I decided to head for Normanton, with a stop off at Georgetown as it had some rock/mineral museum, which may be worth stopping for

First I had to negotiate a whole heap of more roadworks, lots of water trucks had been through and muddied it proper, these were 10km sections of works, full resurface to double lane

Then it was back to normal, single lane, get into the dirt if any one comes the other way

I stopped at Georgetown, but did not pay to see the rocks. The BP servo next to where I stayed in Mt Surprise had a free rock and mineral museum which I looked at. Unless you are a fanatical fossicking fossil finder, they are just rocks, although some are quite pretty and shiney 🙂

On the way out I had to wait while these strange birdies crossed the road

Then just a bit further on I missed the turnoff to a monument and had to find a place to turn around, a small bit of dirt led to the Cumberland Chimney

There was no information on it so I may have to google it later(I have googled it, it was part of a gold crushing plant built by Cornish masons, not much of it left). Then more of this for miles

I was getting hungry, I had bought some lunch in Georgetown but I could not find anywhere to stop, no parking areas, no signs, nothing. I was just about to pull over and try and find a shady tree when I spotted this truck parking area with bins only, no seats. No indication it was there, it just was?? Anyway,I had lunch finally

Another historical site just outside of Croyden where I fuelled up, it looks like an old boiler

I had been seeing all the trees in flower, they had been confused by the rain that happened in July, so they were all a bit early, this tree had bright red seed pods all over it

I finally got to Normanton around 3 in the arvo and booked a spot at the Tourist Park, $12/night, good amenities and a great pool just behind my campsite. I made use of this as it was getting extremely hot

Before heading just around the corner to the famous Purple Pub

Had some beers here and watched the footy while chatting with a local aboriginal called Claude(the Crow from Shirls Neighbourhood fame), he was a bit of a character, turns out when I asked about his burn marks on his face, he showed me the rest on his arms and side etc. Apparently when he was nine, him and a friend built a bomb in a garbage can with lots of different chemicals, it went off and cleared quite an area and blew him a fair way away, he was burning when they found him. He’s OK now though and works on the prawn trawlers, or nets barra.

He had told me about some big salt water crocodiles in the area, so I thought I might stick around for a day and have a decko.

Day – 412km
Trip – 3378km

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