Thursday, July 7, 2022

Day 60: Thu 7 Jul - Normanton to Karumba, 68km; total towed: 5 935 km

Sunrise at Normanton

 Telstra is dismal in the van park, so keep checking and you may be lucky. Come back in 3 days!

We left our free camp at Normanton at 9:45am, after mornos. This was later than our usual departures, only because we only had leases than 100km to drive and didn’t want to get to Karumba too early or we would not be able to check in. We made it to Karumba Point Tourist Park and we’re checked in and set up a little after 11am.

We took the bikes for a ride over to Karumba South and the path has deteriorated since we were here in 2018. We made it to the Barramundi Discovery Centre where we booked a Behind the Scenes tour for tomorrow at 2pm. On the way home we did a bit of the heritage walk then rode home; so much easier with a tailwind! We were quite ready for lunch and a nana nap by then.

Greg went for another local ride and booked the Sunset Tavern for Saturday night pub meal. Karumba is absolutely packed at the moment, school holidays plus all the regular fisherpersons. Greg then accompanied Bob on a fishing expedition (no fish), whilst Wendy visited Noel and crocheted.

Dinner was had after the boys return, and half way through, Noel delivered a bowl of freshly air fried chips that were hot, super crunchy, and delicious - thank you Noel.

Not only is Telstra service shoddy (they probably don’t have the bandwidth to cope with all the visitors), the TV reception is equally as bad. We had to resort to watching Thursday night footy!

Pictures to follow when we get better internet.

Old Normanton wharf

Normanton boat ramp

A dedicated cyclist Karumba bound, lucky he had a bit of a tailwind


Drive scenery


The granite symbolises a Slouch Hat

The paths represent a crucifix and an aircraft


In the Barra Centre



Karumba boat ramp

A very old and crumbly wharf


Murals on the girls and boys toilets at Karumba Point Tourist park






Wrap-up and Reflections

The main thing we learned on this trip was to stay flexible. Bad weather interrupted us 25 days into the trip, meaning we had to spend three...