KARUMBA, CARPENTARIA, Thursday 9th May, 2019

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Adam T.  14 today our eldest grandchild. Hope you had a great day.

Before we left Normanton and because we only had one hour travelling time today to Karumba we spent some time looking around Normanton before we left. Being rather a small town not a lot to see. Another beautiful day. Normanton is only about 79 kms inland from the North coast of the Carpentaria. As we travelled north yesterday we could really feel the heat hitting us. Very hot, just couldn't cool down and had our air conditioning going from the moment we arrived until bedtime. Very hard to get used to that after the cooler weather at night further south, and beautiful warm days without this high heat. 

Normanton's railway station. A great idea to make a fence with all the old rail wheels. Looked really good.

Out the back where the train comes through still today. Note all the old trains/parts lying around

The old town wharf which in the 1800's played a big part in Normanton's history. The original sections of the wharf still stands today. It is rarely used by boats but are a regular fishing spot for both locals and visitors.

looking down the Norman River just down from the old wharf where people also use it for spotting crocs.

This is the old one way bridge. Couldn't use a narrow bridge like this on the highway so due to the old bridge not strong enough now for the heavy vehicles they have build a new bridge beside it on the right. The old bridge is now for  pedestrians only and they have made coverdways for people to visit  under the shade to again spot the crocs. In the few mins we were their we didn't spot anything.

 Just over the river we passed the wetlands which is a big area. This is just a small portion of it. Zoomed up a little to show all the white water lilies.

It's very dry and hot heading to the coast.

We could tell we were heading to the coast as this is mostly sand which I presumes gets blown in from the coast during the strong northerly winds. After an hours driving we arrived at Karumba on the coast. A lovely area and first time we have seen the sea since the beginning of our holiday at Ron and Vivs.

Karumba is a fishing Port on the gulf of Carpentaria, (north coast),on the banks of the Norman river. In winter it is very popular with anglers from all over Oz where they arrive to try their luck in the fish rich waters of the gulf. I believe they get prawns here but haven't looked into this yet, will do so tomorrow.

Went to a carvan park I had picked out previously but we wanted to check out another small caravan site first  that we were told about behind the local Pub, which is right on the Norman river bank near the entrance to the sea. Lovely spot only three vans here and plenty of space between vans. It was really great to get the sea breeze coming down the river. So this is where the Norman river we crossed over in Normanton, flows out to the sea.



Looking down the river through the van window. Great camping spot. The river mouth joining the sea is just around the corner, top right.

A great find all that space to the right of us is all for us to use. Nice new amenities, all new concrete slabs. The pubs here seem to do this a lot if they have the space as it brings in custom to them with their bars and restaurants and income from the campers. We are having two nights here so we have  had a lovely quiet resting afternoon.Tomorrow at 4.00pm we are going on a boat ride up the river to spot crocs then going out to the mouth of the river to watch the sunset. Apparently they have beautiful sunsets up on this coast.

No blog on Friday 10th May ( which is now today) as the boat trip we were doing as above has been cancelled due to high winds gusting to thirty knots. Disappointing as everyone we speak to say we would have love it. If we had known we would have moved on to the next place as nothing else to do here. But now too late to pack up and move so we will stay here tonight and will be on our way tomorrow. ( Sat. 11th) heading across country towards the East Coast. Should reach Port Douglas by May15th if nothing changes. Being trying on and off today to get this 9th May posted but just won't go very slow wi fi here and they tell us when it is very windy that slows everything down. Will stop at Normanton on the way out tomorrow and get this posted. (11th) not sure re wi fi for the next four days 🤞 might have to wait until we get to Port Douglas. So don't worry!!