Well my trip to Karumba this year ended last Tuesday as we left the Gulf just before 7:30am and arrived back in Kewarra Beach just after 4:45pm some 9 odd hours later.  Don’t know why but the trip back this time seemed a lot shorter than I remember it.  It probably had a lot to do with me having a lot more sleep than when we left and me feeling more alive as a result.

So here we go….

Ford Ranger:

This was one of the reasons that I went to Karumba this time round.  With the new truck, I wanted to see how it perfromed towing the boat and trailer.  It didn’t disappoint, going up the Kuranda Range the Ranger handled the haul with ease and was barely troubled; the 4 cylinder 3Lt turbo diesel coming into it’s own going up hills that the V6 Falcon struggled with last year.

Even more surprising was that we got 726Km on 90Lt of diesel; this was made up of the 70Lt in the main tank and another 20Lt in a jerry can in the tray.  We out the 20L in at Georgetown and had to literally crawl into Normanton at 60Km an hour to make sure that we made it as we were running on fumes quite literally I reckon.  The fuel economy for this stretch towing a trailer and 4.2m boat worked out at 8.07L per 100 Km – extremely impressive considering that the Ranger is rated at 9.5L per 100Km.

4WD capability:

The Ranger didn’t get to see much locking in of the hubs at Karumba; however we always launched at the Karumba Point ramp which while cemented, falls away to a beach / sand ramp and lots of people launched / retrieved on the sand.  Needless to say, I had to have a go   Twice I had to drop the tyre pressure down to 20PSI to get off the sand but thankfully I had the Staun Tyre Deflators,so this was a breeze; every other time the Ranger handled the sand with ease, when the tyres were down it just lapped it up looking for more.

Fishing:

Or the lack of piscatorial items thereof…

The average water temp was no more than 21 degrees centigrade and the air temperature while got to between 30 and 32 degrees, most days and the regular water temp was 19 degrees.  Then there was the wind, lots of it – most days it averaged 25 knots and I don’t think that out of the 7 days that we were there, we were presented with more than 2 days under 20 knots and definitely only one with winds under 12.  Fishing Karumba in June is a very hard ask which was typified by the place that we stayed at, their fish cleaning table was dry the whole time that we were there.

Fish were able to be found on the sounder although, only in one or two places – they were good size but had no interest in taking any baits or lures that I presented to them.  I would be lying to say that I was not disappointed in the fishing; only on two days did I get any bites and they were only small fish, nothing that was a keeper by any means.

Crabs are always an option in the Gulf, however even these were not going to turn it on – for the 5 days that I put the pots out, all I managed was:

• 1 x legal sand crab at 11.5cm
• numerous female mud crabs averaging 20cm (all returned to the water)
• about 6 undersize male mud crabs

Everyone told us that the fishing had been dead for about 3 weeks when we got over there; and that the water temperatures had dropped but what I couldn’t understand was that there simply was nothing even over the sand flats after half a day in 30 degree sun.

There is a saying in fishing circles, that being that where there are barramundi, there are crocodiles, and where there are crocodiles, there are barramundi.  Well, I expected to see lots of crocs sunning themselves on the banks of the Norman River at low tide, but I didn’t see one the whole time that I was there.

Weather:

This is a a good lead on subject from the fishing as it played a good part in the reason why things turned out so bad.

As I’ve already outlined, most days were 30 degree days and nice and warm, deceptively cool and people not wearing a wide brimmed hat and sunscreen were treated to a good sunburn.  Water temp was on average a chilly 19 to 21 degrees.

Days were on the whole clear with about 3 of them being overcast, rain was minimal and only happened overnight.  The other killer was the wind; most mornings you faced 30 knot winds which dropped to about 25 maybe 15 knots if you were lucky.  By the afternoon it was a very pleasant 12 knots.

The Roads:

The roads were in excellent condition, even the seriously outback stuff westward of Georgetown.
These were made with longevity in mind, can someone please take the Cairns and Brisbane City Council out to show them how to surface and maintain a road?!?

In a way, this is one of the saddest things as it will mean that many more people head to the Gulf causing it to lose it’s small town appearance and atmosphere like so many remote towns these days as infrastructure continues it’s ever increasing march forward.  The bridges at Einasleigh and a few other places that were shored up with ballast in 2009, now are covered in concrete and as smooth as they come; they are also being replaced by high bridges designed to withstand the annual floodwater onslaught that comes with wet season in this part of the world.

Even little 4 cylinder “rice bubbles” that last year would have rattled into Normanton and Karumba will now make it with no trouble now.

Summary:

Karumba is a great place to go with nice temperate weather but can also be like walking into a furnace if you go at the wrong time of the year with regards to the heat.  It’s no secret though that these times are when the fish bite best and they are really on at this time.

Half the fun of course is getting there; from where I live in Cairns, it’s about a 10 hours drive which can be broken up with as many stops as you want along the way.  There’s plenty of towns along the way where you can experience famous outback hospitality.  Roads are great and only going to get better, this in my opinion as mentioned previously will detract from the charm of the trip, but is inevitable as progress rolls onward.

Will I go back to Karumba?  Hell yes!  I love the place, there’s nothing better than spending the day in the boat and chasing fish and washing this down with an icy cold beer or four at the Sunset Tavern at the end of the day with a hearty meal to boot.

The only thing that you need to know is that you should take as much of the stuff that you will need to buy for your stay in Cairns before you go; Karumba can be quite expensive for stuff such as toilet paper and groceries etc, and there realistically is only two stores where you can get it.

That being said the place will leave you with a sense of community and an appreciation of life at a much slower pace than we are used to in our day to day lives.