Normanton

This morning we packed up and went to see the new Barramundi Centre here in Karumba. The town is building a new breeding facility, which will open next season but they are opening it up this weekend only for people to have a look. And we were the first people to walk through the door!

We learnt a lot about barramundi - did you know they start off male and become female as they become sexually mature? The only thing missing from our visit were the fish themselves. The new breeding ponds aren’t ready for th barramundi yet. And we learnt more about Karumba through well done videos highlighting personal stories of some long time residents.

After our barra tour we headed away from the gulf, back to Normanton where we spent a bit of time in town checking out some of the old buildings, the old bridge, the huge 6 metre crocodile called Kris and we stopped for lunch in the bakery.

Then it was time to begin our journey on the Savannah Way heading to Croydon for tonight. Also, the thinking is given today was 37 degrees, it made sense to do some sightseeing while it was still cool and then spend as much time in the car driving as possible.

We arrived in Croydon mid afternoon, passing the ‘oldest store in Australia’ established in 1894 and filled with old bric a brac and spent some time in the visitor Centre - with air con - (they let Cadbury in as long as one of us held him all the time) where we watched a video about the history of gold mining in this town and then read the displays and inspected the gold samples on display. We also wandered around the back where they have carefully preserved some old miners cottages, as well as some steam engines and machinery from the early 1900s.

Next we headed off to Lake Belmore where Gadi and Cadbury followed the lead of some kids splashing away in the refreshing water. There were signs warning of crocodiles but, as Gadi said, if there any freshies there they would go for the kids before him!

Cadbury enjoyed fetching sticks and retrieving stones from the water and frolicking like a puppy. He’s probably over the heat as much as we are!

After a short break at the lake we made our way to the low cost/donation camp at the local rodeo ground. This weekend, which is a long weekend in Queensland (Queen’s birthday) the town is putting on a horse and motor bike event. Tonight they are showing a kids movie (The Emoji Movie) on a big outdoor screen. We parked the car and caravan a little way away from the event and cooked a simple dinner of fresh pan fried barramundi and a salad before heading over with chairs to watch the movie.

It was nice to sit outside with a cooling, gentle breeze, although I felt I couldn’t stay awake for much longer, so I headed back to the caravan to chill out for the evening - and try to sleep even though inside the caravan it was still hot.

Night night from the Savannah Way in far North Queensland xxRead more