Outback adventures part 3 - Normanton

- wildlife australia
I take the bus to Normanton. There’s just one bus line out here which stops at every settlement and takes more than 10 hours to Cairns. It’s just me, the driver, and one other passenger. They have a lot to say about road kill. They are mostly entertaining but scare me off of going to the Normanton pubs which seem to be rough. The bus driver drops me off at the tourist park where I get ripped off for a dirty cabin. I walk around town, swim in the lukewarm tourist park swimming pool under the stars, and can’t sleep because of the tiny red ants that keep dropping on me.

The next morning, I happily leave the tourist park very early and wait at the Normanton train station for the Gulflander train to depart. I am almost 2 hours early. Tony, the train conductor seems to make fun of me for being this early and I tell him with a grin that I don’t want to miss the train. There’s only this one train every week.

I browse through their Gulflander train museum, watch the documentary which must have been made in the 70s, and pick up some mangoes that lie in the station garden. I go to the restrooms and find a big green frog sitting in the first toilet. I go to the next stall - same here. No frog in the third and last toilet, but when I flush after peeing I see that frog no.3 had hidden under the rim and is now enjoying some flush action.

Finally, the conductors Tony and Murray, me, and 6 other guests board the still almost empty train for a 4-hour ride with commentary to Croydon (population 300).

That’s Krys, 8 m long, the only crocodile I’ve seen so far.


Love the sunsets… This one is over Normanton.


 

Normanton train station.
Historic Gulflander train.
My personal Gulflander mug was included in the ticket price!