I’m staying at the Club Hotel in Croyden as I write
Indulging in a cold beer in the lush green beer garden.
But I’ve jumped too far ahead.
The discovery of gold was important in bringing colonial development to this remote part of Australia.
After leaving Einasleigh my next stop was Forsayth.
Built as a mining town its now a tourist destination with the Savannahlander train running to Forsayth from Cairns.
I could even find an espresso and hummingbird cake. Rare in the outback and a treat for a city boy piecemeal adventurer.
Georgetown is home to Ted Elliot Mineral Collection.
An amazing collection of fossils, gemstones, petrified and fossilised wood and minerals of all types.
Georgetown also has samples the distinctive Queensland outback buildings.
Croydon was very successful gold mining centre so successful special train line built from the port town of Normanton. Now jokingly called the train from nowhere to nowhere the Gulflander is a tourist ride.
Croydon’s Historic Precinct contains a number of official building from the height of the 1870s gold rush.
The road to Einasleigh and Forsayth are off the main Savannah Way so include some unsealed roads till Georgetown.
The travelling is beautiful
Through savannah woodlands,
Across river causeways, where the rivers roaring floods in the tropical wet season is reduced to a feeble flow.
But still hold water in lagoons full of water lillies and birds.
And one can see a magpie goose on the wing
On the way to Croydon the Steinbock clocked over 22,000km since I purchased it in January this year. It’s been a crazy 6 months of travel.
Next the landscape changes again. The Gulf Country – the Gulf of Carpentaria. The rivers are big estuaries full of big salt water crocodiles. Normanton, on the croc infested Norman River is my next stop.
