Leave it to the birds!

We had a day to spare, so spent it partly at Karumba- the nearest place to Normanton on the Gulf of Carpenteria (See map attached). Just 70kms down there following the Norman River, and it is the cheapest place to buy petrol in the state! Don't ask me why the most remote place in Queensland should have the cheapest petrol, in Normanton it is $1.74 a litre, in Karumba just $1.45. Even round Cairns it is $1.49.

What's here then? Hundreds of boat trailers, lined up in a special car park,, while their owners are out fishing in the bay, or on the Norman River.

Well- I couldn't beat them, so thought I would join them, and I got out my expensive rod and reel ($27) and tied on my very expensive new lure ($17) and cast into the river from the shore. One hour later I had caught nothing but more sunburn, wet feet from the wash of the boats going up and down the river, and a great dose of boredom.

In the meantime a little boy, seeing my lack of success, took pity on me and gave me some live bait, squid. I didn't want to squander it there- more than likely I would have lost it to a log on the bottom of the river, so we decided to return to Normanton where I knew there was a special bridge just for fishing that I could use. I got out the handlines, much stronger for the 55cm barramundi I was going to catch, (smaller ones we have to put back!) Full of enthusiasm I dangled my squid in the water waited- and waited- and waited. Eventually I pulled it in- to find that the bait had gone. Hmmmm... try again. Several squid later I gave up- the red claw crabs had beaten me again. Ah well, let the pelicans have the rest of the bait!

So today we moved on to Burketown. On the way we stopped to see the Burke and Wills memorial, the most northerly camp that the  ill-fated 1860 expedition made before their venture to find the Carpenteria Gulf. They never saw the gulf, swamps, mangroves and rivers full of crocs stopped them and they had to return to this camp defeated. They made their way back towards Melbourne, from whence they had started, but never made it there either, all but one of the expedition died on the return journey. A tragic story, of brave men who gave their lives in the cause of discovery.

As we travelled along the Savannah way, over grassland and through huge stations with hundreds of cattle grazing, we came across numerous birds, in particular birds of prey. We were fortunate to come across a wedge tailed eagle, which we managed to photograph,many kites, and little eagles. They were taking roadkill, of which there was a lot, mostly taking off as we approached and wheeling around overhead until we had passed on. 

We crossed many rivers, mostly bu bridge or causeway, but the odd one by ford, until we came to the Leichart River, where a couple of nice waterfalls fell into a lovely pool below the road. As we crossed the causeway, just about fifty metres wide at this time, we could see the scars of the torrents in the wet season, when it is almost a kilometre wide, and totally impassible. We saw a photo of it like that,, it is unrecognisable from what we saw today!

Burketown is our destination for today, a small town with one pub, a couple of shops, and a a caravan park. It used to lie on the Albert River, indeed ships could tie up at it's dock, until a flood a number of years ago moved the river two miles out of town. Nature is a wonderful thing!