Ayr

We arrived today after spending a great weekend in Townsville with some great friends. Thanks for a great weekend Madelyn and Steve. The trip from Townsville to Ayr was very slow thanks to some roadworks and upgrading of the roads. Ayr seems to be very upmarket with lots of fashion labels and famous show brands. They have a wonderful FRESH not frozen seafood shop.

Charters Towers

A great little town, a nice feel..This was supported to us by watching the locals as they came to pay respects to a local who died and his funeral wound its way around the main street. They all came out onto the footpath and stood silent while the funeral procession passed. Lots of historical buildings and tourism is built around the gold history. This was the place of the first stock exchange in Australia.

Torrens Creek

The Caravan Park here was very basic there was power but the water was not fit for drinking. The Publicans were great to sit around and talk to and we enjoyed talking to a few of the truckies passing through. Did not enjoy the trains going through at around 4am and right through to until 7am. The park was also on the highway so we had 2 lots of transport all night.

Hughendon

Today we are in Hughendon - dinosaur capital of Australia. It is a poor cousin to Richmond as lots of its item were from overseas. We had a lovely lunch at at the chinese Chengs restaurant who were more than helpful with our dietary needs. The road from Richmond to Hughendon was terrible it was like riding a roller coaster!!

Richmond Fossil Capital of Australia

Richmond is the fossil capital of Australia. They really do the fossils and tourist thing very well. Lake Fred Tritton is a lovely walk and it is illuminated at night so you can walk around it and look at the night sky. The fossils are usually found on the outlying properties and in the "moon rocks" found here.

Julia Creek

A nice little country town and we met some very friendly locals (after work) at the local pub. The town has a great visitor information centre with lots of interesting things about Julia Creek (past and present). The caravan park is great and within walking distance of the town. The caravan park has an amazing campers kitchen with 100cm plasma TV, 2 door SS fridge and lots of other goodies.

Katherine Gorge

We stayed at the Red Gum Caravan Park which was opposite the Katherine Showgrounds. Of course we had to stay an extra few days when we found out that the show was on. It was great fun and we saw our first rodeo.
After here we went and stayed at Katherine Gorge what scenery!! The campground was great and the pool was spectacular!!
We took a 2 gorge tour and it was breath taking!