Outback adventures part 3 - Normanton

I take the bus to Normanton. There's just one bus line out here which stops at every settlement and takes more than 10 hours to Cairns. It's just me, the driver, and one other passenger. They have a lot to say about road kill. They are mostly entertaining but scare me off of going to the Normanton pubs which seem to be rough. The bus driver drops me off at the tourist park where I get ripped off for a dirty cabin. I walk around town, swim in the lukewarm tourist park swimming pool under the stars, and can't sleep because of the tiny red ants that keep dropping on me.

The next morning, I happily leave the tourist park very early and wait at the Normanton train station for the Gulflander train to depart. I am almost 2 hours early. Tony, the train conductor seems to make fun of me for being this early and I tell him with a grin that I don't want to miss the train. There's only this one train every week.

I browse through their Gulflander train museum, watch the documentary which must have been made in the 70s, and pick up some mangoes that lie in the station garden. I go to the restrooms and find a big green frog sitting in the first toilet. I go to the next stall - same here. No frog in the third and last toilet, but when I flush after peeing I see that frog no.3 had hidden under the rim and is now enjoying some flush action.

Finally, the conductors Tony and Murray, me, and 6 other guests board the still almost empty train for a 4-hour ride with commentary to Croydon (population 300).

That's Krys, 8 m long, the only crocodile I've seen so far.

Love the sunsets... This one is over Normanton.

 

Normanton train station.

Historic Gulflander train.

My personal Gulflander mug was included in the ticket price!

Outback adventures part 2 - Karumba

I am early at the airport on my way to Normanton and couldn't have been happier when I find a merino store with Icebreaker items on sale! I have a lengthy chat with the sales lady about this brand, and it turns out we're both huge fans. She hands me a cardigan which is 50% off and I of course take it. Happiness. One of the few exceptions of my self-imposed shopping ban: Icebreaker on sale.

I arrive at Normanton airport which is smaller than Exeter but larger than the the one on Lady Elliot Island. The taxi to Karumba digs a deep hole into my travel budget but I have a nice and informative chat with my chauffeur on the 45 min drive. Karumba Point is known for great sunsets and fishing. There's nothing else. Way overrated and certainly not worth the pricey taxi ride and two nights in the motel there. But at least they have wifi and A/C. During the day I sleep, surf the internet, and read, and only go out in the evening to have a beer and watch the sunset over the Gulf of Carpentaria. Love the name. Sounds like carpet snake. Carpet serpent. In the morning, I walk to Karumba town to see whether they have more to offer than a pretty sunset. They don't.

Sunset no.1

Wallabies

Poinciana tree

Many big predator birds here

I took a hundred pictures of the sunset to make it worth my expenses.

Outback adventures part 1

I had travelled along the coast for a while which was very pretty and also great if you want to meet German backpackers. But once I got tired of them (because I had this romantic idea of hanging out with Australians in Australia), I planned my little outback trip which was met with quite a few obstacles.

I can list a bunch of reasons why I'm not traveling by car, but in fact, I've never truly questioned my dislike for car travel, so for now I just don't do it. Using public transport, I was limited to busier and more touristy areas and routes. Furthermore, since I'm traveling outside the main season, some of these services don't even run at this time of the year. But I didn't want to do just an organized bus tour to Uluru for a photo and back.

So after many many phone calls and emails my itinerary looked like this:
Plane from Cairns to Normanton, taxi to Karumba, bus back to Normanton, historic Gulflander train to Croydon, bus to Mount Surprise, bus to Atherton, bus to Cairns airport. At most of these places, which are little towns, I stayed for one or two nights and usually had the choice between a motel room or pitching my tent. I always went for the rooms, which had air conditioning, because temperatures were between almost 30 C at night and almost 40 C during the day.

So go ahead and read my outback log which is coming up soon!

A side note: Funnily enough, on my last day on the east coast, so close to escaping the German backpacker crowds, in Cairns, I went out for beers with a really nice German guy - not a backpacker though, but a professional trombonist from Bonn doing a musician exchange. He even offered to join him on a trip up north - finally a fellow traveler who I felt I would get along with AND who traveled in the more or less right direction (didn't mind that he was German), but I had already organized my outback trip.

Fraser Island

A few weeks ago, I joined a guided, self-drive 4WD camping tour on famous Fraser Island. That's the largest sand island in the world and you need a 4 wheel drive car to get around there. On the east coast is a long beach which, at times, can be full of tourists in their 4WD vehicles. In the center, it's rainforest, growing on sand which is pretty cool. The west coast is quite well protected and I didn't get to see much of it.

I'd rather walked than driven in a car, but at the time I still had this misconception that walking with a tent and on my own would be too hard. I then had the choice of either joining a big bus tour or doing what I ended up doing.

We had two 7-seat cars, one Australian guide, 4 German boys (18-21 years old), me and 8 other international participants closer to my age. Whoever wanted to drive could take turns, but we were under some time pressure so I didn't. It's like driving on snow and harder than you'd think.

My group was nice, just the boys were a bit too young, and I couldn't stand the guide. He loved to hear himself talking and took himself very seriously. He was knowledgable though, and keen to educate us about aborigines, geology, flora and fauna. The company provided us with tents, gear, and food, we helped cooking and doing the dishes. The guide had put up a camp toilet because he was legally required to do so, but then he used peer pressure to make everyone go in the bush instead. He didn't want to clean it. What a dick.

Anyway, Fraser Island is pretty, would be even prettier if it wasn't full of tourists. We saw a wild dingo munching away at a whale carcass, that then one night (the dingo, not the whale's ghost) ripped open one lady's tent who against better knowledge had stored food (cereal bars) in a bag in the tent. The dingo took the bag and distributed the contents in the area, but they could be recovered for the most part the next morning.

Camping happened at the beach right behind the small foredunes. Great stars at night! Nice sunrise, too. During the day, we spent a lot time in the car, driving from one swimming hole to the next lookout. All in all, it was nice enough, and could have been great fun with less driving and less of a jerk for a tour guide.

Anyway, here are pretty pictures:

Fraser Island ahead

Nice beach. 75 miles of beach in fact.

Camp toilet.

Wild dingo.

Wreck.

Red canyon.

Crazy French ladies brought their stuffed animals.

sunrise

Australia's funny wildlife #6 - Sand crabs

Sand crabs make scattered piles of what looks like worm poo. I asked a worm expert, he couldn't explain why. What kind of expert is that, I wonder.

Map update - Australia part

I started in Brisbane (bottom right corner of the map) and worked my way up north mostly along the coast. From Cairns (most northern bed-symbol) I flew out west to Normanton and am traveling now back east by bus and train. Back in Cairns, I'm going to leave the tropics and catch a plane to Melbourne. Please no comments on my carbon footprint. Thank you.



View Maike's Big Trip 2012 in a larger map

WWOOF Pics

During my first week in Australia I did a bit of wwoofing near Brisbane. It has taken me very long to upload the pics, but here they are. Check out the beautiful property, my host Randall's house, my fellow wwoofers, the chickens I built a den for, etc.

Garden

Randall's kitchen

Dining room

Dining room

Goldfish in bathtub

Garden, view on pyramid (Randall started building this house when he was 14)

Woofers' car!

Trip to swimming hole

Fellow wwoofer Damien makes pizza - I made him the hat and we called him Luigi.

Stone oven pizza. A former wwoofer built the oven.

Yummy

Orchids.

Pizza oven by day.

Garden

Dining room.

Rooster Princess and his chickens. I helped building this den.

Property entrance.

Yoga-studio. Yes.

Thorsborne Log End

This was definitely something. I'm not sure if I completely liked it though. I did like the scenery, the views, the beaches, the swimming holes, etc. I loved the walking. But. My pack was too heavy. The climate was tough. I believe that showers, and maybe other people at the campsites at night, or even a walking buddy, would have made all the difference. Because in the end I just felt itchy, icky, and dirty.

Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to go walking in Tasmania in a few weeks!

Thorsborne Log Day 5

I get up at 5.30 am after another night with little sleep. I'm itching all over due to mosquito bites. I set my tent on what I thought was a rat's hole, but it's more likely that it was a sand crab's. Whatever it was, it tried to get out all night. Or whenever I was just falling asleep. Then it rained a bit and I worried about the tent. It's 6.35 am and I'm ready to go to the boat pick-up. Way too early of course.

Yesterday, I was told that the ferry was one hour late because it got lost. It got lost because the actual ferry had broken down and with the new boat, a chartered yacht, the way must have looked different. The French guys who were waiting for it were freaking out and called the coast guard. They thought they had been forgotten and must remain forever on the island.

I reach the pick-up spot which is the end of a boardwalk in the middle of a mangrove swamp. Croc paradise.

Of course, there is a warning sign. But it is really like the tourist office guy told me: You'll see if it is a place that crocs like. Don't go swimming there. Don't walk there at night. I do. And I won't. It's eerie. I'm one hour early but I can't sit down because the sand flies ignore my insect repellent. Why did I expect sand flies at the beach? I have to keep moving to avoid them. So I walk up and down the boardwalk reading my book, until the boat arrives. The ferry is still broken, so a very little boat takes me to the yacht which drops me off at the marina on the mainland. I have to walk to the next town, but that's ok, there are no mosquitoes, march, or sand flies here. I'm itching all over. It's hot and humid, but at least cloudy. I so look forward to a long, luke-warm shower.

It takes me a while, but eventually I find the perfect place to stay. I book an air-conditioned private room in a holiday park which has free wifi and laundry facilities. On the way here, I have a short chat with a local who's gardening away behind the tourist office. Also, a few people wish me a "g'day" even though I'm dirty and must stink. I'm loving this town.

Wildlife of the day: A huge fat toad that sat on my path and didn't move a bit.