Mt Isa to Normanton

Our first morning in Queensland was a slow start as we were only 99 km from Mt Isa.  That short trip was highlighted by the change in landscape as we travelled through rolling hills with increased trees and foliage. 

Lunch Caterers

The unfortunate part of this change in landscape was that there was a significant increase in the kangaroo population, meaning an increased rate of road kills. The only bright part of this part of nature was that we saw many wedge tailed eagles, surely the most majestic creature of the sky in Australia. It was very hard to get a decent photo due to driving a car and caravan and trying to emulate Lord Snowden (the photographer).

However I have a couple of photos for anyone who yet to see this magnificent bird (see above and below).

We arrived in Mt Isa and set up camp in the Discovery Tourist Camp, in Little East Street. We think it was Little East Street because we never found the street—just the caravan park.

At 6pm the courtesy bus picked us up and took us to the Irish club, where the Guinness and food were as good as they were two years ago. The courtesy bus driver took us to a lookout where we were able to admire the lights of the town and the Mt Isa mine.
 

Mt Isa Lights

Friday 21 June started off as a cool and overcast day, so we declared it as a “non day” and just pottered around for the day.  Washing and other little jobs were completed.

 

On Saturday we stocked up at Coles and got a 18 cents per litre discount voucher. That saved us $26.34 - yep, that value is right when you have 180 litre capacity tanks.

We had a BBQ lunch and a relaxing few hours at Moondarra Lake, formerly a water supply reservoir for Mt Isa.

It was a great  location and the views were supplemented by the many and varied birds who vied for our attention (and food). The Kites were particularly special in both their number and relaxing way of spotting food and using the thermals.

After doing a few jobs back at the caravan we had dinner which consisted of my first home cooked pizza that I have cooked in the caravan - including the base. It was judged to be OK.

Sunday started with a sad phone call about a long time school mate of mine.  But that is my issue.  The rest of the day was scones for lunch, relaxing in the afternoon, packing to leave tomorrow and corned beef for dinner from Kay & Darryl, with a glass of red or two (or was that too many).  The corned beef was pretty special.


Gregory River Free Camp Site

On Monday we Departed Mt Isa (me with a thick head) and headed to Cloncurry—basically a nice town but not a lot to keep us there long.  We had lots of stops and 445 km later we stopped at Gregory Downs. We soon decided on a  free camp by the Gregory river, which was sort of an oasis in paradise.   It was 30 degrees, and had been for most of the day.  Three of us were in our beds comfortably before 8pm.  Shirley lasted until 9pm.

It is 5pm on day 37, as I sit one metre from the running crystal clear waters of the Gregory River at Gregory Downs.  It is a camp site that does not allow caravans—but there are about forty caravans here.  Shirley, Darryl and Kay sit near me all reading, while I tap the keyboard of the laptop.  The guys have a Corona beer, the ladies have soft drink.

Ten metres away, across the water and among the pandanus palms, is a kangaroo sipping at the water.  He was obviously a male kangaroo.  The sun is reflecting off the water willing me to get the camera, and try to replicate the reflections.  This does not happen.

Gregory River

The barramundi is sitting on the bench waiting for a date with Darryl and the BBQ.  But let me backtrack to dawn this morning.

At 7am I rose, dressed and went for a walk with a camera. It was a great way to start the day in such a picturesque spot.  After breakfast the four of us headed off to Burketown, at the bequest of the ladies.  Darryl and I were not so sure as the Mt Isa tourist info promised 100 km of dirt road.  We were pleasantly surprised to see only 10 km of unmade roads, and that 10 km is all currently under construction.

Burketown proved to be well worth the visit, being a lovely clean country town with wide streets.  It is only 25 miles from the coast and gets his name from an explorer who had a mate called “Wills”.  One of the two explorers was a police officer at the town that I went to secondary school.  Can anyone tell me the name of that town? We were advised to check out the bakery for their pies, which we duly did.  The “Barra Mornay” pie seemed to be the go as Burketown is promoted as the “Barra Capital of Australia”.  So we promised to return at lunchtime.

We then checked out the hot bore which has water too hot to shower with, and the Landsborough Tree which is famous for being a depot point for Burke and Will.  However some wacker burnt it down some time ago, so it has lost its tourism appeal.


Burketown Hot Bore

By the time we retuned to the bakery the Barra pies were all gone.  However the curry, mushroom and beef n pea pies, and the pasty were excellent.  Not to mention the cream buns.

On the way home we stopped to visit Marto who is the local fish sales executive.  He had three huge bull arab dogs and when asked what breed they were he said slowly “guard dogs”.  He was happy to sell us local barramundi for $24
per kg.  We bought $40 worth and he gave us a bit of a discount.  His son is the fisherman and he fishes between Burketown and the NT border.  Do a Google Maps search and check out how far that is.

The drive home was like the drive there—better than we thought and providing a feast of wild life for photos—mostly large birds feasting on “road kills”.

Free camping in a caravan without a shower means you need to be a lateral thinker (maybe). 

So before we departed today I put two buckets of water on the roof of our car– the car we did not take. By the time we returned home the water was hot enough for a pleasant APC, but not as hot as the Burketown bore.

So now here we are sitting beside the river. 

However, time moves on, and here I sit after a dinner of barramundi and salad, and a glass of Mojo shiraz. 

So what can I say—merely “how good can it get”?  Darryl cooked the barra on our portable BBQ and the ladies did the salad. 

I got the wine.


On Wednesday 26th, the four of us departed at 7:50 for Adels Grove, with me behind the wheel of Darryl’s car (he drove yesterday).  It was 20km of sealed road and 70 km or ordinary dirt road, some of it heavily corrugated.  Adels Grove is a private station with a public campsite on the edge of Lawn Hill National Park.  It is an amazing oasis with water, shade and palms.  If you were prepared to take your caravan in there you could easily stay for a week, or more.

After a stroll and a coffee we drove the extra 20 km or so to Lawn Hill NP—and what an amazing place it was.  Firstly we did the 4 km “Island Stack Lookout” walk.  Picture a round rocky hill, with a flat top with water, palms and gum trees on three sides.  It was amazing. 


The walk both up and down was precarious and hard work, but well worth the effort.


Secondly we did a one km “Cascades” walk. As you would expect there was a lot of water cascading over a lot of rocks—so more rocks, water, palms and gum trees—and fish.

Darryl & Chris in the Canoe

Then we had lunch.

Then Darryl and I hired a 2 man canoe for one hour so that we could both admire the views from the river and test my shoulders.  Both were magnificent.

The day ended as did yesterday—relaxing beside the river followed by BBQ barra and salad (again), this time with excellent chips—cooked by me.



Woop Woop is an Australian colloquialism referring to an (apparently) fictional location in the “middle of nowhere”.  On Thursday 27th we departed the Gregory river and headed east, then north.  We had had three excellent nights camped beside the river.  We then camped at a free road side venue with the name of “Woop Woop”.  So now we know we have travelled from somewhere to the middle of nowhere. 

We suspect that someone with a keen sense of humour has “doctored” the original sign—which we suspect has a different name. 

The entertainment for the night (before we lit the fire) was me trying to find and fix a fuse for one of the 12v outlets in the car—the one that supplied power to the drinks fridge.  Yep 30 degrees and the fridge was not working.  However the job was eventually completed, power was restored and the fire could be lit.  Supper was crumpets and butter.

We soon left Woop Woop behind us as we headed north at 8am.  By 10am we had completed the 110 km, had a coffee and set up camp in Normanton.  We soon found out that I had 6 SMS messages, 7 voicemail messages and 100 emails to check out.  So much for moving away from communications networks for four days.

We drove and walked to various spots of note within and around Normanton for the rest of the day, most notable the first “Burns Philp” store in Australia, the historic railway station, the purple pub (yes, purple), the town well and Krys—the replica of a 8.63 metre crocodile.
A couple of nice steaks on the BBQ was enjoyed for dinner.

Saturday 29th saw us at the station at 8:25 for a ride on the Gulflander train, a train with too much history to mention here.   

The Gulflander

In short it was supposed to go south to Cloncurry to link up with Townsville and trains up and down the eastern coast.

However multiple changes of government and a gold rush at Croydon has the train route redirected to Croydon instead of Cloncurry.   It stopped at Cloncurry—a trip of around 150 km.
We travelled a mere 20 miles or so (all measurements for the train are still as used when it was built) then turned around (via a smart triangular turn) at “Critters Camp” - a name that was give to the location by a track construction worker who was bitten on a tender location by a scorpion.

The train track has steel sleepers because the local termites can east wooden sleepers in 3 or 4 years.

On the return trip we stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a magnificent morning tea of scones/cream/jam, damper and various croissants.

The waterhole had beautiful water lilies.

Signature Blaze from 1861

After lunch we drove the 35 km to “Burke & Wills Camp 119”, which was the last camp of the exploring expedition before Burke and Wills made a dash to the coast in February 1861.As they say in the classics, the rest is history.

Trees at the site still show the “signature blazes” that the explorers cut into the trees to indicate their presence.  Each explorer had his only “signature blaze”.  The photo shows a tree that was big enough in 1861 to allow a “signature blaze”. 

Further exploration of a nearby water hole provided us with our first crocodile of the trip—a freshwater croc about 1.5 metres long, and a couple of serious wading birds.

Fresh water Crocodile (about 1.5 m)                                                           

Normanton wetlands are apparently quite spectacular in “the wet”.  However Darryl and I decided to check them out in “the dry”.  We met at 6:30 am and found the wetlands before dawn.  There were enough birds and great sights to make the effort worthwhile.  These photos give you an idea on what we saw.

 

We finished our time in Normanton with a photo with my (sort of) namesake Krys the crocodile.  Krys is a full size replica of a 8.63 metre crocodile that was shot by a lady called Krys in 1957.

 

It was an awesome creature and (as you can see from the photo) its shoulder height was similar to mine.

This is the end of this posting. Stay tuned for future updates to the blog. 
There is a map on the blog that shows what path we have taken to date.