T+ 147  Savannah Way Part 2 - Mount Surprise to Karumba

Croydon is a tidy little goldrush town, so tidy and clean that I had this sudden urge to have a shower and give the Beast a thorough wash and manicure.  Even Toby gave himself a quick lick, after all, you don't want to let the side down do you?

It has rows of fine heritage buildings which to the untrained eye all look identical., Post Office, Court House, Council Chambers, Police Station.


There's gold in them there hills but sadly not any more and we saw only 4 local people in our overnight stay and one of those was from Dublin.  They'd opened up the free camping at the Rodeo Ground for us which was very kind and we had a peaceful evening, just us and the entire insect population  of the outback. The next morning we visited Lake Belmore, 4kms out of town, which was even tidier than the town and has the cleanest most gleaming toilet facilities this side of Zurich.

Feeling clean and tidy we headed for Normanton which was, to all intents and purposes, closed. The highlight was a a high-tech 24 hour DIY fuel facility for which my ancient computer science degree proved useless.. Still, once I'd stopped swearing and kicking the pump, it relented and provided a sufficient amount of fuel to head for Karumba on the Gulf of Carpenteria.  On the way out of town you pass a replica of Krys, the largest crocodile ever caught in Australia.  8.6m long it was and impressive he certainly is.



Karumba is the Barramundi centre of the universe and it has a state of the art museum dedicated to the fish to prove it. Not being a fisherman I thought 10 minutes would cover it but it's interesting and well worth a visit. The town itself is very small with only 500 or so inhabitants and has a lively, relaxed buzz to it.  We stayed at Karumba Point which is where the 1004 km long Flinders River meets the Gulf. There's a great pub which overlooks the Gulf where you can relax with a schooner or 3 and catch the vivid-purple sunset.

We wanted to go on an evening Croc spotting tour but you guessed it - closed. so instead we had another schooner and barra and chips. Only downside was the massively expensive caravan park. $50 or so and we had to persuade them to open the amenities block for us.

It feels like sense of achievement to make it up to the Gulf of Carpenteria, especially in these times.
It helps though to be into fishing and then you'll be in Barra paradise.


So, due to the continuing border closures our plans to head east to Mount Isa and then into the NT have been scuppered. Karumba therefore marks the most northerly point of our adventure, at least for now. So next we leave the Savannah Way and head  south then east in favour of the Matilda Way and
head south and then east along the Matilda Way and the much anticipated Dinasour Way.

⚽⚽⚽ for Savannah Way Part 2. Would have been 4 balls but the crocs were in lockdown.

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