More Savannah Way

From Normanton, the Savannah Way goes west through Burketown and Borroloola.  We followed the procession of caravans leaving Karumba, and arrived in Normanton to refuel and check out ‘Krys’.

Normanton has a long history of big crocs but none more famous than the Savannah King, a reputed 8.63m giant killed with a single shot by petite Polish migrant Krys Pawlowski on the banks of the Norman River in the 1950s.  There is a model of Krys in the main street, and the kids loved giving him a pat.  It did take Jess a little while to warm up to it though!

Krys the Savannah King in Normanton

After queuing up for fuel (everyone had the same idea after leaving Karumba that morning), we headed out, and turned onto the dirt.

It was a big day of driving, through some fantastic arid countryside.  We definitely love this type of country.  We ended up pulling up just near Burketown, on the banks of the Albert River.  Great views, and yet again, a very impressive sunset.  We keep trying to point out to the girls how amazing the sight is, and how lucky they are.  “Meh!!!”  So what!  They’ll learn, eventually.

Our view at Albert River

We were very impressed with the free camping at this spot, only a couple of km’s out of Burketown.  The areas along the river were private, and there was even a clean dunny near the bridge, as well as some bins.  If we were going a bit slower, would have been easy to spend some time here trying some fishing and relaxing.  We headed off the next morning, driving through Burketown, Hells Gate Roadhouse, Doomagee, pulling up that night on the Robinson River, now in the Northern Territory.  This was another lovely spot, and so easy to bush camp.  We were loving not having to spend a fortune for our nightly stays, as compared to the thieving Caravan Parks nowadays!

A lunch stop along the Savannah Way

After having a rock hit our rear window just out of Chilligoe, we had it all taped up with every bit of tape we had spare, gaffa tape, cloth tape, and even some packing tape.  It all looked very secure, and most of the roads had been quite smooth.  It had all turned to custard however halfway through the day when the roads deteriorated into quite heavy corrugations.  We had to grit our teeth, and wonder how the window stayed together.  It did thank goodness, and remained intact all the way to Katherine.

From here was a 100km trip into Borroloola, and the last of the dirt for quite a while.  We inflated our tyres, and made the run down to Cape Crawford, where we took an uncommon extended lunch break to eat at the roadhouse.  Delicious burgers!  By the time we hit the Stuart Hwy, it was past our stopping time, so made the easy decision to stop off and camp at the Daly Waters Pub.