Day 31 Ayr

Day 31 Ayr

The road out of Richmond going towards Hughenden didn't improve any - the road just as bumpy and graunchy on the suspension. What a shame that access into this lovely little town is really diabolical.

We reached Hughenden with sense of relief and walked around to find a bakery for second breakfast. We found one ... it had very decent sausage rolls too, but no tea or coffee.  Ah well.


Not to be out-done Hughenden has its own dinosaur too

There were more dinosaurs here too. The whole area is one big dinosaur trail all the way to Winton. The shire helpfully provides the relevant dinosaur feet to embellish their rubbish bins in each town which is a nice touch, but must be very awkward for the bin collection trucks.

The road and general landscape improved the closer we got to Charters Towers. This historic gold rush town was once the second largest and wealthiest in Queensland, with 100 mines, 90 pubs and a stock exchange. Today the glory is somewhat faded and the population a whole lot less. We skirted around the town (hah! - Barb didn't want to drive through the centre of town with the trailer) and continued on the Flinders highway towards Townsville. Before we got to Townsville we detoured off the main highway to cut across to Ayr. Didn't feel like dealing with city traffic after so long in the sticks (see - I was right!).

We found a small but pleasant caravan park in Ayr. Well, it would've been pleasant if we weren't placed right beside the dump point on one side and on the other side next to a very strange man travelling alone in his rooftop tent who spoke loudly on his mobile phone to his mates at all hours.
To make matters even more disagreeable Barb awoke at 1 am with severe pain in her left shoulder. Just out of the blue, not because she'd slept on it awkwardly.  She got no more sleep and couldn't move her arm at all due to the pain. Plans are changing again.