Day 12 -Normanton to roadside bush camp - 88kms![]() This morning I decided to leave a little later and get a cooked breakfast in town, as my next town is three days away. After breakfast I was away at around 8.30am. This morning I am carrying an extra 12 litres of water (16 litres in total). As there are only a few rivers I cross over the next few days. Also each day is expected to hit about 30 degrees with blue skies.
I followed the road back the way I came yesterday and took the turnoff towards Burketown, which is about 220km away. I was expecting the road to turn to dirt after a couple of kilometres, but it was sealed all the way to my first stop, Burke and Wills camp 119. I got to their camp at around 10am. Burke and Wills went on an ill fated expedition through the centre of Australia. Camp 119 was their most northerly point they got. They could not get through the mangroves to reach the coast. Therefore they turned back. More information on their expedition can be found here. I continued on to Little Bynoe River. There was plenty of water in the river and you could also camp on the western side (turn left after the causeway). As it was still only 11am I decided to continue. After the river the road turned to dirt. The first 15-20kms of the road was very smooth and I was making good time. It was starting to get warmer though. I stopped frequently to rehydrate and also let my body cool down. The remaining few kilometres of the road was a little corrugated, so I kept switching sides to find the best line. After 75kms (around 2pm) I decided to keep an eye out for somewhere to camp for the night. By 3pm I found a small clump of trees which provided some shade for the remainder of the afternoon. There was a space between the road and fence line for my tent. The road is very quiet (about 1 car an hour). Tomorrow I'll be stopping at Leichhardt Falls which is about 75kms from here. |
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