Sunday, 31 May 2015

It is now June the 1st, and it is pretty well time to move on again. We pull out of Karumba tomorrow morning, heading towards Lawn Hill NP. We will stop over somewhere on the way, probably near Gregory. We could prob get all the way to Adele's Grove, but it would make it a long day as we have a farily big packup to do. The fishing here has not been what we expected, as there has not been a proper wet season for 3 years so the river has not been washed out, therefore the fish are not here. The tides at present only have 1metre variance from low to high, so the water is pretty well not moving. Considering there are only 2 tides (1 x high, 1 x low), that does not bade well for fishing at the mouth.

We have also been hampered by not being able to put the boat in the water do to malfunctioning wheel thingies...that I built. I just had them repaired, so hopefully we can use it in the time ahead.

We have been fishing from the river bank, next to the park, and we have been catching heaps, but none of them are keeper size. We are not alone though, as not many people are catching fish of any size. The only ones we are seeing have been caught with a boat.

I have added some more photos below, but they seem to have a common them...the sun either setting or rising. I am sure I have more photos, but this is all I have loaded on the PC.

I have not seen any of Klaus', so I cannot show you them.

As we will probably be out of internet, or phone, capability in the next week, the blog may be a bit quiet.

I hope you enjoy the following...

Sunset over Karumba Beach

The tides are usually really big here (4-6m) but at present they are very low. 

You can see the fairleads (channel lights) that go out for about 5kms. These are to guide the big ships in so they don't run aground on the shallow waters off the river entry.

Low tide obviously...

This is the fish that most people are fishing for. It is a Grunter (Javelin Fish). Unfortunately this one is a bit (lot) too small. 

We caught heaps of these. We didn't get to take any home, but one particular Pelican did get a good feed!

Sun going down over a fishing attempt.

This has to be my favourite photo so far. It was taken back at Lara's Wetland park.

High tide at Karumba Beach...it is still not very high though.

Low tide at Karumba Beach.

....and again.

Friday, 29 May 2015

Photos from the 1st 7 days..

Well, you asked for it (them). Today is Day 7 and we arrived in Karumba after lunch today, and checked in the caravan park. We are here for 4 nights. I am using my phone as a hotspot while I post these bits of text and photos. We have seen some beautiful things, and stayed in some amazing places. We have also seen some very ordinary things (dryness, animal death, deserted lands), and stayed in equally ordinary places.
Here are some of the photos you missed from the first 6+ days...

Day 1 camp

friendly visitors for breaky..


20 Black Kites waiting for the sun to warm up the air...

these were at the hospital while Beryl paid a visit

Lightning Ridge campsite

We saw heaps of emus on the way..

Hebel pub

More emus..

Cattle mustering on the main highway

Neil Turner's Weir near Mitchell

Maranoa River

We had a visit from the Kenthurst Panther overnight..


The weir did it's job...

reflections on the river

lots of bird life


We have seen many raodtrains. The longest is 53.5 metres!

Bower birds like grapes!

As a result of changing our route, we were fortunate enough to be able to stay at this place. It was stunning...check out the following photos..

the gate in...to paradise..

our campsite..


making the provided firewood small enough to fit in the fire pit.







This is our camp from the other side of the lake - the next morning

an empty nest...fitting as the 4 of us are empty nesters!

We stayed at Kynuna Roadhose. These Brolgas visited our campsite, and the male took Wendy's buttered toast off her plate! The photos shows th aparent giving the toast to the baby..

GO AWAY!!!

up close and personal.

photographer at work!

A Bustard taking flight. We were not sure if they were Bustards or Curlews, so we created a new species, calling them Illegitimate Curlews

Gravestones everywhere...thousands and thousands of grass termite mounds..

Our free stopover 100kms south of Normanton.

The night - well...morning as it was 4am - sky, after the moon had set.

This is a model of the worlds largest croc ever shot. It was 28'4", or 8.63m

The purple pub in Normanton