Westing

Karumba is a busy place for the grey nomads........the caravan parks are quite full already, most of the parks we have been to so far have been quite empty and the roads have only been open for a couple of weeks.
We left the Chillagoe and headed south back to the Savannah Way - planned to stopped at Tallaroo Hot Springs but it has been closed. On private property and the owners got tired of people stealing their stuff! sad I was looking forward to natural tufa (what ever that is) hot springs. We had passed through Mt Surprise, small old gold mining town, lots of history so after Tallaroo headed to Georgetown, another old and current goldmining town. Lovely old buildings and interesting history. The next stop was Cumberland lagoon, the remains of a rock crushing plant for finding gold looked hopefull for a paddle in Noodle, but no, to many waterlillies, very picturesque though with an old chimney. The next paddling chance was the Gilbert River but that was only sand! Our next chance was at Croydon where there is a manmade lake but NO, the lake was closed because of some sort of weed they were trying to eradicate.
We overnighted in a bush camp, privately owned, beside the Leichhardt Lagoon. It was beautiful with lots of water birds and lillies but we were not allowed to paddle. They made us sign a disclaimer and their signs warned of crocs. and snakes! very reassuring. We do sleep in the Landcruiser, thank goodness.........
Normanton has the big barra and Krys the biggest croc ever shot (copy) is on display, it is BIG! Normanton is also very historic with great old buildings but we headed out to Karumba to feel at home with all the 4WD, caravans and oldies. It had lots of water in the river BUT we are not paddling....the butcher told me that there was a 6 metre croc resident around the bridge? Noodle is 4.5 metres..........
Karumba is lovely, on the shores of the Gulf of Carpenteria and the entrance to the Norman River. No swimming but great shells on the beach and a good beach to wander along and watch the sunset over the gulf.  Lots of people with tinnies or fishing off the beach. Christian caught his first barra off the beach but it was too small at 45cms. One guy walked by with a barra that was as tall as he was!
Tomorrow we are westing again headed for Burketown. Not sure about our next chance to update the blog because of coverage.