Holiday From Hell
As most of my wonderful followers know, I recently took a family trip to a little outback town in Far North Queensland called Richmond. It’s roughly a 7-8 hour trip from where I live. This isn't the first time I've been to this little town. I travelled there in 2015 with my hubby and my baby boy. Let's just say that trip ended the same way this one did, with us returning home in a hurry after an all night spew-a-thon by my son, only this time it was the rest of us who spent a great deal of our holiday in bed or in the bathroom. Yup, it's official Richmond hates my family, which is a shame because it really is a wonderful little town.
Image courtesy of Outback Queensland: https://assets.atdw-online.com.au/images/384f332792b5edcc722616b89480f08b.jpeg?rect=331,0,5355,4016&w=2048&h=1536
The image above is of Lake Fred Tritton, which is really more of a dam than a lake, but no less beautiful. We checked into Lakeview Caravan Park on Saturday. The caravan park sits on top of a hill that over looks the Lake, and the Bush Tucker Garden's that now line the one side of the shore. Lakeview Caravan Park doesn't have a functioning website at present, but be warned the place books out fast, and seems to be perpetually full with newcomers.This isn’t a bad thing, just an observation.
The owners are True Blue Queenslanders, with personalities to match. If you're nice and polite to them, they will reciprocate, but if you're a wanker, they won't be afraid to put you in your place. My kind of people to be honest. Honest and straight to the point. The facilities at the park are clean, despite the number of people who go through. The grass for the campsites are green and soft in both the powered and non-powered sites. Overall it's a great place to stay for couples, grey nomads and families.
Our first night here was interrupted by my husband and 15-month old daughter falling victim to a stomach bug. We ended up moving to Ammonite Inn just down the road. We' stayed there before in 2015, the staff are all wonderful, and the place is clean. We only stayed here the one night, as we managed to get all the bedding and tent cleaned up the next morning. What a bloody mission that was. Four loads of washing later and a great deal of cleaning with a heap of spray-and wipe on the floor of the tent. Nevertheless we got it cleaned and were back in the tent that night.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were spent exploring the town, and exploring the dig sites just outside of Richmond. We visited the local museum known as the Kronosaurus Korner, which has a delightful cafe and gift shop. They even serve gluten free food. Can I get a Hell Yeah! Ps. I’m not LA Gluten Intolerant, I really do get sick of I ingest gluten. It’s nasty.
My brother-in-law loves all things that involve digging, and detecting. So it's no surprise that he has taken to digging for fossils like a duck to water. He has found quite a few fossils, and has donated a lot of them to the museum. My son, nieces and nephews gave him a helping hand for a couple of days. It’s way harder than it looks, and not as glamorous as the TV makes it look.
Fossils. Some shark teeth and vertebrae.
This is Joker. This Lorikeet has literally been everywhere.
Aside from getting horribly sick, Richmond really is a lovely little outback town. You would only need to spend three days maybe a little more to really enjoy everything the place has to offer. Most of those afternoons should be spent having a drink of some kind. It's nice though to sit, relax, and listen to the native birds while you have a drink under the gum trees or your gazebo as the sun sets. You can’t get more Aussi than that.
Until next time have a wonderful week and keep safe. 😘