Day 87: Thu 21 Jul - Richmond to Hughenden
Towed 116km
9 (felt like 6) to 25 deg. A fresh morning, warming up nicely with very little wind, another lovely day. A short morning walk on my own around Richmond before returning to pack up and make our way to the other end of the RV park to fill our water tanks, before leaving at 08:00am for Hughenden - a short 116km. At about 15km up the road, we pulled over to drain our grey water tanks, and check the heat of the recalcitrant left hand rear wheel brake drum - what ever we did (if it didn't resolve itself) seems to have worked - it was the same temp as all the others. Relief. On we continued across some very ordinary road - the Flinders Highway was very rough and bumpy, with quite a few narrow bridges and a few oncoming road trains. We arrived in Hughenden by 10:00am, and enough vans had left already for us to secure two good spots for one night. We had heard that arriving any time after midday would mean you may not get a spot for the night. It's first in -best dressed, no cost, but unpowered, no connected water and must be self contained. It was already quite busy at that time of morning, and there is a country music festival and the Flinders camp draft in town this weekend. Thankfully we are only here for one night before moving on to Winton for three nights tomorrow. After setting up, Noel and I walked the short distance into town from the campground to the Flinders Discovery Centre for part 2 of our Dinosaur Trail Discovery Tour. It wasn't at the same level as the museum in Richmond, bit it was still very interesting and worthwhile. The centre has an amazing display of fossils from the region and from around the world. Hughie is the star attraction here - a life size skeletal replica of of a Muttaburrasaurus. Inside is also a section telling the story of the demise of the sheep industry throughout the Flinders Shire. By midday, we had seen enough and wandered back through town to the campground for lunch and a LLD. Noel settled in to read her book, while I jumped on my bike for a ride around town with Greg. There are some very good murals on toilet walls, at the skatepark and water towers. There is also a very well maintained man made lake with an excellent cycle way / footpath. Returning back to the van, we were soon sitting down for sundowners, and ordered chinese take-way for dinner, which Greg and I walked into town (about 500m) to collect. There has been a recent spike in Covid cases in Hughenden (and Richmond), so we are being extra cautious avoiding large groups of people and wearing masks when indoors. We sat outside our vans for a very satisfying meal, washed down with a glass of red. The end of another day, as we leave Greg and Wendy tomorrow for a few days - they are not joining us in Winton. We will have one more night with them in Longreach on Monday 25 July before we go our own way to places they have already seen, then we will continue south towards home.
A small town, there's not much to see or do in Hughenden, but it has a good vibe and is a pleasure riding around. I would come back again, especially to see the nearby Porcupine Gorge which we unfortunately didn't have time for this visit.
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