Destination Unknown, Part 13: Outback Queensland, Savannah Way & East Coast Arrival

by | May 5, 2026 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

I ploughed on through Queensland and stopped at Lake Moondarra. I drove up to the viewing point and looked out over the plains. It was still and silent bar the laughter of one child although I had no idea where they were.

The landscape was constantly changing from flat as a pancake to hilly driving along roads that were carved through the rock, with steep rockfaces on both sides of me.

I hadn’t got anywhere to stay but decided on Cloncurry, an outback town. I camped at Discovery Parks and was so glad to get back into my tent. I’d missed it and spending the evenings in there all cosy and quiet.

I had a long chat with the owner/manager who was initially from Karratha and also lived in Mullewa, places I’d visited. I headed into the town the following day and had a huge meat pie and cream cake for breakfast; absolutely bloody gorgeous.

I went to the exhibition commemorating John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister, who founded the Flying Doctors with the first flight taking off in 1928.

The following day I went to Mary Kathleen, now a ghost town but had once been a thriving, living town for the people who worked at the uranium mine. It reopened before being shut down for good in 1982 when all the reserves had been extracted.

The town was dismantled and it was subsequently found that there were high levels of radioactivity. It was eerie: you could see the old basketball court and pool and the foundations of buildings that may have been people’s homes – where a community had thrived and where children grew up and others grew old.

I didn’t go to the abandoned mine as it requires a 4WD and the drive in and out had set my hair on end as I skidded here and there, certain I wouldn’t be able to get back to the road.

By that point I’d already been to the visitor centre where out of nowhere I suddenly felt as though the adventure was nearing its end. I’d got accustomed to being the only person on the road for miles, a tiny little speck wending my way through the vastness of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

I’d loved that sense of solitude; of the peace and quiet; the sense of wonder; being overwhelmed emotionally by what I was seeing and experiencing.

From this point it was going to get more and more populated and even though it was going  be wonderful and beautiful, I still had a bit of adventure in me.

So, I looked at a map of Queensland and saw the Gulf of Carpentaria and Karumba, a town with around 500 residents so well-known for its barramundi it’s been called Barradise.

I immediately decided to head there because….well, adventure……

Outback by The Sea

The following morning, I dismantled my tent, shoved everything in the car and pointed it in the direction of Karumba. I bought a pie, sausage roll and coffee for breakfast and filled up with petrol before heading back into the unknown, a 450km drive ahead of me.

A feeling of excitement and anticipation returned. The traffic was thinner and the corn was higher. At times the road became a single track and I’d pull over to the left as a road train came through in a cloud of orange dust.

I reached Normanton and hopped out for a look. There were some lovely old outback buildings as well as the Purple Pub, so-called because it’s painted purple. I saw Krys the Croc, a replica of the largest crocodile ever to be caught. Krys was reportedly 8.64m long or 28ft 4ins and caught by Krystyna Pawlowski in the Norman River in 1957.

On I drove through the Karumba Plains. There were kangaroos and wallabies and to my right a large pond where migrating birds had gathered: brolgas, cranes and even a white-bellied sea eagle.

I pulled into Karumba and settled on Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park. I got out of the car and it was HOT! The campsite owner was really friendly if a bit surprised I’d driven up there: many visitors to Karumba go to fish or to stock up on fish.

I fancied heading straight off for a drive and to find something to eat but decided to put my tent up first……..which turned out to be a very wise decision.

I put the first pole through the sleeves but when I picked up the second pole one of the sections wouldn’t slide into the next. I thought nothing of it and tried again. Then I looked closely and I saw that some of it had snapped preventing it from sliding in. There must be a solution, I thought: maybe I can still get it so one pole slightly shoots upward but I can secure it against the other pole at the point they meet. No, it wasn’t having that and it collapsed.

I realised it wasn’t going to work and that either I’d have to jump in the car and find a camping/outdoors shop which seemed a distinct possibility or sleep in the car. A man had been watching from afar and came over with a piece of wood and some duct tape and essentially made a splint for the damaged pole. Not only that, he hammered all my tent pegs deep into the ground and I was sorted. All I had to do at that point was throw the cover over the poles and I was sorted. So, I did that and it tore slightly as it snagged on the upright pole. It was only a small tear and I was just relieved that the tent was now up.

Looking back now, I think he was another guardian angel: he happened to be there, saw what was happening and came to help. I encountered so much that was good in humanity on that trip through Australia.

I went for a drive through the town and sat outside the store with a lolly; I went to the Les Wilson Barramundi Centre and had a walk alongside the waterfront.

Like the Northern Territory, the sea is full of crocs and although I didn’t see any, there was a real sense they were there, watching and waiting.

Sunset Point is where many people gather in the evening: people sat outside the pub while some brought a picnic and others came fresh from the chip shop. We watched the sky turn orange and the shimmering red orb that was the sun descend, turning the sea red.

It hovered over the islands in the distance and then dropped out of sight to rise the next day.

I bought sausage and chips which I ate at the campsite before turning in for the night.

I slept well and was very careful when I dismantled the tent….I needed it for a little while yet.

The Savannah Way

I drove back down towards Normanton stopping for a walk across the Norman River, looking down at all the stingers floating down the river.

Back through Normanton and I took the turning for the Savannah Way which in its entirety runs from Broome to Cairns. There are sections that are for 4WDs only but Normanton to Cairns is sealed so good for me.

As with much of this road trip, I had no idea what was coming. I drove past the Mining Museum at Croydon before going up to the manmade lake and as I looked out over the plain I saw plumes of black smoke drifting in the air and wondered if it was a bushfire along the Savannah Way.

I walked around the remnants of a Chinese temple. Many people had migrated from  rural Guangdong Province during the goldrush in the late 1800s.. They worked as miners, cooks, gardeners, carriers, storekeepers, and market gardeners, supplying fresh produce, essential goods, and vital services to a fast-growing frontier town.

Next up was Georgetown where I stopped to get petrol: it reminded me of places I’d passed through before – very quiet and still but it was a loaded silence and there was absolutely nobody around. In my journal from the time, I wrote that I felt that I was in the Northern Territory…..

It was there that I first experienced the Queensland bridges where there are no barriers on each side. The river was huge but dry but I was nervous driving across simply because there was nothing to stop the car toppling over the side and into the riverbed.

An emu strutted across my path at Cumberland Chimney with pairs wandering across the road.

I pulled over at a lookout at the top of a hill and looked out over the trees and the miles and miles of savannah that stretched out into the distance. I saw a decoy vehicle and heard a road train making its way up the hill: it strained and strained as it pulled itself up the steep hill. Once at the top there was a toot of the horn and a wave and then it was gone.

It was one of the few times that I encountered traffic and then it was back to silence.

To my left were Morning Glory clouds like waves rolling in the ocean. I turned off at the signs for Talaroo Hot Springs but had only got about 400m along when I decided to turn back as the road was rough and sandy.

There was no cell phone coverage for much of the drive but it didn’t bother me one bit. Whatever will be will be, I thought.

But then I was suddenly pulled up short. Ahead of me were temporary traffic lights and beyond that, there was no road but just orange sand with an incline in the distance.

Road works. I’d been advised to check an app that details road closures and weather conditions which I had done but I’d not seen anything about road works……

I just stared ahead – would my car be able to do this? There was no-one around so I assumed it was being operated remotely….so what would happen if I got stuck?

I inched along, holding my breath as I skidded a bit here and there. I got to the bottom of the incline and made my way slowly up and back on to sealed road where I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Undara Lava Tubes & On The East Coast

I stopped at the campsite at Mount Surprise and was going to stay and go to the Undara Lava Tubes from there. However, they told me I could camp at the lava tubes so off I went again. There were cattle on the road and I wasn’t too sure where I was going but eventually I arrived at the campsite.

I couldn’t find anyone at the reception nor was there anyone when I took a look around. I picked up the walkie-talkie at reception and pressed a button or two but all I got was static. Maybe I should have stayed at Mount Surprise after all….. but a man appeared after a little while. The accommodation was either camping or restored train carriages!

I was allocated a camping spot and gingerly put my tent up with the tear on the top now a little bigger and the splint pointing through.

The ground was hard and I couldn’t hammer the tent pegs very far into the ground so noticing that the wind was getting stronger, I asked at reception if anyone could give me a hand.  I also foolishly mentioned snakes given it was Queensland and someone told me he’d moved a python from the edge of the camp….

I like to think I’m an independent woman but sometimes you need a strong man to hammer your tent pegs into the ground and it was a good job they did as the wind whipped up. I sat inside the tent expecting it to blow away as it got stronger and stronger and curled around my body CHECK

I went to the Undara Lava Tubes the following day on what was one of the final tours before they shut down for the off-season with the extreme weather conditions moving in.

The tubes were carved by molten lava and date back 190,000 years in one of the world’s longest lava systems. You go through them on a boardwalk, going deep into the bowels of the earth. The scale and history was just breathtaking.

I stayed a second night and headed back on to the Savannah Way. It wasn’t that long before I could see the soaring green Atherton Tablelands. Within hours I found myself on the road to Cairns which I bypassed and instead pitched my tent at Ellis Beach, metres from the sea. I drove to Palm Cove for a swim and looked out at the sea. I was so glad that I’d been to Karumba and the Savannah Way but from this point my experience was going to be very different.

I wonder now if I wanted to delay the knowledge that my time in Australia was coming to an end; that I’d been completely living life, that I’d been in a bubble for weeks.

After a good night’s sleep, I got up early, careful with my tent and its growing tear. Then I pointed my car south.

 

 

 

 

 

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