Croydon to Mount Isa

September 5:
A late start this morning as we are only going as far as Normanton. We booked into the Normanton caravan park in the centre of town. It's 16 years since we were last here and nothing has really changed in this time even though the number of people touring has certainly increased. After shopping and buying some great priced meat and frozen Barra fillets we headed to the parks pool. Temperature today is 36 degrees. We dined at the Central Hotel built in the 1890's just as we did all those years ago but sadly the crumbed prawn cutlets were no longer on the menu. Ros opted for chilli garlic prawns and I had the crumbed Barra. Two fillets the size of bread and butter plates and several inches thick, meant that nothing else on the plate was touched. 
Distance today 161Km's Total distance 4474Km's.

September 6:
We left the van at Normanton and booked into a motel at Karumba for tonight. We lunched at the Sunset Tavern and the Barra was the best I have tasted since Mum used to cook it for us in Port Moresby when we were growing up. Later that day we went on a 2 hour gulf sunset and wildlife tour on the Norman River which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

The tour was very informative especially the information on how the Zinc from the Century mine near Lawn Hill is transferred to Karumba. The company has built a 30cm pipe from the mine to the processing plant here in Karumba.

The pipe has been dug under all the river systems for it's 370 Km journey. The Zinc is mixed with water and turned into a slurry then gravity fed to Karumba where the water is removed and filtered and used to water cattle in the region. The zinc is then processed into bits the size of a finger nail before being transferred to a shallow drafted ship that travels out into the gulf and deposits it's load into a super tanker. 
The shallow drafted ship leaving Karumba to deposit it's load:

Because the gulf is so shallow each time the smaller ship deposits it's load the super tanker has to move further out into the gulf. This process continues until the tanker is full.
Distance today 108Km's Total distance 4582 Km's.

September 7:
Drove back to Normanton and completed our shopping before spending the remainder of the day around the pool.
Distance today 73 Km's Total distance 4655 Km's.

September 8:
We had planned to camp at Leichhardt Falls but during the evening at Normanton the wind picked up and continued to blow today. When we reached Leichhardt Falls the wind had not abated and because the area is open we did not fancy spending the reminder of the day cooped up inside the van.
The falls have now dried up:

We continued onto Burketown and camped in the caravan park. The 220 Km's from Normanton to Burketown which once was all dirt the last time we travelled over it now has only 120 Km's of dirt.

Distance today 229 Km's Total distance 4884 Km's.

September 9,10,11:
Today sees us heading south to camp on the Gregory River just down from the pub. The road from Burketown will probably be all bitumen before the coming wet season. The first 15 Km's is bitumen followed by 32 Km's of dirt and a further 33 Km's of bitumen with a large stretch that will probably be sealed by the end of the week.
We spent 3 lovely days camped on the Gregory with the water flowing past our camp. The days were mainly spent climbing in and out of the river whenever we felt the need, and that was quite often. There is now a dump point across from the pub. We met a lovely couple from Mount Isa who were camped in their Bushtracker just a short distance up the river from us.
Distance today 121 Km's Total distance 5005 Km's.

 

September 12/13:

We left Gregory Downs at 8am on our way to Mount Isa. The first 126 Km's is dirt with 57 Km's of bitumen before turning east on the Barkly Highway for the 119 Km run into the Isa. We did a large shop today that will last us for the next few weeks before we arrive in Longreach.

 Did you know...that there is no 'Mount' Isa, which is why the name is 'Mount Isa'  and not Mt Isa. Distance today 318 Km's Total distance 5323 Km's.