The wind howled all night and we awoke with it still howling…so no cruises today – a great disappointment as that was the main reason to visit Karumba….

However you never know what a day may bring….a quick Google found the Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre located in the heart of Karumba and so after gaining some local intel we decided to ride our bikes into the town along a track through the wetlands.

This meant a furious cleaning frenzy to get the bikes up to speed as they were caked with layers of red dust…

Dave’s bike had a puncture so Branch grabbed Macgyver and they quickly replaced the inner tube and we were all on our way.

The ride was initially slow as about 1.5k into the journey Dave’s front tyre went down again -fortunately Gordie had a puncture repair kit and so we were on the road in no time.

Gordie had a moment of confusion and sped past in the wrong section with the potential to cause havoc (what’s new??)

The wetlands were pretty dry at this time of year but it was not hard to imagine it flooded during the wet.

Arriving at Karumba town the Wells made a beeline for the hardware store to pick up a sink plug to replace the one that had lost its screw down the plughole plus an variety of bits and pieces – everyone also bought some more duct tape as we still had some dirt roads to come and supplies had been exhausted.

The port of Karumba was an interesting place- mining exports, live cattle and also seafood are shipped from here. Karumba was almost completely wiped out by the floods of cyclone Wanda in 1974 – the whole town was evacuated to Weipa and a few streets were 20 foot under water!!

We rode on to the Barramundi Discovery Centre and enjoyed a delicious lunch of Barra and chips at the Café there. Here they actually farm barramundi and replenish a variety of locations for the fishos.

Gordie and Trev tried their hand at Barra fishing with some success – that fish looks very similar!!??!!

The exhibits were fantastic – really well done – with live specimens of fish as well as a blue crayfish…

After spending some time at the centre we rode back to the caravan park for a swim and quiet afternoon before heading down to the tavern to watch the sunset.

A kilo of prawns for dinner went down well and finished off our time in Karumba…back on the road tomorrow.