20 August: Bumped our way out from the station and on to the seal. Came across more obstacles today- along with stray and wandering cattle and kangaroos we saw a camel and emus.

The camp at Richmond was alongside a man made lake which was a change from the dry landscape. Lots of weird shaped rocks around which are unique to the area and are known as Moonrocks.

Picked up some mail from the Post Office – a quaint old place, and had a wander around the town which didn’t take long – the whole region has a population of around 1000!

Spent some time at Kronosaurus Korner which is a marine fossil museum with most of the fossils being from the region. The creatures came from the ancient Eromanga Sea which covered Richmond over 100 million years ago. The Kronosaurus was a 10 meter long predatory pliosaur with enormous crocodile like jaws.

16 August: Had an overnight stay at Camooweal which is close to the Northern Territory border, quite hot and dusty but the camp had a reasonable pool which was good to cool off in. Went out to the Camooweal Caves National Park and saw a couple of sink holes (the Great and Little Nowranie Caves) which date back to Cambrian Period (about 500 million years ago).

A river crossing on the way to Camooweal

Camooweal sink hole

Next on to Mount Isa and to our Station Stay about 30kms out of town. Station has a large cattle herd, with regular musters by helicopter. Pretty hot with the temperature in the mid 30’s so didn’t do too much. Also Rube had an ear infection requiring trips to the doctor and antibiotics. Rube had another successful outback haircut. Went for a short walk to a lookout at the back of the homestead.

Landscape around Mt Isa a bit different as it was reasonably hilly with lots of spinifex.

West Leichhardt

11 August: Had an overnight stay in Burketown on our way here. Stopped off to visit Camp 119, the most northerly camp of the Burke and Wills expedition. Very hot and dry – would not have wanted to be here back then. Another stop at the Leichhardt Falls – a bit of water but imagine would be impressive in the wet.

On the road to Burketown

Good drive in to Adels Grove as the road had been recently graded. The camp is just outside the Lawn Hill (Boodjamulla) National Park. Years ago it was an experimental Botanical Garden with over 1000 species of exotic and native plants, shrubs and trees and it supplied botanical gardens worldwide with seeds produced in the nursery. Fire swept through the gardens wiped out much of the area including all the research notes and put an end to the work.

The Lawn Hill creek runs alongside the camp and has swimming spots – a great place to cool off in the heat, and a nice walking track.

A rube in a tube

Headed off to the National Park on three occasions and went on some great walks and also hired a canoe and paddled up the gorge – some impressive scenery and were lucky to spot a small crocodile, a turtle and fairy wrens while canoeing.

3 August: An overnight stop in Croydon on the way here. Had a walk around the small towns historic centre – all of a couple of blocks. Town goes back to gold mining days.

Stopped off at the general store which is the longest continuously running store in Queensland and was built in 1894. It had an ecclectic range goods including the 30amp fuses we were after.

We then called into the Club Hotel, built in 1894 and is the last of 36 hotels in Croydon – treated ourselves to a pot of beer 🍻

Continued on way and stopped off at Normanton. Have been coming across a few more road trains on this stretch of highway which can be a bit intimidating.

Normanton developed as the port for the Croydon gold rush and now is the major (though a very small town!) service centre in the Gulf Savannah. The town has some well preserved historic buildings and also is the home of “Krys” the Savannah King.

Watch out you two!

The current Krys is a life size model of the crocodile shot by Krystina Pawlowski – a crocodile hunter, in the 1950’s. It was the largest estuarine crocodile in the world measuring 8.63 metres long. Certainly not a creature we would like to come across in the wild!

We are camping at a campsite attached to the Karumba Hotel – with the infamous “Animal Bar”. Nice location on the Norman River, along with another couple we thought we could see a log floating by (crocodile) one evening while watching the sunset! Had a drink at the Animal Bar and it was quite tame – nice cold beer 🍻. It no longer has to have its furniture bolted down.

Went on a fishing charter one day and had a good day out. Caught a few fish including small sharks and steel back salmon. Managed to hook a big shark which put up a good fight but luckily bit through the line before we got it up close to the boat. Surprisingly the small shark tasted very good as did the salmon. Saw a crocodile and nesting ospreys on our way back and also an old shipwreck.

We went swimming a few times in the local pool which was very refreshing. Also managed  a good walk (followed by a swim). Watched lovely sunsets at night and the comings and goings on the river. A bit of wild life around including the large brolga birds.

Hey!

30 July: A nice smooth drive today! Stopped off at the Innot Hot Springs and went for a paddle in the creek. The springs were nice and warm and we got nice pink feet. Decided not to do the whole body wallow as it was a warm day! Induldged in an ice cream instead.

Pinnarendi was a great place to stay – is a working cattle station (small) combined with a camping ground and cafe with a wood fired oven, BBQ with rotisserie and a hot smoke house. The camp ground is still a work in progress and we were there for the first official powered sites.

The outside eating area of the cafe was great with a huge suspended table made out  of a single slab of red oak. Along side was a garden area with herbs, vegetables, pineapples and bananas.

Specialities of the cafe were sour dough bread and pizzas. We weren’t there for the pizza night (Saturday) but were there for bread baking and had some very tasty warm bread.

We went for a walk around the stations dams and lagoon and saw plenty of bird life and lots of the basket weaving spiders nests 🕷

Rain forest remnant in the collapsed lava tube