Gulf St Vincent to Gulf of Carpentaria

Karumba (with no sign of Bart Simmpson)

Left Cloncurry 28th June heading for Normanton which is 70kms south of Karumba (a port situated on Gulf of Carpentaria). Normanton CP is packed with quite small sites although it’s neat and tidy. Normally, we don’t book ahead but with the mass migration of retirees from the south, we’ve learnt that we need to be a tad organised – this can be difficult if there’s no mobile phone coverage and the decline of the telephone boxes.

Our original plan was to stay at Normanton one night then Karumba for another. After talking to other travellers, we decided to stay in Normanton and do a day trip to Karumba as it was booked out. Fishing is the main activity in Karumba with Raptis having a huge presence in the town. Prawns and fish were purchased for a future meal.
Karumba sprawls along the Nor
man River, which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The sparkling, teal river is quite wide and so clean – no industry to pollute the pristine waters! We’re currently 18.5 degrees south of the equator. We’re travelling the Savannah Way and the landscape has changed again with patches of lagoons, sprinkled with water lilies and brolgas and other bird life creating points of interest to vast areas of over-grazed land. Droughtmaster cattle bunch together with little or no shade or follow tail to nose along stretches of grassland. In places, salt encrusts the top soil and this may be because of the artesian bores in use. Short trees cluster along the roadway and saplings have begun to pop up after the flood. It’s difficult to imagine this area covered with water.

The danger of crocodiles is made quite clear with warning signs at different spots along the river. Ironically, the boat ramp has such a sign and to launch a boat, one has to wade into the river to get on board. When we arrived in Karumba, we were anticipating a beach – coming from Largs Bay and North Haven, we needed a “fix”. A local police officer gave us directions but warned us against swimming in the river. The beach is narrow with some sand, rocky outcrops and health mangroves dotting the shoreline. We saw our first pelican today and not long after another one was floating with the tide in the mangroves. Of course, I had to photograph the pelican – it’s almost an obsession as I take photos of pelicans everywhere we go on holiday. They are a pretty amazing bird with graceful gliding and flying yet awkward waddling on land. There’s just something special about the pelican.

Checking out the town, we located a pub which was in a prime spot overlooking the river and gulf. It was appropriately named Sunset Tavern because at sunset, tourists sit along the strip and watch the sun go down over the gulf. We believe that we have spectacular sunsets on our Gulf St Vincent so we weren’t too excited about it. Eating out was a real treat at lunch today at the pub – delish local fish (not barra), homemade chips and delish salad under the verandah looking at the river.

Those of you who know me well will appreciate the fact that I baked a carrot cake for dessert tonight. My first attempt in the turbo oven was OK except a tiny patch was just under-cooked a tad – it was passable but I’ll have to try something different next time.