Karumba- in the Gulf

Tuesday, July 11th

Another sunny and very hot day! Humid also and we’ve felt the heat, after having cooler weather and no humidity for a while. Drove up to Karumba this morning. Karumba supercedes even Normanton as a fishing haven and in the winter months its permanent population of 700 swells to several thousand as people travel north seeking warmth and the chance to “bag a barra”.

When we arrived it was sweltering day and all we really wanted to do upon seeing the ocean for the first time in over a week was dive in for a swim. No chance of that of course, unless we fancied being crocodile bait. So we bought some lunch and then settled in to Karumba Point Caravan Park and booked in for an early morning birdwatching and wildlife cruise for tomorrow, as well as a half-day fishing charter for adam the day after (fishing just aint my thing).

The caravan park is full of keen anglers who come to the region every winter- some have already been in Karumba for a couple of months. There are even “street signs” in the caravan park, marking the rows of caravans – the road which includes the fish cleaning facilities, aptly named “Bull Shit Bvde”.

There isn’t really much else to do in Karumba besides fish, and the park is therefore geared to provide other activities- particularly for women. It seems traditional gender roles are alive and well up here, with “ladies craft afternoons” arranged, while presumably, the men folk are out hunting and gathering. Adopting an attitude of “if you can’t beat ‘em join em” I even took part in one of the regular aqua aerobics classes in the caravan pool this afternoon!, where I met a friendly bunch of older ladies, who come to Karumba each season (some have already been here for a couple of months). It was a funny experience which I am sure I’ll remember, doing my water aerobics to some old 30s music, up here in the Gulf of Carpentaria! One lady even came over to our van later and kindly offered us a plate of fresh fish fillets, which she described as their “leftover ” Spanish mackerel. So that’s tonights dinner! We’ll probably buy “barra and chips” tomorrow night, and hopefully the night after we’ll have some fresh fish of our own to cook!


Tonight we plan heading to the local tavern to watch the sunset over the ocean (Karumba faces west) and then we are going to the club to take part in some local entertainment- the weekly bingo night! Should be a laugh! J

Wednesday, july 12th

Howdy- well we did go to Bingo last night and had a laugh! The hall was crowded with some serious bingo players, with their special marker pens at the ready- we played a lot of games but didn’t win any sadly. It was funny hearing all the bingo terms as they called out the numbers (and Adam’s first ever game of bingo!)… “eleven- legs eleven, number 90- top of the board, number 45-halfway, number 21- key to the door, number 89 nearly there….in the same street, number 87”)..it was a fun night and we shared a table with a retired couple from tassie who are traveling around.

We also saw a nice sunset yesterday (before setting off to bingo) from the “Sunset Tavern” and ate a lovely barra meal (we are cooking up that mackerel for lunch right now as I type!).
This morning, surprisingly, it was cloudy and very humid and during the morning the rain began to fall. It rained during at least half of our birdwatching cruise on the river, so many of the birds were tucked away. But on the way back the sky started to clear and the birds came out- we actually saw a heap of different species, plus a flock of large white spoonbills in the mangroves. There are so many whistling kites up here too- they are honestly nearly as common as seagulls- sitting in all the trees, on the wires, on fence posts etc. Saw some big sea eagles too, plus lots of little mangrove birds, such as fantails etc.
This afternoon we’ll read a bit more (plus I am currently working on an article about this region- planning to send it to some travel editors in the hope it might get published somewhere).. We also plan going to the Barramundi Discovery Centre, where they do a tour and breed the fish, plus are working on conservation measures etc, so the area doesn’t become over-fished.

Adam is off on his fishing trip tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It is simply amazing to see the number of 4wds and boat trailers at the boat ramp here- so many people out fishing! In fact, just now the same lady who gave us the mackerel yesterday came over to offer us more…fish diet for us for a little while! Yum.. And a fellow just came back in from fishing with a 20kg mackerel!

More soon… love Emma and Adam xx