Karumba and Lawn Hill

We left Georgetown with a smile on our face, wondering when we will see our friends Pete and Sharon again. After a few hours drive we arrived at a small town called Karumba, “Outback by the Sea”. It is literally on the west part of what makes up cape York peninsula, in the Gulf of Carpenteria. We had been told, just like we have have been told many things during our trip that Karumba is THE place to fish, if you cannot catch a fish in Karumba there is something wrong and we actually believed this so called “fact”, as our friend Graham from Punsand Bay made the local caravan’s web page news when he caught a massive Barra (Barramundi) off the beach with no bate, so no pressure on our behalf, but here we go again, “fishing”. We got to the caravan park and the only spot available was in the overflow area, the caravan park was packed! When we actually got to the site it was not bad at all, it was actually perfect. The site was by the bordering fence and behind the cabins so we did not have any neighbours and this was good for us as Lola and Tai can be quite chatty and furthermore it was cheaper because it was the overflow area.

We set up camp and went exploring, we only went up the road, had some local, fresh Barra and set out to the beach to catch the sunset. As we arrived there we found people on chairs already waiting for the show to start and what a show it was, best sunset so far and as each minute passed the change in colours of the sky was incredible, we were taken by the moment and definitely glad to be there.

Next day, fishing day, we got there around 10 am, set up and threw a line. The sun was beating down on us, we tried, kids tried, we fried and there was no fish to fry.

I was ready to go back when I caught up with an older couple from Melbourne, Ross actually volunteers every Sunday at the Melbourne museum entertaining and helping kids with origami, he did some amazing dinosaurs for us and as we are sitting there in awe a car pulled over and a man spoke to us: “ have you caught any fish?", "only caught fresh air mate" replied Carlos, here have some, he said. He opened a bag and gave us three large fish, he explained that he had just come out of a charter boat and caught 37 fish, is that even possible? So, if anyone asked us whether we caught any fish in Karumba ?….well, we say…YES we caught some fish, I do not need to explain where from or how, even if it means from a strangers car, but we did. Needless to say, we had delicious fish for the next two days, we loved Karumba.

Three days later we left, we were only planning on staying one but we were having such a great time, pool, sunsets and great walks, did I mention we caught up with Deb and Daz from Cape York? Yes we did while fishing, it was great to see them and I have a feeling we will see them again as we are going the same direction.

As we drove away we really enjoyed the uniqueness of the bird life, especially the “cranes” which we called the “girls” the way they walked and the long legs, we loved them.

We stopped in Normanton for petrol, drove passed the famous purple pub and did you know the biggest croc was caught there, by a woman… yes her name was Krystina Pawlowski and the croc “Krys” was 8.63 m length, incredible!

Our next stop Lawn Hill National Park, we didn’t really have to go there as we have already been but really we did, it has been my favourite place from two years ago. However from Karumba, we had to stop somewhere as the drive was too long, so we stopped at a free camp in Gregory Downs and what a gem it was. We got there late, around 4 pm and it was already packed, still looking for a place to park, a gentlemen comes over and tells us to park the van in front of him and he would move the car so our van would fit, he was also leaving in the morning so he was happy for us to take his spot, how nice!

We parked right by the river, literally, you open the door of the van and there is water, it is without doubt one of the most beautiful free camp we have stayed so far in our journey. In the morning, we took over our neighbours spot and we actually decided to stay longer as it was too good of a spot to leave. That day we also met an Irish family, doing the same thing, they had four kids though but their ages were very similar to mine and the kids just had a blast. On top of the river there was a pool with a rope, and as you went down the river there was a current, quite strong actually, like rapids at different parts of the river, so the kids with the boogie boards had endless entertainment. I, of course, did not want to try but was pushed into doing it and it was not as fun as it looked, the rapids were strong that at one point I nearly lost my head as there was a tree and I had to quickly duck and go under if I did not want to be decapitated. Anyway once was enough, we kept in touch with the Irish and told them where we were going to stay in Darwin.

Lawn Hill

I had very high expectations about Lawn Hill as from our first trip around Australia I completely fell in love with this National Park but as soon as we got there, it proved to be very different and the experience not what I expected. Firstly, because of the dogs, we could not stay at the grove (beautiful area with trees everywhere) so the camping grounds allocated to us were small and out in the sun. The toilets were powered by an old donkey (fire furnace) so if we weren’t there early we would have a nice refreshing shower (meaning cold). At the grove there was a platoon where the kids could jump into the water, that was still there and we did go back and do that, that was ok.

But it was at the National Park where we discovered that the prices of hiring a canoe to go up the gorge had gone up to the point that we decided to skip that experience and just walk to the swimming part of the gorge.

Although I really wanted to canoe through the gorge I could not justify spending so much money so we walked under the sun, over the hill and there it was, like a mirage in a a desert, Lawn Hill gorge. At that particular moment, everything we had experienced that we were not happy with just dissipated, my heart stopped when I saw the water and the reflection of the rocks and the trees on the water. I usually take my time when jumping into any water, you know, assessing temperature and possible dangers, but this time I grabbed my noodle (float) and jumped in. As I am floating, I looked around and once again, I cannot believe I am here. We are surely blessed in this country, we definitely don’t fall short on amazing places.

Till next time Lawn Hill.