Karumba

Today’s destination will be Karumba (Hi Karumba). However, it wasn’t too long before the relentless corrugations finally took there toll. Mikes car battery had literally bounced out of it mounting so we stopped along the road to play bush mechanics. A piece of old thong and other fudging and we were back on the road again.

What Corrugations?

We then veered off the “main drag” and stopped to check out Burke and Will’s 119 camp site. I bet there were no corrugations back in their day. A quick pick and a wonder around the camp to check out the dig tree (what’s left) and to take in the many information signs then north again towards Normanton.


Olive, Pcis and Bruce at the Burke and Will Monument

We passed through Normanton and were impressed by the prettiness of this small rural community. After all the places we’d passed since leaving Mataranka, Normanton looked by far the most civilized. We planned to stop here on the way back from
Karumba and take a closer look.

We arrived in Karumba mid afternoon and drove around a bit trying to find a van park near the beach. Karumba is mainly a fishing port and there were only docks and ware houses in the town itself. We figured we were missing something for we had heard that Karumba is a popular destination for travelers throughout Australia. We headed back down the main drag and found a turn off to Karumba Point. Bingo! This is more like it with a Van Park near the beach and boat ramp and hotels and B&B’s. We queued up to book into the van park and scored to sites that backed onto each other. As we planned only 1 night here, we left our trailer attached to the car and drove through Mike and Jan’s site onto ours. This sent the long term grey nomads into a spin. Jan returned from the restrooms in a flap because our exploits at negotiation the two sites contravened some sort of rule about moving hay bales. None the wiser, Jan spoke to the managers who said there were services under the bales but our ignorance proved no excuse and we became the pariahs of the campground.

We quickly gathered ourselves and rushed off down the road to the Kurumba Point Hotel for some desperately needed afternoon drinks, some dinner then sneaking back to camp.


Drinks at the Karumba Point Hotel


Kurumba Point Hotel Sunset