Croydon to Lawn Hill National Park, Queensland
A long driving day through the Gulf Savannah: an empty, flat section of land along the Gulf of Carpentaria. A brief stop in Normanton is the highlight of the day. At night we camp near Lawn Hill National Park in the Queensland's far northwest.
We are so glad we didn't take the Gulflander train from Normanton to Croydon. The round trip would have been eight hours of boredom... I probably would have had to get drunk to make the time pass.
As it was, it took us an hour and a half of driving to cover the same distance, and we were bored bored bored. West of Croydon, you really feel like you're on a vast flat plain... but it's not like you can see anything, just an open woodland of trees maybe 5 meters tall on either side of the straight straight road. Yawwwwwn.
Normanton was a bit interesting. We stopped for really expensive groceries and reasonably priced diesel ($1.03 a liter), took a few pictures of the Purple Pub, and poked around the train station. That's Normanton's claim to fame. It's the main station for the Gulflander train, a relic of a many years ago that Queensland Rail still operates. The line doesn't go anywhere but Croydon, and the engine and train cars are more charming than loveable, but it's still kinda neat that it's there. I probably would have a different opinion if I were to actually ride on it. Chris bought a record $30 of fridge magnets at the souvenir shop in the station, and I amused myself by seeing how close I could get to the loitering brolgas next to the verandah before they would squawk and back up. It seems like 3 meters sets off their proximity sensors--but it's only a meter or so if you hold out your empty hand.
After Normanton, the country changed slightly; with that flatness, any change is noticeable. The woodlands on the side of the road gave way to grassy plains with a tree or two here and there, and cows now and then. Many of the cows were very skinny, and most (should I mention it?) had really bad, uh, bums. You couldn't help but notice it as they ran away from the truck--just ugly scary looking reddish distended body parts under their tails. Eee yuck.
We made our way to Leichardt Falls for lunch, but with the very dry Wet season it wasn't flowing at all. Still, a good picture, a good place to eat a sandwich for lunch, and a good place to get eaten by flies. We didn't linger, and headed northwest to Burketown, the first settlement in the Gulf country.
I'll say it now: you have no reason to visit Burketown. Normanton is much more happening. The residents of Burketown (all 150 of them) appear to amuse themselves on Sunday afternoons by aimlessly wandering up and down the street, generally in the area of the two pubs, eyes glazed and shuffling. Chris considered buying a fridge magnet at one of the pubs, but the two dozen people out front put him off. We just left town, fridgemagnetless. Sniff.
The road south and west to Lawn Hill was a breeze, and it was even partly paved! Yay! We pulled into Adel's Grove campground, 10km from the park, and setup for the night. It's quite a pleasant campground, with shady sites down in the woodlands by a creek. And hot showers! Yay!
Weird Wildlife Sighting
Those two brolgas outside the Normanton train station--and their mates that were wandering in the street in front as well.
Oh--and we think we've seen our first Big Red Kangaroo, just outside Croydon. I don't know if they come this far north, though.