Normanton trip

Okay, so this happened a few weekends ago, but I went up to Normanton a few weekends ago.

My former colleague Nicola has left the Star for greener pastures in Port Augusta. Her partner Luke is based in Normanton in the short term flying planes around. So I decided to go up and hang out with him.

It's about 500 kilometres, so a fair old drive. Luckily I got to take a work car in exchange for a few stories. It's actually not a bad drive. It's good to get a feel for just how far everything is up here - because apparently driving three days up here didn't quite get that across...

I saw the sun trying the break through the clouds and thought I'd stop to take this photo.
And this is what the road was like for a large part of the drive!
As I said, Luke's a pilot. He had to do a little bit of work on Saturday, but we just hung out in the King Air he flies around. I had a lot of questions.

One of Normanton's tourist draw cards is its old train station with this train that runs once a week. The track is actually this special design that requires no ballast under the tracks. Basically it was designed like that because it's underwater for half the year and it wouldn't work. The sleepers are hollow metal but packed with earth apparently. I'm not sure of the exact physics, but it clearly still works.

Normanton is the place where the world's largest recorded crocodile was killed. It's 8.6 metres long and there's actually a replica of it in the main street, which I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of!

On Saturday night we went down to the town's wharf in the river to try to spot croc eyes with a torch. I was certain we'd see something, but alas, nothing! Still, this photo was funny when I was eight, funny now.

It was great to go and hang out with Luke. At this point I hadn't been out of Mount Isa for a while, so it was much needed. And plus, Luke makes a mean gourmet bacon and eggs.

Normanton and Karumba

I've just gotten back from a two-night trip to Normanton and Karumba, which are up in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

View Larger Map
There was a forum up there for the whole region, discussing various issues different industries are facing. That was followed by a North Queensland Local Government Association conference the next day.

I got to go because the local federal member, Bob Katter, was going up on a charter flight from Mount Isa and there was a spare seat. The plane was a Beechcraft Baron, which is a four seater plane, but I got to sit up the front next to the pilot!
We didn't get away as early as we had hoped, so most of the trip was in the dark, but I got this sunset photo as we took off from Mount Isa.
It was pretty fun sitting up the front and chatting to the pilot about all the controls. I also got to watch us coming in to land, which was very interesting!
We got a cab from the airport to our hotel, and there was a meet and greet session in the pub next door. I had to do some work, but there was also the chance to have a beer and a prawn!

I couldn't believe how many cane toads there were just hopping around...
The next day was a very early start involving a bus trip to Normanton. Most of the people at the conference were rural mayors who are graziers, and the start time was clearly set for graziers, not journalists. It was a forum about difficulties facing several industries in the north west - a great source for stories and an opportunity to get my head around some bigger issues up here.

So I wrote up a few stories and sent them off and caught the bus back to Karumba. I went for a walk down near the beach, keeping an eye out for crocs, and found out that it wasn't the sandy beach I had grown accustomed to in New South Wales. But I wanted to put my feat in the waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Now, the pub we were at was called the Sunset Tavern. I've never seen the sun set over the water in Australia. It was a pretty darn good sunset, and a beer really made the moment.
The pub had great seafood - I had oysters and barramundi that night and it was divine. Just the ticket after a hard day's work. Karumba has a reasonably large fishing industry, so all the seafood was so delicious and so fresh.

This morning it was an even earlier start back to Normanton. I had taken the work laptop and Telstra internet thingy. Today, however, all of the Telstra mobile network in Queensland was down, which meant I couldn't file my stories that way. So I had to write my stuff up, put all my stories and photos on a flash drive (which I had to borrow from someone because I didn't take one - why would I? I had nifty wireless interent...) and go down to the council chambers to email it back to my editor. But it got there on time.

After that Local Government Conference wound up it was out to Normanton Airport and another flight back. I again got to sit up the front, and it was light for much of the trip, so I got to see a fair bit of the landscape.
It was a great trip, and something I'm really glad I got to do. Karumba is beautiful, and it was just great to see more of north Queensland.