From our camp at Leichardt Falls, our handy navigation app suggested allowing 31 hours and 20 minutes to travel the 224 kilometres to Karumba. We expected to be at Normanton by morning tea time, with only another 80km of sealed road to Karumba. Did the GPS know something we didn't?
Turns out there is a whole heap to see and do in this part of the world. We stopped at Camp CXIX (119) for a quick history lesson.
It was from here that Burke and Wills made their final dash to the Gulf in 1861, leaving Gray and King at this camp. Burke and Wills were thwarted by the monsoon (it was February), mangroves and clay pans, and never saw a vista of the ocean stretching out before them. It was a bitter disappointment for Burke. Whilst we now know how ill prepared they were for the perils of their journey, it is honestly amazing that they made it this far at all.
