Day 8 Normanton Rest Day 0 kms

It was once again lovely to have a small sleep in. We, Collis & I had arranged to take Jacquei, Melanie & Rob to Karumba for the morning. Annie hired a car with Peter J, Peter S and Bob and the other car on the trip took Chris, Ben & George. We all sort of stuck together although Collis being the slower driver, we got there later than the others.

On the road out of Normanton, Woody hailed us down to ask about wild life rescue service as he had found an injured kangaroo on the side of the road. On inspection, it was found the kangaroo had been hit by a car and it's back was broken. Fortunately, we were able to hail down a passing police car, who were able to assist us in putting the animal to sleep. Not a pleasant start to the morning but at least a good feeling in helping the animal in it's misery. Woody was quite upset by the incident as he didn't realize straight away that we couldn't help it.

The drive to Karumba was very pleasant after that and it was amazing to watch the scenery change so dramatically in such a short distance. Karumba is known as where the outback meets the sea. We crossed many murky rivers with the possibilities of crocodiles being present. There is a station you enter just as you leave Normanton and then you leave it just as you enter Karumba and it spreads out very close or across the Northern Territory border- huge.

At one stage the trees disappeared all together and we had very wide open plains. Then we went back to more trees but scrubby and salt lands. Lots of brolgas with their red heads spotted on the drive.

Collis had been told that the grocery shopping at Karumba is cheaper and greater variety so everyone was in the grocery store when we arrived. We decided to leave our shop until we were ready to go home. I had to shop for 2 bush camps coming up in the next couple of days.

So off we went to Ashes cafe/fish & chips- highly recommended to us. Collis & I had the fisherman's basket with king salmon and it was superb. Melanie had some squid chips, made of squid  and Annie had chicken chips (yes made of chicken pieces). The meal was fantastic, probably the freshest and nicest fish/seafood I've had in a very long time.

The drive home was quiet as Robbo & Melanie both fell asleep. We didn't need much for dinner that night due to lunch so sandwiches sufficed. A few riders stayed in camp today and rested so they were after a bigger meal. Pat apparently cooked a large curry for a few of them and I was told it was very nice.