Quests

This large journey has included many small quests. One was to intersect the paths of some of Australia’s most significant explorers – particularly Sturt, Burke & Wills, Stuart and Leichardt. Another was to find as many unique outback pubs as we could. (Each evening Marilyn and I venture out in search of a drink to celebrate the end of another day of our trip). A third was to enjoy some fishing in the rivers and seas to the north of our country, with their reputation for providing the best fishing Australia has to offer.

Normanton, with its reputation as the “capital of Gulf country”, became the place where these quests in particular reached their fulfilment.

Our drive into Normanton incorporated the last stage of my Burke & Wills odyssey. Their northernmost camp, Camp 119, is located about 30km out of the town. It was from here that Burke & Wills – leaving King and Gray behind – spent a few days trying to make the 80km dash for the Gulf. In one of the many tragedies of the Burke & Wills story, they were unable to set their eyes upon the water. Driven back by the swamps and mangroves that border the Gulf, they had to make do with tasting salty water before beginning their futile homeward journey – having however accomplished their mission to traverse the continent from south to north.

On our journey thus far we had visited the expedition’s departure point at Royal Park, their first camp at Moonee Ponds, the site of their base camp at Cooper Creek where they returned from the Gulf to find it deserted (the “Dig Tree”) and another of their camps just outside of Birdsville. We have travelled from the graves of Burke, Wills and King in their final resting place at Melbourne General Cemetery to “Burke’s grave” – the place where he died with a pistol by his side – near Innamincka. To reach the northernmost point of the expedition felt like the final piece of the pilgrimage. Having also traversed the continent from south to north, one is awestruck by the efforts of the early explorers such as Burke & Wills, Stuart, Leichardt and others who covered these amazing distances through such a harsh country by horse, camel and on foot.

Unlike Burke & Wills, we not only got to see the Gulf – we managed to spend a day fishing on it! Karumba Point, at the mouth of the Norman River, was one of the places we’d love to come back to – equipped with a tinny and lots more time to fish to our hearts content! A beer under the wide verandah of Sunset Tavern, looking out over the Gulf, after a day in which we’d caught as many fish as we could reasonably store – and thrown back many more – was one of the most satisfying of the trip! Even more satisfying was watching the faces of Nicholas and Ryan as they repeatedly enjoyed the thrill of reeling in fish that were bigger than anything they’d caught in the South.

Genuine outback pubs – with a life and character that render them memorable – have been much harder to find than expected. Normanton provided not just one, but three venues that we enjoyed immensely, on this final leg of our journey through “Outback” country. The most iconic of Normanton’s three hotels is the “Purple Pub”, but it was the other two – The Central and The Albion – that had the most character and the friendliest clientele. I’ll be as bold as to proclaim Normanton the “Outback Pub Capital” of our trip thus far!

We continue on the Savannah Way from Normanton, but our departure marks an end of our dusty journey through Gulf country, the most remote part of the trip. We leave behind the stories of those who ventured to explore Australia’s vast inland. We continue on with a fridge stocked full of fish. We move on from our quest to find iconic outback pubs at which to quench our thirst. And we have completed the vast remote distances of rough dirt roads along which the rare event of a passing motorist is greeted with a wave. The next part of our adventure will take us into the tropics – through the Atherton Tablelands as we head towards the coast and the lush rainforest country of North-East Queensland.