As we packed up on Wednesday morning to leave Mount Surprise, our host Russell was giving a Snake Show for the campers. Russell is a keen herpetologist with quite a collection of snakes. He had Clancy, the black headed python out for us to admire. Russell has a wealth of knowledge about snakes and also gave us all a refresher course in first aid for snake bite.
We left Mount Surprise via the vehicle wash down facility and drove west to Georgetown, about 100km. We continued on for 20km to the Cumberland Historic Mine Site.
What a gem of a campsite!! Reputedly some 600 bird species live on and around the lagoon is also home to turtles, red claw and waterlilies. Hundreds of magpie geese were nesting in the reeds and we saw many species of ducks as well as brolgas, egrets, honeyeaters and willy wagtails. A magic place that we were going to spend one night and ended up staying 2.
The mine site hearkens back to the 1880s when this area was in the middle of a gold rush and crushed ore was transported to Cumberland for further processing.
The town of Croydon, some 90km further west was the centre of the mining area which stretched for 160km long and 36km wide. Croydon had 37 pubs in its heyday and was home to a diverse population. When the gold ran out, the town died. In recent years the council has done a great job to attract tourists with many historic buildings and a great information centre which has a short film about the area as well as photographic exhibits.
It also seems to have more public toilets - we saw 3 sets - than would be normal for a town this size.
Now we've moved further west to Normanton, close to the coast on the Gulf of Carpentaria. We'll be here for a couple of days exploring the area.
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