Southbound - Karumba to Cloncurry

After a bit of time communication with home while we still have coverage, we leave Karumba and start southward and homeward. It would have been so much harder for the Expedition, turning without actually seeing the sea (although they could smell and taste it), and setting off with only a quarter of the supplies they had left with. We will go home the easy way, via all sealed roads. They had to go back the way they came, over the Selwyn Range, and this time in the wet.

After the relatively short trip back from Karumba to Normanton, we turn on to the Savannah Way and head west until we reached the Bynoe River, which Burke and Wills followed to the Gulf. We drive down to Camp 119 by the river, where King and Gray were left to wait for their return. This was our last bit of "following", finishing off the last chapter in the book.

Back to Normanton for a coffee and a pie and a look at the Bynoe Gallery (local aboriginal artists), then the 372 km drive to Cloncurry. We arrive too late for the Visitor Information Centre, so we find ourselves a spot in Wal's Park for the night, our first night in a park, rather than the bush. Not as good as being alone.