Well the king of Croydon woke up feeling a little sore and sorry for himself, eve took some panadol for about the second time since I've known him. Nevertheless, we packed up and headed on out of town for Karumba.
Karumba is at the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the mouth for the Norman River, and it is a fishing village with about 700 permanent residents and several thousand visitors in the winter months. Prawning and Barramundi fishing being the main industries (and hobbies). A brilliant sunset is a major drawcard too. Karumba caravan parks are virtually booked out over winter, with many people returning year after year, most have boats. Apparently the fish weren't biting when we were there but Hutchy managed to catch his first keeper (a bream) for the trip! (I reckon it was only just legal).
Upon arrival we had Fish (Barra of course) and Chips for lunch from the 'famous' Ash's take-away and enjoyed that sitting on the foreshore. Interesting beach at Karumba because it has mangroves and mud flats where the tide comes in (only one a day) but at the river mouth is beautiful soft white sand. Lots of great shells too.
This is a place where there are saltwater crocodiles and Jesse had no qualms about informing absolutely everyone in the campsite at the top of his voice that 'there are crocodiles in the water there and so you have to be careful'.
We paid a visit to the Barramundi Discovery Centre which is a farm started by the professional fisherman of Karumba because the were worried about being fished out by tourists. They have successfully re-stocked many of the dams and open water in the gulf with fingerlings (baby fish). Check out their website at www.barrimundidiscovery.centre.com
After a tour (very short) of the rest of Karumba we headed back to the park for some fishing and shell collecting, still no fish for Hutchy, so he decided to get up early the next morning for a fish and hallelujah finally caught a pan-size bream.
We left Karumba then planning to stop somewhere half-way to Mount Isa. Well, there actually isn't really anywhere to stop half-way between Karumba and Mount Isa except for a couple of dusty roadside stops so decided to keep going and arrived in Mount Isa around 6:00pm that night. Breaking the campers first rule of being off the road by 4:00pm, but Jesse was happy watching a movie in the back and we figured there was no point stopping and setting up just to pack up again in the morning and make it to Isa.
Of course coming out of Karumba we had to stop in Normanton to see 'Kris - The Savannah King' a statue of a huge croc caught back in 1958 in the Norman River.
We also had to get beer and fuel. We paid $1.97 for fuel and then had to wait for the bottle shop to open at 12noon and then paid $56.00 for a carton of 24 stubbies fuel..... the bugger about this being that we ended up in Mount Isa anyway so could have bought it there at $48.00....
Karumba Golf Course (if you look carefully you can see the yellow flag on the 'green')
Karumba beach at the mouth of the Norman River
Fun in the mud
Feeding the fish at the Barra Farm
Sunset at Karumba
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