Richmond to Charters Towers

We have actually arrived back home yesterday and it is time to catch up on our travels.  You see, I seem to always have some drama or other in posting while we are away.  This time, to avoid the hassles of trying to blog on my ipad, we took Mick's laptop with us.  The only problem was that when I went to download photos from my phone, it wouldn't sync with his laptop and kept throwing up an error message.  Therefore, I was emailing each photo that I used on my blog to his email address, then added it to the photos file and finally got to the blog post.  Very, very time consuming, and not what you want to be doing when you are on holidays.

To continue the drama, once we returned home, the storage on my desktop showed that it was full when I went to download the photos there.  After moving many photo folders to an external hard drive I think I am ready to actually make a start.  Phew.....what an effort.....

Anyway, after our lazy day in Richmond it was time to get back on the road and continue our exploring.

The countryside was still flat and showing a little of the flooding back in February, but not too much considering how devastating it had been.

This would have to have been the shortest windmill we have ever seen.

These huge ones really are impressive and show how important ground water is in the area.

We were told by a few people that we have to visit Porcupine Gorge, north of Hughendon.  "You have to camp out there and spend a few days", we were told.  Well, we didn't have a few days, but we could take a quick drive out there and have a look.  Yes, the gorge was impressive.  Until  you get there, you would have no inkling of its existence.

The main campground was another 11kms further in, so we didn't have time to go and have a look on this trip.  Apparently, it is a really nice spot and has "Pyramid Rock", which is an impressive formation.  That is something we can visit next time we are up that way.

Hughendon was the fourth site on our Dinosaur multi ticket.  The featured dinosaur here is a Muttaburrasaurus.  The recreation in the main street is affectionately known as "Mutt".

The museum was the least impressive of the ones that we had visited.  The fossils of Muttaburrasaurus, found at Muttaburra were incomplete and are held elsewhere.  This is a replica and recreation of what they think it was like.

The main street of Hughendon features quite a few windmill related things, the main one being this shelter area.

The library is nice and bright with photos of wildflowers found in the area.  

We did see the one of the flowers featured the Flinders Poppy, but weren't able to stop for a photo.  It is rather stunning.

There are also several dinosaur related sculptures throughout the town.

However, compared to Richmond the town felt rather sad.  It has obviously been a larger centre with more shops, but most of them were empty, or not all that well presented.    On a positive note, there is a dam, similar to the one at Richmond, currently under construction.  Hopefully, that will give the town a more positive outlook and encourage tourists to stop there, as I'm pretty sure it is now overlooked for the better presented Richmond.

Just out of Hughendon there is a brand new Energy Farm, featuring 55,000 solar panels and a dozen wind generators.  It is supposed to supply power for 38,000 homes.  They definitely have lots of sun and wind, so a perfect place for it.

As we travelled east, we knew we had to stop for a cuppa at the rest area at the tiny village of Homestead.  This was rather bitter sweet, as it marks the most westerly point we had travelled to previously.  

This is the rest area where, back in 2017, we discovered the mechanical problem with Snubby the Silver Sidecar, which ended our trip around Australia.  You can read about it here.

Charters Towers was our destination for the day and we had a nice wander around town the following morning.

I know I've shared them before, but there really are some stunning buildings in the town.  One day, we will have a proper look around, not just a quick visit on our way through......one day.

We had morning tea in a nice little coffee shop, which made nice and happy coffee.  Of course, Mick had to put on a silly grumpy face.

There were even a couple of murals.  There are so many murals as you drive around.  They certainly brighten up some blank walls.

This really completed the outback section of our trip.  It was a bit sad, as we really enjoyed the wide open spaces and small towns.  It's funny, but the trip seemed to have definite sections.  Now we were looking forward to the coastal section.