Day 397 Croydon with The "Stalker's"

Mr & Mrs Stalker gave us a call...so we stayed another day so that we could catch up with them....Graham and Alison had basically followed us around but were about a day behind...then they phoned to say that they were coming to Croydon. We had a lovely day with them and went to see the historic buildings on the main street.
Some of these buildings have been relocated and some are in their original positions....this one is the old Court House were they had a trial actually played out, very funny and clever...we are the jury by the way not the prisoners!
There is an old Theatre, which appeared to be still in use...so Graham and Alison had a quick dance....
Beautiful buildings...even the Police Station with the gaol out the back was impressive.
They had a walk through memorial garden...continuing the theme of the sculpture from the Tourist information Office...very well done...they even had a large sculpture book with the names of all the Croydon soldiers killed in all the wars etched into the pages...not seen that before.

Day 396 Croydon

Having not done the whole trip on the train to Croydon we pulled into this place knowing that it was very small...but we got a surprise when we found this Tourist Information Office...one of the best we have come across in fact Stephen reckons it is the best.
They even had a small theatre area that showed a DVD on the history of the town...very informative story boards and outside they had these sculptures...they seemed to be made of old farm tools and engine parts.
Now does this remind anyone of the pics from Cottesloe Beach!!
The town of Croydon had been a Gold Town and with that came the Chinese, this shot is from one of the original homes relocated to the site that housed a family of Chinese that came to market garden for the large population....bear in mind that they only had one mail train each week, all other times it was grow your own or get it there some other way! ( I can't resist a good dunny shot!! S.D)
We see some amazing sight's in our travels...Stephen could not resist this one...one old guy traveling alone with this perfectly presented outfit....

Day 394 Normanton Gulflander

The Gulflander was the train line from Normanton to Croydon (Gold Mining). The train line was going to be built from Normanton to Cloncurry, but due to supplies being needed in Croydon it went there first and the other line was never built. It is the smallest line being only 52 miles long and not connected to any other line. The mail run is still done each week and now does a tourist trip to Croydon with overnight stop and return the next day. The station is well decked out and the museum cute.
This RM60 is a smaller brother and does small runs during the week.
The trip we did was a morning run out to Critters Camp, just 24 k's from town then turn round and come back. the sleepers are made of cast iron to combat the termites and were specifically designed for this line...the rails originally came from the UK and when you look down or up them they look so out of line it surprised us that we were going anywhere!!!! The bumping around was great to start with but the arm did not enjoy it one little bit.......

Day 393 Normanton

Normanton is a funny little place...it was described to us as home of the Gulflander (see next blog) a train line town for a train that comes from nowhere and goes nowhere! Not all true but not far from the truth in this time of its life. It does have one very interesting item in the main street and that is the replica of Krys of the Savannah King. This huge crocodile was shot by a woman called Krys. Measuring in at 8.69 meters it is the largest found in the world.
Still in the Guiness Book of Records this to scale replica it very difficult to comprehend and also to photograph....you can see the comparison to Stephen...not in looks, just the size!!!!!!
As with a lot of the small towns, many shops double up in their wares..this tickled the humour button...Bakery and Fishing Tackle...what a combo!!!!

Day 393 NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!

NEWS FLASH...NEWS FLASH....NEWS FLASH.....NEWS FLASH....           

THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE THAT WE WILL BE BACK WITH THE VAN IN PERTH THE FIRST WEEK IN DECEMBER!!!!! 

Day 392 Karumba

Just up the road from the caravan park was this Gulf front Sunset Tavern, a cider and fish and chips was a must...the sunset was pretty good from here to...but we thought you would all be sun setted out by now!!
The colouring on the sand and shells at low tide really does not show up here but it was worth the showing.
There were a few interesting flying things around so lunch was disturbed for a while...don't know why Stephen picked this one...but he likes it!!!

Day 391 Karumba

We travelled back to Burke and Wills Roadhouse then headed North...this road is really not the best with many road trains...but had some advantages...we found the Brolgas that had been around for a while but not in these numbers and then we realised that there were also Sarus Cranes amid the Brolgas.....another one for the book...
We saw a little bit of the famous dance, but not much, still I could not get over the graceful flight of these large birds.
We arrived in Karumba, which is really just a small fishing village on the Gulf....great Prawns, Barra and a few other things....very difficult to get into some of these parks at this time of the year. Found one of my favourite birds in his full breading colours..this is the Mistoltoe Bird, isn't he cute.