Walker's Creek, Normanton & Karumba

We stayed overnight back at Gregory Downs before moving on towards Normanton. We stopped at Burke & Wills for lunch; a pie and sausage roll with chips there (nice & a reasonable price considering the isolation). Then moved on to Bang Bang rest area (Camps 6: 258). Nothing really to comment on in our opinion and it is noisy being on the highway!

Wedge tailed eagle

The next day we fuelled up in Normanton ($1.67 per litre) as we were running on fumes the last 7km. However we found out later that it is around 10 cents a litre cheaper at the Depot in Karumba – oh well!
We stopped by the Tourist Information Centre here and checked out the history of the largest Crocodile caught here. A whopping 8.63 metres or such –a world record catch at the time. There is a life size replica on the main street.

Krys is a tad bigger than Rob

We camped at Walker’s Creek which is about 30km north of Normanton. It is not in the Camps 6 book but is camp number 256 in the Camps 5 book. It is anyone’s guess why it has been left out of Camps 6. It is a big area and apparently can be quite crowded there as campsites in Karumba are quite expensive and frequently booked out well in advance. There is a weir next to the camp. Apparently it doesn’t have water going over it but there sure was a lot of water running over the weir when we were there.

Looking at the weir from the road

Walker's Creek Weir

The toilet is old and decrepit and I wouldn’t use it in a pink fit. It is certainly not maintained by anyone – maybe that is why it has been omitted from Camps 6.

Sunset at Walker's Creek

Moonscape at Walker's Creek

We liked it here. If you are lucky and want shade you might get a spot that overlooks the river, but most are away from the water. Apparently you can fish there but you’d have to be patient, one small group spent all day there and didn’t catch anything!

One of the many Brolgas near Karumba

We made some friends here, esp Lorraine and Brian We enjoyed a happy hour with 4 others the first night.
We left our van here are drove into Karumba to have a look around and to taste fresh barramundi & chips which were absolutely yummy. I am not so keen on Karumba. Having said that, it is chocka block full. I have never seen so many fishing trailers as there. It must be a great place to kick off a fishing expedition that's for sure.

Karumba - looking west up the creek

We much preferred Karumba Point for scenic viewing but truly, unless you are into fishing in a big way, this is one town you can leave off your agenda.
We stayed an extra day at Walker’s Creek just for the opportunity to be lazy and do a few odd bits ‘n bobs.

Karumba - looking out at the Gulf of Carpenteria

Another reason we stayed an extra night in Walker’s Creek was that we could attend church before moving on. We forgot to check the time of the service and found that we were an hour too early, so I went to the Laundromat and Bob went and filled the Robbiebago with water whilst we waited for the appointed hour...10am rolled around and no one came. At 10 past we gave up the ghost. Obviously they had called off the service and hadn’t thought to post a notice to say so for visitors. We left rather disappointed and continued on. We stopped for lunch at Black Bull which is an old railway station that is also a campsite. It too, is not in Camps 6 but it is in Camps 5: 252. It is about 90km east of Normanton. It has toilets and some covered picnic tables. I would consider staying overnight here if we were here later in the day. As it was we kept on going!