Hughenden

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

West of Charters Towers

White Mountain graffiti

White Mountain National Park

"Mutt"

A couple of cats ...

and a dog

When all else fails, hug your ram

You missed a bit!

Just the thing for the cold mornings

Dinosaur footprints

Post Office, with a for sale sign attached

Downtown Hughenden

Shelter made from two windmills

Flinders River

Another view of the river

Bridge over the river and the Comet Windmill

Fish sculptures

Coolibah tree

 

Charters Towers was a bit on the cool side this morning as we packed up for the 250 km journey to Hughenden.  Clear skies and cooler temperatures made for very pleasant travel.  As well, the countryside today was not as barren and dry, with more undergrowth – and cows.  There still seemed to be enough roadkill to keep the crows and black kites happy; we even saw four or five dead pigs (the best kind!).  Our fuel economy today wasn’t the best and we put it down to the continual slow climb and the quite strong head wind.  We stopped at a scenic lookout at the White Mountain National Park, with its views over the white sandstone (and graffiti) to the canyon and hills.  It was at this spot that a sign informed us we were on the Great Dividing Range at an elevation of 550 metres.  The road today was quite good – two lanes all the way – but rather bouncy at times, with some very long straight stretches.

We arrived at the Allen Terry Caravan Park in Hughenden shortly before lunch and were given a double site which we could use as a drive-thru.  We have seen a lot of caravans in the town, but not many of them seem to overnight.  The park is perfectly adequate for our needs, very clean amenities and mainly gravel with dry grass between sites.

We spent the afternoon doing the sights of the town, with our first stop at the Visitors’ Centre and Museum.  This was very interesting, detailing the history of the town and its links to the wool industry and the shearers’ strikes.  Of course, being part of the dinosaur trail, dinosaurs and fossils also featured heavily.  Although only small, the town is very aware of tourism (probably its lifeblood), with good information available of the sights to visit, as well as numerous statues around the town.  We crossed the Flinders River (the longest river in Queensland) and followed the park as far as possible before returning to a coolabah tree which was blazed by one of the Burke and Wills search party.  We disturbed dozens of kites in the tree, which then flew overhead until we moved away.

Hughenden has very, very friendly flies – they really try their hardest to be close to us at all times!