pictures, everyone came out of the wood work to watch the sun go down over the ocean.