Washing done & out , we packed and headed to Karumba - 70 kms up the road . It was a warm night, no doona required , by 9am it was 28 degrees - hmmm going to be a warm one !! There are only about half a dozen corners on the way to Karumba , with a lot of straight roads in between . It is grazing country but numbers are down from 30,000 head to 5,000 head at Delta Downs Cattle Station due to the lack of wet season rain . When we reached the first sign or Delta Downs , the trees disappeared and we were driving along a vast flat area , that took us about 15 mins to drive to the other end , we could see treason the horizon to the left of us , but only horizon on the right - that's a pretty big area !!!
We arrived at Karumba , driving into the main town , stopping at the visitor information centre to get a map .
Proceeding into town , and down past the shops and caravan park , we found ourselves at the live livestock export dock and a large industrial building where they treat minerals etc for export - not sure exactly what though - you might like to google that - MMG Industries .
We ended up in a short residential street , turned around and parked beside the docks where the fishing trawlers dock .
The Norman River is wide and a nice shade of bluey green , you look out at mangroves on the other side , not a striking landscape though .
We had a look at the war memorial near the main park area beside the river - there is no grass , just baked dry dirt .
We then headed around to Karumba Point , as Karumba wasn't doing much for us . We drove straight up to the Sunset Tavern and parked before going for a walk down along the beach , or what looked like a beach . This was it , we have arrived at The Gulf of Carpentaria !!! where the outback runs right to the edge of the gulf .
It was a bit disconcerting to have an easterly breeze blowing straight from the land and out to sea , and it was quite warm - the car was indicating 31 degrees !! We walked down to the beach , wondering about crocodiles - not that we saw any , anyway there were 20 odd people down further fishing , sitting in their chairs - so the crocs had a captive audience - if we kept walking , we figured we'd be safe !!
Then came a big surprise , what we thought was sand and rock shelves , turned out to be not rock shelves at all . Upon closer inspection the rock consisted of shells , full shells and lots of shell grit . At some stage this rock shelf we were looking at was the floor of the ocean , it looked like the shells could be pulled out of the rock , but they wouldn't budge and walking on them didn't do any damage at all .
Some of the shells we looked at looked very much like they were solid quartz . This was a highlight for us , far from being geologists , we have learnt so much about the ground & earth we live on during this trip !!
We had to try the local fish & chips while we were here , so went down to Ash's Fish & Chip shop for the best fish & chips - they had to be - his sign said so !!!! We had a fisherman's basket that consisted of 8 fish pieces ( local fish ) , 2 prawns , 3 scallops , 4 calamari rings & chips - the only thing that disappointed was the calamari tyres - sorry rings , the rest was great , and judging by the crowd eating there , it's a popular spot - it passed our test !!!
Lunch done , and apart from fishing and the odd croc cruise , there isn't a lot to do here , so we headed back to Normanton to do a little shopping and getting a gas bottle filled . Mental note to oneself - get gas bottles filled or swapped in an area closer to a main town- $ 40.50 for a 9 kg refill !!!
Diesel was $1.58.9 a litre , fortunately we only needed half a tank , apparently it's $1.89 at Karumba - be warned if you are coming here !!!
We came back for a swim and chatted to a couple we met at Mt Surprise , before sitting back & having a beer & cheese & bickies !!!
That's it for today , here's todays map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kLUSFG3oziNs&usp=sharing
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