Gulf of Carpentaria

We left the lush tropical rainforest behind and headed inland and it took us a couple of days to adjust to the difference in the country, just a hundred or so kilometres from the coast. The transition seemed so sudden into dry, scrubby, red dirt, ‘outback’ Australia – and the opposite end of the spectrum from the rainforest. Amazing.

We did some big drives to get to Normanton and Karumba – on the eastern edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Stopping overnight at the Innot Hot Springs, which was essentially a basic caravan park with a series of old fashioned pools containing water of differing temperatures, straight from the springs. Just the ticket after a long day ‘in the saddle’!


Near the laconic wee town of Normanton we stopped awhile beside a billabong with a few grey nomads. The setting was idyllic with abundant birdlife and colourful amenities however with the arrival of the inevitable rain the fringes of the campground soon became a quagmire and Elsie even got bogged for the first time as we tried to find a back way out of the camp.




Tim fished a bit on the Normanton River and in Karumba, but everything seemed wrong, and locals were telling us so. ‘You need to be here when the tide is x and the moon is y and use z for bait and and and….’ Needless to say all we caught were catfish.

The Norman River was the first really crocodiley river we’ve spent any time next to, and we did see one baby and heard another splash into the water. But despite Nic’s fears we didn’t see a full sized croc. The replica in Normanton of the biggest crocodile ever caught was enough to give us nightmares.