Our Next Stop..Normanton...

Our next stop was Normanton, only 155km from Croydon and it took us about 2 hours to get there, so are nice short drive. The road was much the same as the drive from Mareeba to Croydon, single lane and double lane roads, many road trains speeding past, and a whole lot of wildlife. As always we had to be very careful of all the animals that border the roadsides and at times dart across the road. Some of the animals/wildlife that we have seen inland so far either on the road side, or darting across the front of our vehicle have been, tree kangaroos, a large rat, many large cows, large flamingo/duck looking birds, emus, eagles, and some vulture type birds that enjoy eating the road kill and that dart at your windscreen at any given time.
At some stage as we drove along, a road train came flying past us as they do, we were pulled over allowing it to safely pass and some little stones came flying off the truck and onto our windscreen and chipped our windscreen in 2 places, bummer, however, everyone was safe and that's the main thing (later that day we had the windscreen repaired, it wasn't cheap but worth it, we didn't want to risk any further damage to the windscreen).
 
When we arrived to Normanton we stopped and explored the town first this time. We checked out the information centre and the small museum they have there. We checked out and took many pics of the huge crocodile replica that is on display in the town park, and then hurried to our site so that we could hop into the pool because once again it was a beautiful, dry, stinking HOT day! 
Normanton had the biggest pool we've seen in any campground/caravan park, it was amazing and we believe it once was the towns public pool, Wowsa! 

Our drive to Normanton, and Our Exploring Normanton Pics... 

Driving from Croydon to Normanton...

Nearly there...

Welcome to Normanton...Population 1500, Wowsa!

Very interesting info...Do you believe this is the actual size of a croc being caught many years ago, however, there is no evidence...Believe it or Not!

Oh NO!

This was the towns information centre. The centre also had the usual interesting museum, this one was a small museum but it was interesting as always...

This is the drive we are doing along the Savannah Way, the only difference is we plan to go down the middle first (well hopefully)...

Keep this in mind! We read this and explained it to the Girls...we've actually explained this and many safety rules (for travelling) with the girls many times, we just went over them once again...

Interesting Museum...

We were hungry, it was lunchtime but we thought we'd stop in the town to explore before we had some lunch. Not even a minute after we stepped into the info centre, the lady who worked there offered us some treats, YUM, Thank You Very Much!

The Travelling Bible made it to Normanton :-) As we've been travelling around, we pray for each area we visit, we share Gods Love, talk about Church, and show people Love by random acts of kindness, and sometimes God shows us exactly who to talk to and what to say to them, our hearts jump for JOY when this happens....THANK YOU GOD xo

The Travelling Bible...

We both enjoy having a chat it is a big part of what we are doing chatting with people around Australia... however, Shane really LOVES to have a chat all the time, he is on a whole different have a chat level, Hahaha! So as Shane was talking to a man named Steve, he knew straight away God had somethings to say to him. Shane arranged to catch up with Steve and chat with him some more once Steve put his children to bed for the night.

That night myself and the Girls went to bed while Shane was able to minister to Steve for many hours. Steve was an example of quite a few people we have come across on this journey, people who once knew and lived for God, however, something happened in their life and they turned away from Him.

Both Shane and Steve knew God had sent us to minister to him, and we all believe God was preparing his heart to turn it back to HIM.

We weren't even meant to stop at this caravan park, we were meant to go straight to a free camp, however, the sun was extremely HOT and we decided we wanted to refresh in the pool and have air conditioning for the night (we aim to buy a generator in the future, hopefully, so we can run our aircon at all the free/bush/farm camps we go to), we are so glad we changed our plans, so VERY glad :-)

God directed us to Steve. It warms our hearts to know we played are part in getting him connected with God once again...Thank You God for Your AMAZING perfect timing xo Thank You God SOOOOO VERY much for using us xo

We ask that you please continue to pray for us, for Normanton and for each and every area we visit. THANK YOU SOOOOO VERY MUCH xoxox

 

Our Normanton Site...

The Girls were so happy to be so close to the large Pool..Can you see it?

The Huge Refreshing Pool..We were in it for hours, then went back in for a late night dip and then went back in at 6:30am for a dip before we left Normanton in the morning, it was so much Fun...we even enjoyed star gazing in the pool.

And that was Normanton! We explored it, enjoyed the pool, rested for a night with our cool airconditioner and left in the morning for our long drive to Cloncurry...now brace yourself, the next post is a bit different to the last few posts...

Hoping everyone is enjoying their week xo
Take Care,
Dimi xo 

Moving Everyday along the Savannah Way...

Our next stop was a 6 hour drive inland to Croydon, North Queensland. We covered about 500km with 2 rest breaks. We left Mareeba at about 6:30am and we arrived at Croydon at about 2:30pm. We did our quick overnight set up (caravan legs down, took a few things out of the caravan to give us space to move around, and not much else) and then we hit the pool for a few refreshing hours, had some dinner and off to bed. We actually hit the sack around 7pm and didn't move until about 7am, we were exhausted after a 5:30am wake up the morning before and a looong day on the road!

Goodbye Mareeba, we are off to Croydon now...

The scenery changed dramatically as we drove along...from fog, fully sealed roads, lush green trees/bushes and green hills to dry grass, red dirt, sealed and dirt roads, and lots of wildlife...

Getting closer...

A much needed Rest stop...

The Savannah Way...From Cairns to Broome...

After a good nights sleep since we had a much shorter drive ahead, we took our time packing up, enjoying a GREAT coffee (we had power hook up so that meant we could finally use our milk frother after 3 days of flat milk, Hahaha, the sacrifices we make, Haha!). After we were all refreshed we explored the Croydon town for 1 1/2 and then took off to our next stop.

Some of our pics travelling to Croydon and Croydon pics...

Single Lane road. The roads go from smoother sealed, double lane roads, to these single lane roads along the way to Croydon...

The Scenery...Check out the Red dirt...The Blue skies, Green trees and Red dirt are such beautiful Australian Outback colours!

These ant/termite mounds are everywhere...

From double lane, to single lane roads...

When a Road Train is ahead, ALWAYS, Always pull over to the side when on a single lane road...NEVER expect the road train to pull to the side, it is far to dangerous for them to attempt to pull over to the side of the road..Always pull over slowly, calmly and wait for the road train to go past...

The never ending Road...

Next Rest stop...Georgetown...

Do you believe these Georgetown Public swimming pools are free to use? You just need to get a token (I think it was from the information centre), then sign a clause because there are no lifeguards on duty, and then you are free to enjoy the day swimming in the refreshing clean pools! We did not get to enjoy the pool, Shane would not let us because he is a party pooper and just wanted to hurry up, Hahaha! So we ate our lunch, freshened up and hit the road again...

Not too Far now...

The Travelling Bible made it to Croydon :-) As we travel through Croydon and the surrounding areas, and as we travel through The Savannah Way, I ask you continue to pray for each and every area we visit...Pray for the people of each and every single town we drive through, stand on, stay in...Pray for their hearts to be softened to God and HIS Beautiful LOVE and FORGIVENESS xo Thank You so Very much for Praying for us and for each and every area we visit on our Journey xo

Our Croydon Set Up...Unless we must drive somewhere we stay hitched for our overnight set up...

GREAT Morning Coffee :-)

Now we all thought this simple general store was a bit special. This store is the oldest running store in Australia. It is pretty cool. It has a little museum attached to it, and it is worth having a look in the store and buying something from it to support the business so that it can remain open for many years to come!

The Travelling Bible, hold it high and proud...

Inside the cool General Store...

This side of the store is the Museum part...

The Girls liked the Type Writer...

The Girls liked the cool Ink Pens...

I really liked these gorgeous/old Glass bottles...

I really like old Floorboards...

The General Store Comment book...The Girls were asked to write what they thought of the store in this General Store Comment book, and so they did :-)

We then checked out the whole town. We could stroll through the street of old buildings and have a glimpse of what life was like in the older days, Haha...it was pretty cool. Our favourite was the real old court house, you could see/hear/experience a real case in action, it was quite interesting for all of us...

I Love the look and feel of some of these old buildings/homes...

Old Jail...

The Courthouse...

And then we were off..on the Road again :-D

I think I'm going to like these one night sleepovers, exploring, and hours of driving...well for now anyway :-D
I Hope Everyone is Well xo
Take Care,
Love Dimi xo