It seems a lot of
folks travelling around Australia want to “go to ‘The Gulf’”, and we were no
exception. About another 70 kms on from Normanton, through heat-hazed,
interesting landscape, containing what looked like dried salt-marshes
harbouring all kinds of weird and wonderful species, mostly hidden from view,
we arrived in Karumba. It was at the end of another exhausting 400km+ drive,
but it was absolutely worth it. I fell in love with this place straight away,
and it entered my ‘top 5 places’ on our trip. The whole experience of being
back at the ocean side, with sweeping vistas, was a real breath of fresh air. Luckily,
we’d chosen to camp on the ‘Point’ side of town, and it was beautiful! You really do feel tucked
away here, so far from anything, with a real ‘holiday maker/laidback’ feel. I
could have stayed here for weeks!
Just a tad happy to be back at the coast!
The glistening
water of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was like trying to take in thousands upon
thousands of bright stars. Magical!
Elliot on the
deserted coastline. This is out of bounds at most times of the year due to the
crocs. We still wouldn’t risk swimming in it though – too dangerous.
Some mangroves
adding colour and texture to the coastal landscape.
A closer look at
their beautiful root system…
…and of the
wonderful texture created by barnacles on its trunk and branches.
Karumba is really
popular for fishing, mostly for barramundi, and prawn trawling. There was seafood everywhere! We gorged ourselves on it over the next 3 days, as we’d
been pretty deprived of it being inland most of the time. Our first night at
the campsite (which seemed to be where pretty much every grey nomad from Victoria camps for the whole of summer), they
had as much free barbequed fish as you could eat. All you had to do was bring a
salad, drinks and some chairs if you wanted, and they did the rest. Sublime!! The
fish and chips were to die for at one of the local café’s, and the abundance of
cheap fish and prawns just made me drool. I was in heaven!
As well as being
well known for the quality of seafood and fishing exploits, Karumba is renowned
for its sunsets, and birdlife too. So, of course, we had to do a ‘Wildlife
sunset tour’. This had to be the best sunset of the whole trip, hands down.
Possibly the best I’d ever seen in my life. It’s certainly one I can remember
so well, as I didn’t know where to look first. I actually almost missed the
sunset, as the full moon rising on the opposite side stole the show. It was
enormous, bright, and lit up the whole sky. Just incredibly breathtaking and
mesmerising. Here are some shots of the birdlife we saw whilst strolling along
the beach, and of the incredible sunset/moon rising:
A White-faced
heron. Beautiful feathers on its back.
A pair of Brolgas
casually strolling up the beach.
Some type of
gull? I love the way their simple colours break up the seascape.
Had to take a
photo from a book of the Great Billed Heron, as it was too hard to get a shot
from the boat. These birds are very rare, so were extremely lucky to see a pair
of them. Our tour guides got very excited about spotting them! They are huge
(100-110cms), with a beautiful big wingspan. They’re very graceful in flight.
Getting stuck in
to the local produce.
Moon rising…
…leaving a small
illuminated spot on the sea…
…and then like a
lighthouse beam. Amazing.
We were
surrounded by beautiful hues of pinks, purples and apricot colours. Sensory
overload!
Heading back
towards land. There’s a beautiful bright star in the sky too.
This is exactly
how the sunset looked on the water. This shot, like all the others in all of my
blogs, has not been enhanced at all. There is no greater artist than Mother
Nature.
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