Karumba

We were considering staying another night because Cooper was keen to go out with Rick on a fishing charter but unfortunately they were all booked out. We decided to stay anyway as we couldn't really be bothered packing up. Caitlin was very excited to find her first green tree frog in the wild (thats if you can call the toilet block 'the wild'). We farewelled the Nixon family who were traveling in the opposite direction and heading towards Cairns. We did the 11am tour of the Barramundi Discovery Centre. Karumba is famous for its fishing and the Gulf's prawn and barramundi industry is centered here. As it is the only beach that can be accessed by sealed road tourism has increased dramatically. The hatchery was set up by commercial fisherman to breed the Gulf strain of barramundi to release into the Gulf river systems and dams. Cooper got a bit of a fright when one of the large barra snatched the fish from his hand. We bought a few groceries at the general store but stopped short at the bananas at $17.50/kg. Back at the van Rick did some running repairs - changed a tyre on the van, fitted some mud flaps to the car etc. I took the kids for a swim in the pool. At 5 we did the Ferryman cruise up the Norman river to Karumba Point to watch the sunset. Alison, our tour guide was a little scary, but informative. The best part of the boat trip were the whistling and black kites swooping down to take the fish from the front of the boat. We also saw a sea eagle and a jabiru but no crocs. Karumba is also a transfer port for Century Mine which pipes zinc from their mine near Lawn Hill. We cooked some of Rick's catch for dinner.