After overnighting in Longreach, we did some shopping, fuelled up and left town after lunch via the Longreach – Tocol road to Lochern National park. In the bakery we found freshly made GF bread, and we had that for lunch…one of best ones we have come across! The loaf was polished off with all of us demolishing the bread.

Lochern has only one camping area, Broadwater Water Hole on the Thompson River. There was only a couple of other campers in the well space out camping area. To get here was a fairly easy couple of hours and because there was time I took my bike for a run back to the gates of the park so bike could have a few selfies in front of the gates. There was a grave there of a poor bloke who survived World War 1 only to drown in 1924 while trying to get home to his pregnant wife and two kids. The ride was hard work on the bumpy tracks around here and while it was only a dozen or so k’s it was a solid short ride before beer o’clock.

We stayed two nights at Lochern,  and after making the troops bacon, eggs and hash browns again on the first morning there I rode up to the parks info centre,  about 10 k’s each way. The info centre had a few pieces of old machinery around it a little more info on the flora and fauna. The ride wasn’t particularly hard but there was a good breeze coming across the open areas only the way back which knocked a few k’s an hour on the return ride. I am starting to think that an electric fat bike might be go for riding these areas with their tyres giving good floatation over the rough and sandy bits.

We left the campground and went to the information centre, a nice building that was locked up! We had missed the original Lochern homestead some time back, but we we went and had a look at the shearing shed and shearer quarters. The former was wired off with no access everywhere on it, while the later has been modernised with nice paint, new corrugated iron everywhere, even air conditioned. It looks like the shearer’s quarters has been set up for tour or school groups. Ironically, we found there was flushing toilets and hot/cold showers there as well.

We had lunch in the tropics, having crossed the Tropic of Capricorn we stopped on the edge of the road before heading to Old Cork Station. The days drive of 240k’s crossing much of the Queensland Channel country where we would dip through the floodways and dry channels that are up here (I made the comment over the radio to the other car about this region having more channels than foxtel….it took some explaining later!) After 5 hours or so we camped next to the windmill at Old Cork along with a few other caravaners. The weather is getting better, with most of the daylight hours being 23 or 24 degrees or more. The signs of the drought are every where, with the cattle looking very thirsty and very little Australian wildlife being seen at all.

Old Cork Station is on the banks of the Diamantina river, and was built near a permanent water hole on the Diamantina River. The place was built in the 1860’s from local sandstone and was a successful farm in its day. The main and we followed the river on the Diamantina River Road for a hundred or so k’s before rejoining the main road into Winton. The road took us along stony open plains and into low hills and jump ups and back to crossing channels then rocky plains. The roads are mostly good with not too many corrugations. At one stage, just outside one of the stations gates there was some hills – halfway up there was a single grave over looking the plains. Digging the hole could have only been done with machine in this place. There are some long patches of bulldust and if if the dry continues the roads will really suffer. This part of the world hasn’t seen a drop for the last w years. The dashboard outside temperature reading climbed into the 30’s for the first time.

Lunch was a $15 T-bone, chips and salad from the pub followed with a walk up and down the street. 5 minutes later we fuelled up at a $1.45 per litre and set of for Richmond where Jo and Peter will enjoy the dinosaur museum. The road to Richmond is known as the back way in, also known as the Marine Fossil Byway – I think the fossil geeks will fun have in Kronorsaurs Korner (the dinosaur museum), Jo and I went a few years back and while I enjoyed it, we only spent a couple of hours there and thats fine for me. Jo and Peter will enjoy it for a longer stretch this time.

We pulled into the Lakeview Caravan park in Richmond which overlooks the “Lake Fred Tritton”. The sites are rather cosy to say the least. Although our van is short, it is wide when the bed is out and the normal sites didn’t have enough width for us. We asked if the both of us could be on the grass sites (so we could fit OK) only to get permission just for us – the sites are reserved for camper trailers only. We moved to camper trailer sites and left Pete and Fi in the cosy sites. By midday the next day we had a motorhome and 3 caravans around us….

I went for a ride the next morning – there was a bloke flying a drone over the lake, unfortunately I didn’t get to chat to him but he had it under full control using a tablet. I also found a lyrebird wandering the main street in Richmond…not very often we see that!

The lake has been set up as a recreational facility, I am not sure of who good ole Fred was but the lake is good for fishing, swimming, canoeing, and waterskiing although for the last I can not see how you can ski in anything but a circle. On my ride around the lake I found some other interesting bits….it seems that they have a hole in one competition from the side of the lake from time to time….thats OK to me but where the hole is, is on a island in the lake called Dead Mans Island. Apparently underneath the island (and the golf hole) is some poor bloke who fell off his horse only to be buried where he fell. His claim? to be first person to be accidentally killed in Richmond!

Continuing on my ride, I came across the old (and original) cemetery. While not large the oldest grave was dated 1893 – most of the others were the early 1900’s.

While at the van park we caught again with news from the south, and the washing, and the shopping…

As I type this up and post it, the kids (Jo and Peter) have gone the fossil museum – you will have to wait for the next exciting instalment to find out if the old bones are worth chewing or if fossilised trees are any good for the campfire…

Its Friday today and tomorrow we are off again into the bush. Not sure where yet though!