Normanton

From our camp spot near Georgetown we headed on through to Normanton, which is at the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The country side did not change much from Mt Surprise all the way to Normanton. There were no houses to be seen and very rarely did we actually see the driveway for a property, just some cattle grazing on the side of the road every now and again and some birds.

The road to Normanton and some cattle we meet on the way

One of the only driveways we say - no sign of a house though!

Normanton is about the size of Canowindra – population of 1500. We were chatting to locals and found out that they have a senior footy team but no juniors. The closest town they play against is 5 hours away and the furthest they have the travel for a game is 12 hours! And we thought we have travelled for sport before! They said they are trying to organise a junior footy team but the biggest issue they are facing is that Junior Sport requires the kids to produce a birth certificate to prove their age – but a lot of the kids up here do not have a birth certificate! The local school is predominantly aboriginal kids – of the 27 kids in the class only 3 are not aboriginal. The great thing is that they said they think they will be able to get an exception on the birth certificate issue so that the local kids can play sport in a competition, in the meantime they are enjoying the training sessions.

We had a great night at one of the local pubs here, watching Australia beat N.Z and then Country beat City in the Rugby League! The boys got into the spirit of the night putting southern cross tattoos on their faces. We even managed to win 2 meat trays in the raffle they held (it was a shame we had been to the butcher that day!).

One the river at Normanton - the stars on Aidan's face is a Southern Cross Tattoo from watching Australia v N.Z.

We headed out on the river here for a day’s fishing (and croc spotting). Not long after putting the lines in the water Aidan pulled in an undersized Barramundi, followed by Cody jagging the unluckiest little catfish in the world (he hooked him through the tail). Aidan then hooked and landed our first legal size Barra – 60cm. It was a very exciting moment.

Aidan with his great Barra - it was great for dinner that night!

Then of course – the boat motor played up (anyone who owns a boat knows the hassles and frustrations of owning a boat!). So we started to head back to the boat ramp, but the motor ended up stopping (the battery was dead) so we paddled into the shore and climbed out, found a tree to sit under and wait for someone to come past and tow us back! Nothing like sitting up on the banks of a croc infested river for a few hours!