Dinosaur Country

Early Monday we stopped off at Longreach to buy Lachlan an Akubra - he was rapt as they were on special. We then headed west and stopped at Winton for lunch and checked whether the predominantly dirt road north to Richmond was open - it had luckily opened in the morning. It was a nice slow drive, as the road was pretty cut up after the rain. We encountered massive swarms of locusts, more emus and also a few wild pigs (of the non-living variety!). We also had two oncoming road trains, and as the road was only two tyre tracks the old rule of “biggest always wins” saw us quickly get right off the road, once past we were left in a cloud of dust. Finally we got to Richmond and set up camp overlooking the town lake. Richmond and the surrounding area is famous for its dinosaur fossils. Next day we checked out Kronosaurus Korner in town (top photo), which is a fossil display and where they also work on fossil preservation. The locusts in town are unbelievable, where we were camping every inch of the grass area was covered. They’re also big beasts casting shadows as they fly low overhead. The kids were happy they killed two, I reckon they’ve only got another coupla billion to go! It’s a shame really as all the foliage up here is so new and lush, then these little buggers fly out of nowhere and strip everything back to the branch! The birds and reptiles think it’s pretty good though with as much food to go for many weeks. We dropped into the butcher and bought up big time – you can’t beat freshly killed meat (that was their advertising slogan on the front of the shop). They were right, the steak was bewdyful. The arvo saw us catch up on domestic stuff like cleaning the trailer out after one of the long life milks leaked a while back, taking advantage of the great grassy site, unlimited water and a pleasant temp of 30 odd. Also had to get a gas bottle filled, and one of the tyres repaired after we noticed a nail in it which had been slowly leaking – again great country service, done in an hour and with a smile. The kids also cooled themselves at the water-park, and asked where all the locals were – we told them it’s only the crazy Victorians that swim up here at this time of the year!

Today we planned to head to Mt Isa, but only got as far as Cloncurry, about 400 odd km west of Richmond. There’s a cattle muster (a rodeo of sorts) starting tomorrow so we’ve decided to hang around for a day and check it out. We’re camped right next to the main hwy so we’ll be privileged to all the road train traffic overnight. We’ve also bought up big foodwise as we’ll be really out in the boon docks for four or five days at Lawn Hill NP.

p.s bottom photo is of Lachlan with water python at Rustie's show in Longreach.