23 June 2013

Well this morning was another early day and again on the road early and another long drive, it was 395 kilometres from Mt Surprise to Normanton and another 71 kilometres from Normanton to Karumba. So from Mt Surprise it is 92 kilometres to Georgetown, where they have a mineral display with 4500 examples from all over, though I must say I didn't go have a look, and then about 150km between there and Croydon and 150km again to Normanton. Both Croydon and Georgetown are a lot smaller than I imagined they would be, mind I never thought they would be very big, they aren't a small as Mt Surprise, but they are small indeed.

I didn't actually take any pictures in Georgetown as really I didn't notice all that much I wanted to photograph, small little town with not a lot seeming to be going on.It was an interesting landscape between Mt Surprise and Georgetown.

 Part of the highway, it isn't all of the way, mostly it is a lane each way and really well constructed, though there are a few sections that are still like the road I had imagined it to be 

 There is a bitumen surface in the middle there somewhere

 Landscape changes from this to flat grassland and scrub further on

 Colours are amazing I think

Main street Georgetown

  Croydon on the other hand has some interesting old buildings and they seem to have a bit more civic pride happening, mind I suppose having the Gulflander train that was opened in 1891 and runs on a line that is still measured in Miles helps bring in tourist dollars. The line runs from Normanton to Croydon and was never actually connected to the rest of the Queensland rail network. Actually I have yet to see the train, if it hasn't departed to Croydon before I get to Normanton.

Normanton is another in the line of tidy towns, with really, really wide streets. Very sleepy place and there doesn't seem to be much happening at all, though a nice relaxed atmosphere about it. There are two mini supermarkets, three pubs and a small hospital as the main stays, though there are a few other small shops and such and a school here as well, oh and some good places for fishing by the looks of it. The train, I've forgotten that, it's here too, somewhere..

 Main street of Normanton

They have a big Croc!

To round the day out I did a round trip to Karumba to have a look at what is there and to have visited the Gulf of Carpentaria as well. There is not a huge amount there at all really, nice little place though and in two halves, the town and the point, the latter being where most of the tourists are as it is where you can watch the sun set over the water and is supposed to be amazing, though I am saving that for the coast of Western Australia instead. Karumba is the only town on the south Gulf coast that has sight of the Gulf due to extensive mud flats.

 Not much of a beach, but then you wouldn't swim here would you

The Count, The Gulf

One interesting thing I was thinking of on the way back was basically what is in the following photo

Certainly a wide and expansive plain, all the way to the horizon in all directions, so given where the ground level is and given where the road is in proximity to the ground level and given the sign in the picture and that the indicators are all at 1 metre, can you even imagine the voulme of water it would take to flood this area!

Tomorrow is another long drive, it is just under 400 kilometres from Normanton to Cloncurry and there is 1 Road House (petrol station) along the way....