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Sat 10 Jul to Sun 11 Jul
It was recommended to us by our tour guide that before leaving Undara it would be well worth doing the Kalkani Crater Rim Walk which was only 16ks off the beaten track.So as Paul & Jen were to have breakfast with George & Pip the next morning before flying back to their property we were all up bright and early and ready to leave by 8.30.The rim walk was approx 2.5ks long; it was a bit of a hike to get up to the top but well worth the effort for the views. One could see two of the many extinct volcanos, beautiful wild flowers and bushland for as far as the eye could see.Next stop was Mt Surprise for petrol.Mt Surprise is a very popular gem fossicking region, however we did not have time to do any exploring as we were on a mission, so wagons ho and on we go.On the way out of town we drove through a free truck wash, mind you the cars and vans were just as dusty and hour later but it was good to have them looking sparkling clean for just a little while.We did not stop at Georgetown which is an old gold mining town with a lot of history I believe, but moved onto look for an off road spot for the night.We came across a good clearing at Marsupial Creek near Little River.We were soon set up and Warren with the help of the boys made a lovely camp oven dish of lamb shanks in red wine on a bed of mashed potatoes.Yummy, what a master chef, I would have given him 9 out of 10 for taste; he let himself down on the presentation slightly.Port & coffee for some and dirty cowboys for those I cannot mention, that finished off a good night.
The next day Sunday we left camp bright and early as usual and rolled into Croydon which is about 150ks south east of Normanton. It turned out to be a most interesting place with al lot of history; it also was an old gold mining town.The Croydon "True Blue" Info Centre is a must to see; it has replicated a few of the buildings from the gold rush days, old gold mining equipment, heritage items, audio visual theatre and a pioneer & descendant genealogy service.The thing that took my eye was the beautifully sculptured animals in wrought iron.Of the 36 pubs that were operating during the gold rush days, the Club Hotel is the only one left standing and it is still in its original condition.The Gulflander train travels from Normanton to Croydon Station weekly, stays overnight and returns to Normanton the next day, it is very popular with the tourists and brings a lot of tourist dollars into the region. Croydon also boasts the famous General Store, which has continuously traded since 1894. On the way out of Croydon we drove to Lake Belmore, a man made lake built for the town water supply in 1995, we had our morning tea there, it really was a beautiful spot, very picturesque. We reached Normanton in good time; the roads were not as bad as they were when we travelled them in 2002. So after a very quick look around, a bite to eat & a visit to the only store open on a Sunday, we nearly keeled over from shock, it was highway robbery, his name had to be Ned Kelly, I paid $15 for 4 apples 4 mandarins & a bottle of soda water, not happy Jan. The petrol station doesn't even open on a Sunday in Normanton, too bad if you had to wait till Monday to get petrol the only accommodation was the Purple Pub and that wasn't too crash hot either. We didn't have far to travel to get to our final destination for the day which was Double Lagoon cattle property just north of Normanton. We arrived at Double Lagoon around 3 o'clock & were greeted warmly by Max & George who are the managers of the property and friends of Paul & Jen.By the time we got our vans parked, cleaned up and put on the washing (yes we still have to do all of those mundane chores) it was nearly time for happy hour. George & his son came over and joined us for a meet & greet, everyone was quite tired that day so we soon headed back to our vans for dinner and an early night.We will be visiting Karumba while we are here so my next blog will be about our visit to the Gulf so keep on logging in to our web site for more updates.Love to our family and friends, hope you are all happy & well.Cheers for now.Carol
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