Day 85: Tue 19 Jul - Julia Creek to Richmond

Day 85: Tue 19 Jul - Julia Creek to Richmond

Towed 148km

9 (felt like 6) to 29 deg. Another beautiful day, started out fresh then warmed up nicely when the sun rose. It got a bit windy at Richmond, but it was another clear sunny day. I started the day with another pre-dawn walk around town with Greg, then we returned to our vans for breakfast, packed up and drove away by 08:00am. Destination - Richmond, 148km away.  We stopped shortly before 10:00am after 100km for mornos at a roadside rest area. When we stopped, I checked the heat of all the brake drums; all were fine except the caravan rear left drum which was very hot, if not hotter than two days ago. We obviously didn't fix the problem yesterday. I backed off the brake a few more nothches, then we continued on to Richmond arriving at about 11:00am. It was still very hot on arrival at Richmond. First stop was the Kronosaurus  Korner (Information Centre), where we registered for our stay at the Richmond RV Park campground. Owned by the local Shire Council, we can stay for up to 72hours for a fee of $5 for three nights - bargain. We must be self-contained and there is no connected water or power. It doesn't have water views like the Julia Creek RV Park either, but it is well serviced with a dump point and potable water. Julia Creek didn't have an onsite Dump Point. It is much smaller than Julia Creek and there are only about a dozen vans here tonight - plenty of space and very quiet. After setting up and some lunch, Noeleene went for the short walk of about 500m into town, while I went for a short reccy ride around town with Greg and Wendy. It was a warm sunny afternoon, but the sun was too bright for taking photos, so I will head out again tomorrow morning. The few photos I did take today, do have a bit of a common theme - unintentionally. After my ride, I turned my attention to fixing the overheating brake. With Greg's help again, I removed the wheel again, and adjusted the brake even more, but it was still grabbing and grinding. I also noticed some slight back and forward movement in the bearings. My bottle jack also decided to call it quits, losing all the hydraulic fluid, so it's no longer safe to use. Tomorrow, I will borrow Greg's Trailer Mate Jack (I think I'll buy one now) to remove the wheel again and ensure the bearings are seated properly, otherwise I may need to try and have it looked at in Longreach next week- 450km away. With the wheel refitted and cleaned up, it was already time for beers - feeling like many more than the two I had, followed by dinner and an early night. It's a bit of a novelty with TV reception tonight too - the first time for the past four nights. Tomorrow morning we start our  Australia's Dinosaur Trail tour with a visit to Kronosaurus Korner - reputedly Australia's premier marine fossil museum. Noeleene is so excited....

Only a few photos today, but they all unintentionally have a common theme:

Our lovely water front view from the van this morning, unfortunately there are a lot of dead fish in the creek. The water does look dirty, and we suspect it may be polluted from recent flooding runoff.

Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond - This Pliosaur, the star attraction, died many years ago - over 100 million years ago in fact.

On our afternoon ride around Lake Fred Tritton, within walking distance to our RV Park. Dead Man's Island is in the centre of the lake to the right of the sign: 
The first known man to be accidentally killed in Richmond lays under the island...."Fitzgerald" was killed when thrown from his horse and was buried where he fell...When planning the lake it was determined that "Fitzgerald's resting place would not be disturbed and he became the central point of the lake.

We saw the dome in the distance and rode out to see what it was - ending up in the cemetery. Whatever the purpose of the Dome building in the background, it's still being constructed - it doesn't appear on any Google Map or other Google searches. The young lady at the information centre didn't know either, but said she heard last week that  'it has something to do with stars' 💁 
...Late Mail - It's a new BOM Radar...




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