Karumba

Leaving Normanton behind for the moment, we drove over the Norman River and on to Karumba and decided to stay for a week at the Point Fuel caravan park at Karumba point.

Karumba Point is only a few kms out of Karumba and we had our first view of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Later that night we watched the sun set from the caravan park.

The Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre was very interesting where we learnt about the efforts to breed up fingerlings to restock rivers and impoundments in North Queensland. We got to see the barra at various stages of their life cycle and hand feed a couple of the big breeding females. They don't muck around when they realise you are holding a squid - they give you quite a start with a loud toothless snap as the food vanishes. The place is still a work in progress but well worth the visit.and opportunity to pose for a photo.

Later that afternoon we went on a river and sunset cruise. The old beached timber boat is for sale if you want a bargain.

Corellas at the town wharf.

The old wharf.

The Wunma is a bulk zinc concentrate transfer vessel based in Karumba and was purpose built for travel in the shallow Norman River and gulf. 100 meters long and when fully loaded she only has a 4 metre draught. The ore transfer takes place in the southern gulf to larger ships.

White bellied sea eagle perched on an abandoned hulk.

Turning back to the river mouth we saw quite a bit of life including jabiru, egrets, and an old saltwater crocodile about 4 to 5 metres long.

Out in the gulf, the skipper found a great vantage point to see the sun set over the water and an opportunity to steal a sunset kiss.

After sunset, there was still enough twilight to catch this osprey nesting atop a navigation beacon.

On the beach at Karumba Point.

On Monday Carolann and Jamie went on a half day fishing charter and did quite well. Carolann landed the first fish on the boat (a blue salmon) and out fished everybody aboard.

Trudy stayed ashore and took some amazing photos of a pelican in flight and an odd collection of shorebirds (seagulls, pelicans and a jabiru).

The catch (apart from many sand sharks and odd small fingermark) ended up being 7 blue salmon for Carolann and 5 salmon and a cod for Jamie. You may notice the bottom half of a tail missing - probably a shark.

All up there were almost 8kg of fillets. Yummy!

For our last night in Karumba, we bought some potato scallops, sweet potato wedges, and chips to munch on as the sun set.