Richmond

Richmond Queensland
28th July 2017

Today we are taking a day off travelling and enjoying 28 degrees of winter sun in Richmond, Northwestern Queensland.
Over the last few days we have been travelling in dry open grassland country that has been in drought for the last five years. Normally summer rains from the tropics get things growing especially the Mitchell grass that grows on the deep soils around this area. If the summer rains are poor then farmers do it hard and things dry out considerably. It is not long before feed runs out and stock are shipped to other areas that have the feed.
Many of the towns we have passed through like Longreach, Winton and Hughenden seems to be locked into the 1960,s with dry dusty sections, rough housing, old shops and only basic services. Groceries have been a little pricey as well and selection generally poor. Pubs are often the dominant buildings in town.
However we have been visiting a few national parks and have done a little bit of walking in one or two places. We walked down from Pyramid Camp into Porcupine Gorge National Park the other morning before it got too hot. It was an interesting journey down through 6 layers of old rock formations ranging in age from 10 to 120 million years old.
Nights have been cool with the temperature falling to anywhere between zero and 10 degrees C. But as soon as the sun comes up it warms up very quickly. Mornings are also a good time to go for a MTB ride when it's still cool.  I try and ride every other morning for about 25 kms. This is enough to maintain a little fitness at least for when we get back to NZ.
Maria is also keeping well and enjoying a bit of rock hunting along the way. She has found some nice pieces of petrified wood and she also spied a nice piece of unfinished boulder opal she bought from a local shop in Winton for 15 dollars. The big issue for her is what does she toss away and what does she take down to Melbourne.
Our goal in the next week or so is to make it to Mt Isa. From there we will decide on a plan to go into the northern territory for a month or so and see how far we get before having to set a course south.
The Prado has been great and no problems so far. Diesel averages about 1.25 dollars per litre. We have a duel fuel tank as well which theoretically gives us a range of 1000 kms which is more than enough to get us around.
The camper trailer is working out just fine but need to stay put for a few days now and again to get a break from the set up and take down process. Trailers have their place and are very practical in Aussie. They would be less so in NZ as the climate being wetter and colder would make them less versatile.
That's about all for now.
Cheers
Rudy and Maria.