Day Forty Six - August 21st, 2013
Undara to Normanton via Croydon

We were out of the campsite by 8.30, and waved goodbye to our real outback experience. Although I very much enjoyed it, I was looking forward to somewhere a little less snake scary.

The road has become very long and very straight, and we knew we would probably encounter some road trains up to 50m long. Luckily we didn't, and we were grateful as the roads are only single lane in some places, and we were forced onto the dirt several times to avoid on coming traffic. We were third in a convoy of three until we got Croydon, so it was pretty smooth going, despite the number of cattle at the side of the road and the several dead roos in the road.

We had to stop in Croydon as it is the Aussie version of my birth place, and popped into the information centre. It was really well put together, and so nicely air conditioned that we stopped to watch the 15 minute movie about Croydon as a gold mining town long ago. It is now barely even a town, but in those days it was 16km across! We needed food but could only find a very basic shop with sky high prices. Luckily we found a wonderful tomato bread freshly baked at the counter for $6, and snapped it up with a couple of apples. We sat and ate in the shady courtyard, and wondered why anyone would like in the shell of a town such as this.

Pressing on, we passed a huge bird of prey pulling meat off from a dead kangaroo on the road, which almost didn't lift as we roared by. The roads were very quiet, and we made it to Normanton by 3.30. We checked into the touring park recomended in the Lonely Planet ($24 unpowered for one night) and jumped straight in the pool. There's just no point trying to set up the tent when you're stuffy and hot from a day in the car with no air con! After we'd cooled down, we popped up the tent and headed back into town to explore.

We had read about the replica sized crocodile in the town, shot in 1957 by Krystina Powloski. It was 8.63m long, and the largest ever shot! When we saw it, I was astounded. It was a bloody great dinosaur! How anyone had the nerve to shoot that I'll never know. We tried to get some good photos, but there were two little girls playing a game where they would climb up and get in the way of anyone taking a picture. Shockingly the mum just looked on and smiled. You'll see the mischief makers in my photo!

After stopping at Food Works (the only place in town, apart from the Purple Pub, painted such because it was the only cheap colour of paint available) we headed back for a proper swim. We wore ourselves out in the pool, and felt refreshed after the long drive. We pottered about in the camp kitchen making our pretty rubbish dinner (potato and beans for me, corned beef - his favourite, yuck - and rice for Elly) and chatted to a few of the other campers. Not surprisingly, we haven't met anyone else our age at this stage of the journey. We assume they all ended their tour when the boozy towns vanished. We seem to be following a far few people from Undara though! Early to bed tonight, and off to Karumba!