It was a mainly peaceful night and we were much warmer than we first thought we were going to be. As we had no power and therefore no heating, Ray turned the gas cooktop on (all 4 jets) and this warmed the van up so that Caleb and I would get out of bed. 

We were in Richmond by morning tea time so we took advantage of the full Telstra phone reception to catch up with a few birthday calls and “howdys” over the phone. The lack of phone service in remote areas can cause some frustration as the reception differs from town to town. Makes blogging and keeping in touch with home a tad sporadic. 

Richmond is part of the dinosaur trail of Outback Queensland. It is a popular place for fossickers to come to look for gemstones as well as fossilised bones and sea animals. We headed to the tourist information centre which was also a dinosaur museum called Kronosaurus Korner. They have 400 separate exhibits of marine fossils discovered in the region. Amongst them is reputedly Australia’s best vertebrate fossil, the 4.2m Richmond Pilosaur discovered in 1989, and the armoured dinosaur Minmi, both 100 million years old. We didn’t actually go into the museum, but enjoyed a coffee in the cafe and spent the museum entrance fee on a lovely stone pot made from stone like the one found locally. It is impregnated with small marine fossils then highly polished. Expensive and very, very heavy but we rarely buy souvenirs and I felt that this was a must have purchase. Besides, I haven’t bought any new shoes in ages, so this will calm the shopping nerves for a while. We will look at it forever and remember our Outback Australia experiences. 

Caleb and I played in the playground which we had all to ourselves. I’m getting quite a lot of fun out of these places, they really aren’t just for kids. I could reach the flying fox, whereas Caleb couldn’t, so I took that as an invitation. We discovered the most unusual slide. Instead of a flat sliding surface, it was made up of small spinning rollers so that when you sat on it, the rollers rolled and propelled you down the slide. It made the most terrific loud noise too and we spent ages going down it. There was absolutely no chance of climbing up the slide at all with the rollers, it was like trying to walk on marbles. After yesterday’s efforts scaling the slide from the bottom up, I’ve decided that this is the best kind of slide to have! 

We stopped for the night in Hughendon, set up and took a walk into town. All the car travelling has rendered us largely immobile and feeling unfit, so I cracked the exercise whip and off we went. 

The walk was only 1.5km and we headed for the Visitor Information Centre where we took a look around the museum. At $12 family entry we got to see a dinosaur skeleton, relics from pioneers in the area, a DVD on the formation of the nearby Porcupine Gorge and the most amazing collection of rocks and gemstones. There is an annual 8km competitive run through the gorge here but unfortunately it was 6 weeks ago. Phew! They get (fit) tourists from all over the world coming to compete. Sounded like a lot of fun. 

We wandered the town, looking through the variety of shops (many vacant) and checking out the prices of houses. A nice weatherboard for $90k? If a quiet life is what you are after, one of these outback towns will surely do the job, and cheaply!

We saw the Coolabah tree which two explorers marked as having been there while they were out looking for Burke and Wills who had perished due to lack of water. They, Landsborough and Howitt, explored land suitable for grazing and settlement while on their quest through this area. Multitasking in its earliest form perhaps? 

One icy pole and a 1.5km walk later we returned to the van feeling good for the exercise and knowing a bit more about the town of Hughenden.