Day 224 / 2016 - Karumba to Cloncurry

There is really not much to do in Karumba unless you are into fishing especially from a boat and if you talk to the people who come here year after year would say "and the problem is?". Still its not all bad for us non fisher folk, the temperature is between 20 to 30 Degrees, plenty of socialising with other people and a great bar at the end of the road where you can go and watch the setting sun.

We spent 3 days in Karumba and at the end of each day we walk to the Sunset Hotel at the end of the street. The hotel is right on the beach and has uninterupted view to the west over the waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria. You can watch the sun sink slowly below the horizon while sipping your drink of choice.

Leaving Karumba we headed back to Normanton and booked into the Gulfland Motel and Caravan Park. It was only 10:30 in the morning but there was already a line of caravans ready to go in. After setting up on a site (with a slab woo hoo) we took a drive into town parking at the Tourist Bureau and took a quick look inside. There was a small museum about the history of Normanton. The markets are also held here but we missed them by a few hours. Walking the Main Street we came across Krys the largest verified crocodile in the world (at 8.3 metres) well a model of him anyway. We walked a few yards further to the Purple pub and had a beer before returning back to the caravan park.

Next morning we climbed aboard the Queensland Rails's Gulflander rail car and headed for a 2 hour return trip to Critter Camp about 40 Km east of Normanton. The train and line is still managed by Queensland Rail and the driver boasted how he was being paid overtime for the trip. We rattled out of Normanton station and passed through the outskirts of town. The rail passed through flood plains and there is a marker which showed the highest level of flooding which occured in 1975. The Gulflander has been operating continuously between Normanton and Croydon for 125 years long in the time before a reliable all weather road was available.

Arriving at Critter Camp there is nothing there except for a sign a place for the train to turn around. The ride was quite an experience and not as smooth or as comfortable as modern day rail. You can feel every bump in the track and at times the train sways quite wildly from side to side, there is no airconditioning either. Still it is worth the trip as it is uniquely Australia and found nowhere else in the world. There is a longer trip to Croydon of about 5 hours there and 5 hours back done over 2 days but we would recommend trying the shorter trip first if you are not keen on all the bumping and rocking too and fro.

Next morning packing up againg we headed south along the Burke Development Rd towards Cloncurry. The road is reasonbly good and there are now only a few sections of single lane Bitumen left maybe 30km out of its whole 380Km length to Cloncurry. We were quite lucky as we only encounted 3 passenger vehicles coming the other way the entire time we were on single lane bitumen. We stopped at Four Ways so called because it is a 4 way intersection between the towns of Normanton in the North, Cloncurry in the South. Julia Creek to the East and Gregory to the West. Four Ways is where the Burke and Wills Roadhouse is situated the only available fuel other than in Cloncurry 180Km in one direction and Normanton 200Km in the other direction. After Lunch we continued on towards Cloncurry. We pass a number of LARGE cattle road trains coming the other way and were pleased we did not encounter them on the single lane bitumen roads. That evening we stoped for the night in a free camp spot called Terry Smith Lookout about 75KM from Cloncurry. It was crowded but we all managed to fit in for the night. As usual there were plenty of people only too willing to strike up a conversation about anything.

Next morning we drove the 75Km to Cloncurry stopped to fuel up, buy supplies from Woolworths then sneak into the Bakery for a coffee and cream bun. Returning back to the car we then made the executive decision to continue onto Julia Creek and stop at the Caravan Park were amongst other chores we could do our washing. The park was quite cheap only costing $24.00 per night with large drive through sites.