Where the drilling stopped. The drill bit still stuck.
Drill Holes ready to cut.
Under rock water hole.
Uncle James helping Gage up!!!
Gage couldn't understand why Uncle James couldn't reach.
Orange on top Grey down the edges, looking down the drill path.
Standing on the Granite Belt.
Sunday was a very quiet restful day spent just doing little bits to the trailer and car. I nearly emptied the trailer again and re-organised it hopefully for the last time in the coming weeks.
Monday we were up early and packed. We said goodbye to Bonnie and Gage as they headed off for their day. We had a few things to do in town before we headed off. First stop was TJM to get Randy a new UHF aerial. We picked up some groceries and before we knew it we were fuelling up and heading back east. We were not sure if we wanted to head to Julia Creek for the night or go north toward the Burke and Wills road house. As we approached Cloncurry we decided to go to Julia creek. We stopped half way there for lunch and pushed in getting to town about 2.30pm. We found the local free spot and dropped off the trailer. Just as we were heading back to town to get a permit Hammo and Di called and wondered where we were they were in Julia Creek for the night. We met them at the local info centre. They wanted a night in the van park so we went back grabbed our trailer and set camp in the park. We then walked to the local pool for a swim and had a slow afternoon catching up with their travel stories.
Tuesday morning we were up and packed and on the road by 8.20am we had about 510kms to cover to get to Karumba and didn't want to pull in late. We had an easy drive in the fact that we didn't see alot of other cars or trucks but the road was a constant battle for James to keep the car on. For a good part of the journey it was only 1 car wide with a decent hump in the middle which kept pushing the car either right of left. We pulled into Normanton and had lunch with a crocodile and then pushed on to Karumba. We were at camp and set up by 3.30pm. It was a warm 32 degrees so we found shade and enjoyed the quiet cool breeze. One of the things Karumba is famous for is the Sunsets. Well it sure did live up to its name. With low tide it nearly resembles pictures I have seen of the Staircase to the moon. It was stunning.
Fuel at the Burke & Will's Road House
Straight Barren Raods
James wrestling the croc for his lunch.
Wednesday our agenda was to do very little and that is exactly what we did. I enjoyed a long lay in bed reading my book while James pottered about. We walked into and around town playing silly buggers on the beach and checked out the pub for tonights footy. We had a relaxing afternoon back at camp as it had again got hot in the sun. About 5pm we headed for the pub enjoyed a sunset drink then walked to Ash's for fish and chips. We were joined by Heather and Mick who were our neighbours. We then headed back to the pub and enjoyed watching the Origin. It was a fun night with about 50% of the crowd going for both sides.
Thursday we had an early start we were booked onto a fishing charter and had to be on the boat by 7am. We were up just after 6am dressed and headed down to the ramp. We had a quick bit to eat and then waited only a few minutes till the boat showed up. We headed out off shore to a large sand bank where there were at least 100 Pelicans. From here we caught plenty of Bream. James caught 5 and had to throw one back and I caught 4 with 1 throw back. The captain caught 2 and the other family of 4 caught 10 between them. After a few hours the fish stopped biting so we headed further out to the drop off to try and catch larger fish. It was not our lucky day with nothing biting. We headed back for a 12 noon drop off. To our luck the other family didn't want their fish so James and I came home with 19 Bream. We quickly learnt how to scale and gut and head the fish. We have portioned them up and frozen over half. We have ended up with 12 meals. For the afternoon we just got a load of washing done and relaxed in the shade. We then enjoyed a yummy garlic butter steamed Bream with broccoli and cous cous for dinner.
Friday morning we woke early and started the pack up ritual. We collected our frozen fish from the servo and hooked up ready to hit the road by 8.05am. Today we were aiming for either Leichardt falls or Burketown. After filling up at the servo we again hit the road this time almost directly west. We had a quick stop in Normanton and picked up a few grocery supplies as this was our last chance to get anything for about 2 weeks. We turned onto the Savanah way aired down when we hit dirt and settled in for the ride. It was a good wide dirt road which crossed many wide rivers. We stopped in one of the causeways and took a photo of what we believe was a small fresh water croc. The rivers were very wide with a large rock base which made many rock pools. They looked inviting however we knew what would be hiding in there just waiting. We approached Leichardt Falls at about noon and decided that it really wasn't the spot for us and it was only a further 70kms into Burketown so on we pushed. It wasn't long before we found the Albert river which had the free camping on it. We found a spot just big enough for our car and camper right beside the water. We ate lunch in the cool of the trees then set camp. Ahhh the water looked so inviting and the afternoon was hot but the entrance to the water was a big drop of about 6 to 7 foot with a murky bottom so we thought we better not swim. We spent the afternoon in the shade of the trees watching people fish and enjoying the water.
Albert River view from camp
Saturday morning it was cooler then we had experienced any other morning. We packed camp and were chatting to our neighbour who had been there for 10 weeks. She said she had seen 2 BIG crocs in the area one about 4 meters long. Um well we were then happy we had decided not to swim. What we didn't also realise was that the river was tidal and instead of a 7 foot drop it was now only 2 foot to the water. Where we had spent the afternoon sitting I would not be able to sit for fear for a croc launching at me. It certainly put me much more on croc alert. We went into Burketown and fuelled up grabbed some milk and then set off south to Gregory Downs. We approached the station about 9.30am and went to see the camping area by the river. It was lovely but was packed with lots of caravans. We found a good spot but decided to keep looking around. I had been looking at the Wikicamps app and knew of a spot 3.5kms south on the road to Camooweal so we set off to find it. Right on 3.5kms we turned right along a fence line and followed it in. The road was just a dirt track into the bush. We came to a fork in the road and took the right side it looked more travelled. At the end of this we came to another section of the Gregory river with enough room for at least 4 camp sites on a hard sandy bottom. It was clear people had camped there before but no one was around. We then followed the other fork and found one dead end and another track to another camping spot but no one had used it in quite a while. There was one more place to search for it was 10.2kms from "town" on the same road so out we went and drove further down the road. Again it was just a dirt track off into the bush. We drove 2kms in and came to a rocky creek bed. There was one other car/camper there in the best spot. We decided to park the car and go for a walk to discover the river and any other possible camping spots. We walked down stream for about 1km till it took a turn to the left and we couldnt get the car any further down stream. We found a spot that if we didn't like where we were we could get to right on the bend of the river but it had full sun for most the day. After we walked back we decided to set camp where we were it really was the nicest place on the river. To our delight the other campers Pam and Kerry came back and were pleased to share the area. We camped about 20 meters away so we were not bothering them. We set camp went for a swim enjoyed lunch and then I laid in bed in the cool and read my book while James napped in his chair. This part of the Gregory River goes from about 30 meters wide down to about 8 meters wide. It looks so very very deep in some sections while near us at camp it is at times just knee deep. It is crystal clear in the shallower sections and is lined with Paperbark, Gum, Cabbage palm trees and River pandanus. It has reeds in sections but is overall very clean and to look at clear with a green reflection. While I am certain there are fresh water crocs in here and I hate to admit it possible even some of the larger variety we have not seen any. So we will swim here near camp where it is nice and shallow and we can see whats coming and going for plenty of space.
Oh the wave total for this week is James is up to 12 and I got 0. ( I didn't drive at all this week)
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