CROYDON - GREGORY DOWNS

Getting to know our camp.

A lot of people have said to us…..’I don’t know how you can live out of a camper trailer with 5 of you for such a long time!’ or they’ve said…..’How do you manage?’

We also get asked….’Do you get sick of putting the camper up and down every time you pull up somewhere?’

I am not sure if it’s because we’ve always been camping people, or that we simply cannot afford a 30ft Winnebago? But I can tell you for sure that we are doing it and can do it because we love camping and are thoroughly enjoying exploring Australia. And for the 4 months that we are away, it’s such a small chunk out of our everyday life and sure as eggs I will be back home doing the ‘school run’, zipping here and there with the kids and their activities and Geoff and I will be back at work, just like we did prior to us leaving. One thing is for sure, we don’t get sick of putting the camper up and setting everything up and we don’t think it’s a hassle to boil the billy for our cuppa on the gas stove or even collect the firewood to cook our dinner on the campfire. Because time flies when you are having fun and it won’t be long before we are back into the swing of ‘normal’ life and an electric kettle. (Might I also point out that on some occasions I have longed for a freshly brewed strong flat white from the Gerringong Deli to start my day! But you can’t have it all)

Sooooooo I thought that I might provide you with a little insight into our camping life on the road. It’s all pretty basic and simple and the key is to bring only what you need. As I have mentioned previously I am pretty sure that we have brought along a good amount of stuff and there would not be many things that we would leave behind next time. And just for the record you will NEVER EVER see Geoff and me tripping around in a Winnebago!

I hope you enjoy the photos!

Washing up tub - complete with washer-upper-a

Kitchen

Pantry

Fridge and fruit bowl in back of vehicle

 

Forget your ‘home brand’

Forget your ‘black and gold’

Forget your ‘Coles smart buy’

Forget your ‘no name brand’

I have discovered the generic brand to end all competition…..Let me introduce you to ‘FABULOUS’ unless I am missing something here and it’s new on the supermarket shelves Australia wide? I came across the ever reliable brand of ‘fabulous’ whilst shopping for some gourmet delights in the tiny Karumba supermarket. If it’s not already in NSW we I think I may start importing it. I can highly recommend their tinned pink salmon – it’s FABULOUS!

MMMMMM Fabulous

BULL DUST – two words, that’s all I have for you….. BULL DUST or maybe its one word BULLDUST. I’m not too sure. But let me tell you a little bit about it! Firstly pop into your pantry and get yourself some Flour, any flour will do. Bulldust is the colour of dirt but as fine as flour. Now, put some flour into the palm of your hand, and then clap your two hands together. POOF, a big cloud of flour! Well that’s BULLDUST! And that is the stuff that is mostly responsible for all the mess in our car and belongings. It’s everywhere; you drive on it, camp in it, walk on it and live in it. Every time you disturb the dust there is a cloud of smoke. Loving every minute of it! And a tip for the traveller – make sure you keep your eye out for said bulldust whilst driving on the dirt roads as the wind whips up the bulldust and deposits it into potholes or just leaves it in big mounds on the road, which doesn’t provide any traction for your vehicle what so ever.

After the Mt Surprise Rodeo spectacular we pressed on to the town of Croydon. Croydon is an outback town with a lot of history in the gold fields. One classic looking pub, one shop and a petrol station. $26 for the night in a cosy little caravan park. We soaked in a little more history from the Australian gold rush and then promptly decided that Croydon would be the last gold mining town we would visit for this trip. And whilst we are on the subject we have decided that we’ve also seen enough Lime Stone Caves, overtaken enough Grey Nomads and walked enough Gorges as well.

Leaving Croydon we passed through the Gulf town of Normanton. Here we had a photo taken with the giant Crocodile ‘Kris’ she was 8m long and is reportedly an actual size replica of a Croc that was killed by some crazy croc hunting woman by the name of Kris, many many years ago. The kids had fun laying in its mouth for a photo and poking its eyes. I am sure they were seeking revenge for all the water they couldn’t swim in whilst on this holiday. Normanton has the infamous ‘Purple Pub’ which we just took a photo of as we passed by and wished we had stopped at to have a ‘pot’ of beer. Normanton led us to Karumba, really the only two towns this end of the land of OZ, the area is known as – ‘where the outback meets the ocean’ and that is so true! All of the land in the Gulf of Carpentaria is very low lying and is mostly ‘salt flats’. In the Wet season it floods here and is not accessible. We also learnt that because the land is all ‘salt flats’ rubbish is a huge problem in the Karumba/Normanton region. Salt acts as a preservative and it takes such a long time for things to break down. They don’t have rubbish tips in this area and have to transport the refuse to another area and burry it in a really deep hole. The wild life don’t even touch the scraps on the ground that people might throw out their vehicle window because once is touches the ground it becomes too salty for them to eat. This was all made more real by a lady showing us an orange that was found on the side of the road 7 years ago and was only just becoming a shrivelled mess now. Amazing!

Kris the 8m Croc - Normanton

Karumba

BBQ Pontoon Karumba

 

The town of Karumba was beautiful, situated in the ‘big dipper’ of Australia. We got to enjoy beautiful sunsets over the ocean, enjoyed a nice meal at the pub at the beach, and shared the camping with about 12 billion grey nomads who migrate to Karumba every winter for 6 months from the Southern states. Karumba is renowned for its fishing! You know – species like Barramundi, Snapper, Bream, Salmon and Jew fish. I can report that ‘Team Smith’ gave it a red hot go and tested the theory…and can tell you the score ended up being: Cat Fish 2, Toad Fish 1, and any other desirable species – A BIG FAT ZERO!  Ten table points for trying though. We hired a BBQ pontoon for the day and took ourselves out on the Norman River, fished and fished, cooked up a storm on the BBQ, spotted some croc slide and claw marks on the shore line, enjoyed the scenery and had steak for dinner when we got back to camp.

Two nights at Karumba soon turned into four…yet again it’s time to move on.

Next stop Leichardt Falls, just a small dot on the map, down a dirt road on the way to Burketown. Had we not been told about it, we would have driven straight past. The dirt road lead to a weir about 150m long, we then turned off a side track which lead us to these magnificent falls which actually sat bellow the very same weir we had driven on. You know, you drive along and see the sides of the road and the horizon but you just don’t know what’s ‘behind the scenes’ until you look. I’ll let you judge for yourself by the photo’s.

Leichhardt Falls

Can someone ring Geoff’s and my boss please and tell them we are not coming back! We’ve just discovered Gregory Downs. We are camping beside the Gregory River – absolutely magnificent. You can swim here. The Fresh Water Crocs are not a problem in the river, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. (well now I am totally confused about the whole croc thing). The Gregory River is a fresh water river which starts right up in the Gulf from an underground spring. By the time it flowed past our camp site it was moving at a pace and provided much fun for everyone floating down the river through some little rapids. Putting their own spin on the word ‘fun’ the Smith boys decided to float down using our unused diesel jerry cans as a ‘floaty’, this enabled them to pick up quite a bit more speed and also was the cause of a few grazes along the way. Gregory River was free to camp, the ‘town’ at the top of the river bank consisted of a pub which provided ice, frozen bread (at $5 a loaf but who’s keeping count) a nice counter meal, oh and beer. There were also public showers and toilets and a great park for the kiddies. So we camped for 4 days. Whilst at Gregory Downs we met a young couple travelling for 12 months looking for somewhere to call home. They had watched me and the kids making damper one night and we ended up all sitting around the fire together with our new friends eating warm damper with two inches of butter – yummmo. The young couple asked if I could show them how to make some damper, so the next afternoon I went to their campsite to teach them and word had spread, before I new it there was two other people from other campsites all standing around watching my damper making lesson. I shared my recipes that I have collected on the way and we had lots of fun making a big mess and a big damper. Peter Russel Clark eat your heart out.

Gregory River

Our camp at Gregory Downs on the Gregory River

Gregory River - Geoff on the rope swing

We are on the home stretch and are becoming more aware of how much time we have left or should I say – don’t have left. We have been having such a great time seeing the land of OZ and don’t really want the adventure to end. We are well and truly in holiday mode and are very relaxed.

I think taking our time to get to places and not rushing has really paid off for us as we’ve been able to fully appreciate the places we’ve visited.

I have to tell you a funny story about how unaware of time we are at the moment. A few weeks ago the five of us had a fairly lengthy and animated discussion trying to figure out what day of the week it was, for the life of us we couldn’t figure it out. So when we came to the next town I was pretty excited when the general store (that sold everything) had newspapers. Being out in the bush, not only is it easy to forget what day of the week it is but you also miss out on the latest news. So I thought I was going to solve all our problems by purchasing a paper so we could catch up on what’s been going on in the world. Can I say that it’s just not that easy to do when you are in the QLD outback and the general store clearly doesn’t get a daily delivery of the current day’s newspaper. I had in fact purchased a newspaper that was over a week old and the only way we realised was that we had already read the same paper a week ago. You can imagine Geoff getting some mileage out of what I thought was a great idea. So I have decided not to purchase another newspaper until I return. No news is good news.

The kids continue to get dirty and dusty everywhere we go and are loving it. They have also met some lovely like minded friends and have exchanged addresses; I hope that they are still motivated to keep in contact with some of them upon our return. As I have said previously it is easy for us to keep going and going and get a little tired so it’s important to find places that we really like and set up camp for a few days to

 re-group. Because tired and cranky kids doesn’t make for a pleasant holiday experience.

they need this sign at the bottom of my driveway

So ON ON again next stop……….Lawn Hill NP

We do hope you are enjoying the winter weather as much as we are in The Gulf with our 30degree days and humidity well above 50%. Just thought I’d rub it in.