Norman River – OZ Camper Travels

Distance: 159 km
Fuel: 49 L

Up early as usual for a shower at 6.30am then washed the clothes I wore yesterday; followed that up with a breakfast of cereal and coffee (ie the same as every day) before an early morning drive to the railway station (‘historic’ it said).

Decided to drive to Karumba (it’s only 70km on a sealed road) to see the Gulf of Carpentaria. The tourist brochure seems to imply (reading between the lines) that the only reason to go there is for fishing, boating and crabbing.

This turned out to be not far wrong; there is little there to entertain anybody not interested in those three things. There was a promising fish and chip shop but it was a bit early to eat so I wandered about the estuary of the Norman River and the Karumba Esplanade facing the Gulf. There were the usual warnings about not walking near the waters edge because of crocs (though a pelican floating past seemed unperturbed). The mangroves were very dense along the river banks and the estuary.

Back in Normanton I called in at the Post Office for a book of concession stamps but they don’t stock them – had to pay full price ($1) to send a postcard!! Also filled up with fuel for tomorrow and packed up my, now dry, washing. (gripping stuff eh?)

Having exhausted the tourist delights of Normanton decided to have a one man pub crawl…

It started well at the Albion Hotel with a schooner of XXXX Gold but went downhill from there.

The Central Hotel didn’t open until 4pm(??) and at the Purple Hotel I was served a midi of beer in a plastic glass with the excuse, “The rodeo was in town”. Huuumph!

Feeling a bit peeved I walked back to the Albion Hotel for a couple more schooners and lunch but they were not serving lunch because the “Cooko was on Strike” so after a few refreshing ales went back to the caravan park for a homemade lunch – cheese sandwich, banana and tea – not quite what I had in mind but OK. I did try the local café on the way back from the pub but they were a “Chico Roll and Chips” type of place so that was no good.

At 6pm hunger set in so I returned to the Albion Hotel for dinner and ordered rump steak, pepper sauce, wedges (chips were off) and a beer. When it arrived the steak was just about perfect so I followed it up with another beer to celebrate before returning to the caravan park.

Distance: 394 km

Did all the usual things before setting off at about 8.30am under a partly overcast sky – in fact at some point along the journey about a dozen spots of rain appeared on the windscreen! I suppose that is a downpour at this time of year.

The road between Cloncurry and Normanton was a mixture of single and two lane roads – met a few caravans and 4x4s coming south so it was one set of wheels in the dirt as we passed but saw no road trains.

Stopped briefly at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse but didn’t get fuel and made a couple of stops in parking areas on the way just to stretch my legs.

Arrived at the caravan park at 1pm – made a dog’s breakfast of reversing into the site but eventually got there.

First job was getting the laundry done because I was down to my last two sets of shirts and undies. Once this was sorted went for a drive to look at Normanton (pop 1500), first stop the Norman River, its boat ramp and wharf. Stuck to the high wharf and raised landing stage next to the boat ramp. I don’t know if there are crocs there but I wasn’t taking the chance; as everybody tells me, “You don’t see them, they see you.”

The town is pretty small stretching along the highway but it has all the essentials like fuel, pubs, Post Office and stores. Not a lot of activity today because it is Sunday. Am staying here a couple of nights.