Big Red Bash Birdsville and Beyond 2017: 16 July - Trackside camp along a track down to Nicholson River between Doomadgee and Burketown to Karumba.

A beautiful, peaceful night after the stargazing.

A relaxed pack up this morning with departure around 9.30.

Off through Burketown, where we managed to get $30 bucks worth, using card pay - as the place was closed being Sunday. A quick loo break then off again.

The track was good again today, a combination of gravel and bitumen. Lots more cows on road and roadside as well as many many Brolgas today - in small family groups and other larger groups in water, paddocks and at the roadside. Saw a couple of families in flight.

I can't even recall where this was...but that's Sarah.

We turned right.

We dropped into look at Leichardt Falls - no Falls but the river was interesting with an old pump and the associated rusting infrastructure. We were lucky enough to sit and watch some birds - a kingfisher or two and a hawk that took a bit of interest in the drones flying about.

Leichardt River

Old Pump

A hawk who had shown some interest in a drone...soaring above us.

A beautiful Kingfisher, he kept coming back to this tree just below us.

I took some with Dad's camera, as the zoom and digital zoom can get much closer.

Now I've googled it, I think its a Rainbow Bee Eater.

and then there were two. They were catching insects on the fly and returning to their branch to eat them.

Droning, how many blokes does it take to land a drone.

We are heading that way.

Not going anywhere fast.

We had a truck in front so Steve determined a lunch stop - near a dam with some cows mooing.

The white Anthill that marked our entrance to lunch spot.

After some traffic lights on the gravel for roadworks in the middle of nowhere (which was where the truck was headed) we pulled off to look at Burke and Wills Camp 119. The last of their camps and most northernmost camp. There were a few blaze trees still standing and others have died or disappeared but are still marked. Extremely hot today - one can only wonder what Burke and Wills and crew experienced.

We always seem to strike a traffic light (and a red one) in the most outback of places.

Waiting.

We'd seen this plant growing along the road, this one in flower was at Burke and Wills Camp.

They really were ill-fated.

We could see a few of the 'blazes' but interesting to think they will disappear in the next 50 years.

One of the blaze trees.

Up closer.

You can see the hollow - which was the blaze

An erimophila I think!

Steve really rocked the van through this rough section, but I was a bit late with my shot.

From there onto and through Normanton to ensure an arrival at Karumba in time for a northern facing sunset.

We arrived and were very lucky to secure 2 unpowered sites at Sunset Point Caravan Park. The first noticeable thing when getting out of the car was the humidity, we've gone from dry heat to humidity in a short days driving.

We managed to squeeze all of us onto those two sites, stuck in a corner close to amenities. We had an hour till sunset and I really needed a shower too. Time was tight. I managed a shower but got a tad stressed with Dad not being ready to go.

Sunset at Karumba.

We made it to the beach, to watch it set behind a lone mangrove and over the mud flats.

Anyway Dad, J, Sarah and Michael saw sunset on the beach and then walked to join the others at Sunset Tavern for tea and more of the sunset. Lovely meal of fish and chips.

Nearly killed Dad, trying to get here in time, but we made it.

The sunset was amazing, the colours just kept hanging around and deepening till dark, the lights along the channel were twinkling red and green, there were mud flats and mangroves at the beach and then some birds swimming by when we made it to the pub, where the orange continued to intensify. Awesome and lucky to make it in time to see the whole thing.