As mentioned briefly in my previous blog, ‘The Savannah Way’ traverses Australia’s north. We will be travelling from east to west starting in Cairns, QLD and finishing up in Broome, WA. The route will take us across several distinctly different regions. In the order that we will cross them, they include:
- The base of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland
- The Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and Northern Territory
- The ‘Top End’ in the Northern Territory, and;
- The Kimberley in Western Australia
This post describes the first stage of the journey.
Day 1
Immediately upon turning to the west from Cairns we needed to drive up and over the local coastal range and rainforest. This was a brief but steep and twisty climb which the rig handled with ease and we were soon passing through the town of Mareeba to continue across ‘The Tablelands’ and on into what lay beyond.
On the inland side of the ranges are ‘The Tablelands’. I am not sure if the region is called The Tablelands because it is flat (probably not because it is still quite hilly), or because they grow a lot of fruit and vegetables up there for the table. Anyway, as the land flattens out the rainforest transitions firstly to bananas then to sugar and coffee plantations then to a tropical stone fruit growing region (mainly avocados & mangos). As you get further away from the coast it is evident that the rainfall being received reduces rapidly and after not too long the fruit and vegetables are replaced by the cattle country that stretches out for the remainder of the crossing of the base of Cape York Peninsula.
Not far into cattle country we came across another of the Bush Pubs featured in our book. This one, at Yappa Junction, was the Espanol Hotel. As the Espanol is no longer a functional pub we couldn’t get the publican to sign their page so we just took a couple of photos of the old bar to prove we had been there and moved on. 4 pubs down, 52 to go!
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| The Español Pub is more of a museum than a pub nowadays |
The road was not too bumpy so long as you drove to the conditions but it was very dry and dusty. The dust from other vehicles on the road, which were thankfully few, just hung in the air like a fog and reduced visibility for several minutes. We made our first camp at about 3pm to make sure we were off of the road before the sun started to get low, the shadows got long and the roos and cows came out. We also consciously chose a camp location on the ‘upwind’ side of the road near a creek crossing in order to keep the dust kicked-up from passing cars and trucks to a minimum. A total of just 4 vehicles went by during the remainder of the day and the night so we didn’t get too much of a dusting.
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| Dust hanging in the air near our camp long after a vehicle passed by |
Day 2
We were on the road early the next day and made steady, uneventful progress towards our next overnight stop beside the Gilbert River. We found a nice spot high up on the bank and made camp. Being high on the bank was a good idea as we were now in crocodile country and it wasn’t too long after settling in that we saw several crocs in the river. While the crocodiles we saw were just ‘Freshies’ (Freshwater crocodiles as opposed to the mean, nasty and dangerous to life and limb Saltwater Crocodiles, or ‘Salties’), it was a good reminder about where we were and what we need to be aware of at all times.
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| 'Freshie' sunning itself on the bank of our Gilbert River campsite |
Day 3
As our camp was a nice one and we were not in any hurry we decided to stay where we were for another night. It turned out to be good thing as we were got to watch the local station (ranch) hands muster several hundred cattle. They used motorcycles, quad bikes, 4WD vehicles and two helicopters to drive the herd from one side of the river to the other. It was quite the sight to see!
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| Helicopters, motorbikes & quads drove the herd across the Gilbert River |
Day 4
Finally, after almost 800km, 600km of which is corrugated dirt road), we emerged at Karumba on the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The main industries in Karumba are tourism (people like us escaping the colder southern winter) and prawn fishing.
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| Karumba is a magnet for Grey Nomads escaping the cold southern wintersand is famous for its great fishing and spectacular sunsets |
The weather in Karumba was great! 30C in the day and not humid at all. Perfect dry season weather. While here we decided to check out what all rave reviews about the fishing were about. Not being mad keen fishers we did not bring a ‘tinnie’ (small towable aluminium boat with an outboard motor) with us like most of the other residents and tourists in the town so we booked couple of places on a half-day fishing charter.
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| We boarded our boat just as the sun was coming up |
The charter boat set off at 7am with the skipper and 5 other customers on board and after a short time we dropped anchor in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria and in went our lines. The dominant catch in these waters at this ‘cooler’ time of the year is mackerel so that is what we rigged up for.
Heather was the first pull something into the boat. It was not a mackerel but a baby shark! After a photo it went back into the sea.
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| Heather was the first to land anything into the boat - it was a baby shark! |
Not too much later several fishers yelled ‘Fish On!’ indicating there was a school of mackerel around the boat and there were soon a number of mackerel in the cooler! I managed to land one as part of the early action too!
The fishing ebbed and flowed throughout the morning with periods of no action typically followed by a flurry of cries of ‘Fish-On!’ before things went quiet again. The lulls in the action resulted in plenty of folks uttering WTF? - Where are The Fish?! (sorry - couldn’t help myself).
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| Heather enjoying the calm water and the great weather during a lull in the action |
By the time we returned to the boat ramp at noon the group of happy fishers had collectively landed 21 mackerel. One person had caught 7 himself and as Heather and I only had one between us he gave us a couple of his to take back to the caravan. His wife was at the boat ramp to meet him and said she didn't want that much fish so that may also have had something to do with his generosity!
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| Me and my Mackerel! |
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| Mackerel fillets were prepared by the skipper when he did a filleting demo |
One of the fish caught was filleted by the skipper as part of a filleting demo. Heather battered and fried it up for an ‘as fresh as it gets’ Fish & Chip lunch the next day. The others we gave to friends of ours that live in Karumba as the freezer was still pretty full from our restock in Cairns.
Stage 1 of the Savannah Way was fun and nicely wrapped up in Karumba by relaxing with a drink after a hard day of fishing while watching the sun set into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
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| Heather enjoying a glass of wine at the Sunset Tavern while watching the sun sink into the Gulf |
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| There was a sunset like this (or better!) every evening we were in Karumba |
In the next episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?! we move ever westward towards and then into Australia’s Northern Territory.
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