Day Forty Seven - August 22nd, 2013
Normanton to Karumba via Camp 119

We set off from Normanton knowing we would be driving though it in a little while to make it to Karumba for the night, but took a 70km detour to the Burke and Wills Camp CXIX. Elly had been dreaming about going since he first read about the camp as a little boy, and told me a little of the history. The expedition set out with four men in 1860, but only one, King, survived after being saved by an aboriginal tribe. Burke and Wills left camp 119 in search of the ocean, but never for there due to the bad conditions in the wet season. They came within 5k of the water, but returned to the camp unsuccessful. Several trees were burnt to allow them to find supplies they had buried, and they were marked today by plaques.

We took the dirt corrugation road to the monuments, and had a look around. It's pretty eerie in my opinion, and it made me realise just how much courage the explorers had to come out into this barren land without so much as a clue what they might find. We chatted to the only other people around, a couple from Perth, Bill and Diana (originally from California), who gave us their email address and told us to come and stay when we make it to Western Australia some day! They've done a lot of travelling and have kids our age, so know how lonely it can be on the road. Their new Discovery looked very modern next to ours in the car park! Such lovely people, hopefully we'll run into them again.

We drove back through Normanton (stopping only to get a kid free photo of Krys the Croc), and headed for Karumba. It's real outback country out here, and with no service on our phones, can be a little scary. All the drivers give a little wave or a signal to each other out of courtesy, and we always slow down to see if people pulled over on the road need any assistance.

We were still whizzing past hundreds of termite mounds and crowds of thin and miserable cattle when we saw what could be the ocean on the horizon. It's hard to tell - the heat from the road sends up mirages! We pulled into Karumba around lunch time and headed not for the town but for the point, and set up camp at Karumba Point Caravan Park ($29 a night, no power). Just in the budget, and a little steep! The ground was so hard, we had to pour water down before hammering in the nails.

We were both feeling a little unwell from having had nothing nutritious in a while, and found a supermarket which doubled as the town electrical store, with some fresh produce! We loaded up and headed back to the campsite.
After some avocado and tuna sandwiches, we spent the afternoon in the pool, chatting to the grey nomads and a couple around our age. The girl is English and has just moved here from Bristol to be with her Aussie boyfriend after they met travelling in Thailand 4 years ago.

We piled into the car and headed to The Tavern to watch the world class sunset. We had taken our supper and cooked our noodles as the sun went down. We chatted to a few other couples, and ate some donated chips from the local fish and chip shop! We have been given a few recommendations, and we hope to get to all these places!

Back to the campsite for another night in our cosy little tent. Tomorrow we head for Cloncurry and Mt Isa.