Fun at Karumba

Our first night at Karumba, the wind blew a gale from the south and we wondered what the charter would be like. Up at dawn and then Ian headed off on the charter while I wandered back to camp to sit in the sun ... it's cool up here!

A dry and dusty camp 

Fishing charter

Up at dawn

A few fish were caught, mainly mackerel but a good day was had by the intrepid fishermen...do good in fact we booked to go again on Monday, and this time I was going to. All I hoped for was a lessening of the ferocious wind.

Off to the Sunset Tavern at Karumba for dinner and another beautiful sunset. On the way, Ian stopped to admire a camper trailer that was set up at the back of the park, and we got chatting to the owner, as you do often in a caravan park. When the usual 'where are you from' was exchanged, Mark told us he was from a small town called Macksville south of Coffs Harbour!

Turned out he was the Chief Inspector of police there and we had actually met professionally before I retired!. A very small world as you travel this huge country of ours.

Sunset...Day 2

Sunday morning, we headed off to the Karumba markets and then caught up with our new neighbour who came to the camp site for coffee and a chat, bearing a home made fruit cake. it was very interesting to hear the places that he had travelled and the places he recommended as must sees for our future trips. Cape Leveque north of Broome is a must see on another trip.

 A dip in the pool, an afternoon nap and then we headed off to join the Crab and Croc Sunset cruise. The new owners were great and the cruise was informative and worthwhile, but it was a bit disappointing that it didn't deliver what the brochure had promised as they have no crabbing license.

Despite there being no crab pots pulled up and no crab for dinner, we thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the sand island in the gulf for prawns and wine. Some fabulous photo opportunities were made the most of, to tell the story of dinner out in the gulf and another Karumba sunset. 

Jabiru on the Normanton River

On the way up the river and out to sea

Croc and Crab Cruise Boat

Birds at sunset

The sand island where we stopped for dinner

Any fish?

Pretty shells

Dinner stop at sunset

Dinner

Another glorious sunset

Amazing sky


And another day ends at Karumba with an early night to be up early for the fishing charter in the morning. The wind has finally stopped blowing so it should be a calm day.

A write up for the week

 So last time we reported in we were setting off from Cloncurry to Karumba, 500 kilometres on a red and dusty road with lots of road trains. Murphy's Law was in force ..on the wide, sealed, two lane sections of the road, we passed no other vehicles, but as soon as the road narrowed we would  meet a three trailer road train carrying a few tons of beasts, or a caravan.
All the way north we have heard that there hasn't been a decent wet from three years, and every creek and river we have crossed has been bone dry.

Another dry river bed

All through the trip to Karumba we saw beasts, trying to find some green grass along the edge of the road. The drought situation in northern Australia is dire.

Rest stops were few and dry and dusty...and crowded ...and expensive fuel. 

The road narrowed and we passed a few  road trains and many, many termite mounds. We have come to the conclusion there are gazillions of termite mounds in the north of Australia.

The road narrowed

Millions and millions of termite mounds

We pulled up for a late morning tea where the wind was blowing hard and swirling in red dust. Darby and Joan, here, carry their own hot water and morning tea in the 'day crate' so we can pull up anywhere for a cuppa. We are truly turning into grey nomies.

Morning tea stop

Finally we reached Normanton, the last town before Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
We passed the Purple Pub, and a life size replica of an 8.4 metre crocodile shot by a female croc hunter fifty years ago

We arrived in Karumba in the early afternoon and checked into the Sunset Point Caravan Park.

We settled into the park, set up camp and put the annexe up this time as we were staying 4 days. The ground was rock hard, and bare dirt...very different to the green and shady park promised. We set off to explore Karumba which is very different to the east coast beaches and boat ramps we are used to.

Boat ramp at Karumba

Before dinner we set off on another walk to get the first of many Karumba sunset pictures...truly magnificent, and then early to bed for Ian to be up at dawn for a fishing charter with the Kerry D Charter company.

A sunset worth waiting for...

Next Karumba instalment to follow...

Outback landscapes

Morning tea stop at Dunmarra

Just a quick post today...the last two days have been spent on the road. Yesterday we decided to keep going past Tennant  Creek and turn east for Barkly Homestead as we were making good time. We travelled just over 800 kms for the day... the same long straight roads and the same scenery. Stark but beautiful. We pulled up for fuel and morning tea $1.88 per litre for diesel. Across the road was the windmill above and behind that was a flock of whistling kites riding a thermal...I couldn't get them all in the photo, but they were going to high they were disappearing into the high distance.

Located 300 kilometres south of Katherine, Dunmarra is a small settlement on the historical Overland Telegraph Line. Today, the town is little more than a roadhouse providing fuel, motel accommodation, a caravan park and other services to travellers.
An interesting story is associated with the area's name. Overland Telegraph linesman, Dan O'Mara, disappeared in the region in the early 1900s.
Drover Noel Healy established a cattle station here in the 1930s and discovered O'Mara's skeleton in the bush. The local Aboriginal people couldn't pronounce 'O'Mara', and their attempts sounded more like 'Dunmarra'. This lead Healy to the name of his station. There is a monument to the Overland Telegraph Line beside the Stuart Highway south of Dunmarra, dedicated to Sir Charles Todd, Postmaster, General of the Province of South Australia, 1872.

Whistling kites riding a thermal

We pulled into Barkly... a small oasis in the middle of the NT, just in time to set up before dark. There were no powered sites left so we set up on an unpowered site over on the camp ground.

Setting up camp at Barkly

Once set up we wandered over to the restaurant for dinner, and were lucky to get the last table in the bar as it was State of Origin night and many ringers from the outlying stations had come to Barkly for a night of watching footy. Loved watching them and a new story popped into my head...about the tenth one for the trip.

We had a quick meal and couldn't believe we were in bed by 7.30! Ian was soon snoring and I just had enough charge on the laptop to clear my email and catch up on the obligatory Facebook posts. It made me think how much technology has changed the world. I remember keeping in touch with family back in the late eighties when we caravened to Cairns with the kids...and we had to pull up at a telephone box to contact home! Now we can do it all via computer from our tent in the middle of the desert.

That was until we woke up this morning to no internet service at Barkly which was a pain as we were waiting to hear from Karumba to see if we could get it a day early.

We set off about 8.30am, crossed the border back into Queensland and adjusted our clocks about two hours later...and headed for an overnight stop in Cloncurry where it is only 23 degrees! Another long day on the road through beautiful outback scenery. We travelled about 620 kms today, pulling off the side of the road and topping up with the spare diesel we were carrying in jerry cans on the camper.

Outback morning at Barkly Homestead

NT landscape

The flatness ends...Mt Isa landscape

A quick trip to the local small Woolies where we were amazed to find everything half the price it is at home! Even in the middle of the Queensland outback bananas were only $2 a kg.
We are off to the Gulf in the morning...500 km to the north and back ot the warmth... and hopefully will have prawns and mud crabs and the elusive barramundi to report on.

Mad dogs and Englishmen...and Aussies!

Our destination...

Before we left home, the kids gave me a Fit Bit for my birthday so I could record how far we walk on our current trip. The internet connection hasn't been good enough to download the software and get it up and running, but I really wished I'd had it going today.

We set off mid morning to walk to Mataranka Falls...not realising that it would get to 35 degrees while we were walking in the soft red sand along the Roper River. Luckily we had packed lots of water before we set off.

The first kilometre or so was along a shaded path by the river and we saw more termite mounds and golden orb spider webs as well as walking through a pretty grotto full of black butterflies.

After a couple more kilometres the track became dry and rocky and unshaded...and HOT!

The rocky path begins

It took about an hour and a half to walk the four kilometres in ...after the dry and rocky path, we had to push our way through the fallen pandanus palm fronds that littered the river bank from the last wet season but the view of the falls and the swimming hole were well worth the long and hot walk.

Mataranka Falls

The swimming hole near the falls

Sometimes it's hard to believe the beauty you find in the middle of the dry and dusty outback...

When we headed back to the camp site...hot and dry, we enjoyed the company of some peacocks as we had lunch.

Off to Tennant Creek tomorrow... till Karumba...

Mataranka and Bitter Springs

Yesterday we travelled from Kununurra back across the WA border to Katherine. Almost 600 kms in a day. We've stayed in the park at Katherine before, but this visit we were late in and got a site on fine red dirt. Not a blade of grass to be seen.
We now have red feet, red shoes and the matting for the camper and the annexe is red! However, it was a nice private site but we soon discovered the proximity to the  bush...required the Bushman's insect spray and citronella candles to come out of the camper.

We woke up late this morning...it is amazing how hard it is to get used to the three different time zones and different times for sun rise and sunset. We decided to head back to Mataranka and give it a second chance as our visit a couple of years ago was disappointing. We rolled into the Territory Camp ground mid morning and quickly set up camp in thirty-five degree heat. Love it!

And soon had a visit from a curious brolga.

A fellow camper in Kununurra had told us about the amazing pie shop so we travelled the 2 kms into town and paid $16 for 2 huge meat pies. A very healthy (not) lunch! A siesta was required for the male camper of the party while I cleared my email, and then we headed off down to Bitter Springs. Only five kilometres from the camp ground, past the requisite termite mounds that are everywhere here in the NT!

Once we pulled up n the full car park, we wandered through a topical paradise to reach the thermal springs.

 Mrs Jeannie Gunn in We of the Never Never described the springs as  "a chain of clear crystal pools with emerald-green, mossy banks and everywhere  sun flecked, warm, dry shade."

It was absolutely beautiful, and as warm as a tepid bath. Ian jumped n and let the current take him down to the next bridge, and I pottered around in the pool.

Floating down the creek

The pool at Bitter Springs

It was warm enough for me to get in!

Two days rest here at the park, with a couple of visits to the pool each day before we head south to Tennant Creek and then across to Queensland to spend the weekend in the Gulf of Carpentaria at Karumba. Ian is determined to catch that elusive barramundi.

Wait for the sunset photos from Karumba!

Until then....