Day 203 – 27/6/14 – Richmond – Prarie QLD

Today is the last day of school, if the boys were at school, so we were determined to get all town we of their school work finished so we didn’t have to think about it for the our last week on the road. With that out of the way, yeeeee haaa, we packed up and headed for Hughenden. Before we left town we went back to the butchers where we had bought last nights shanks. They were only $5.99/kg and they were delicious so we bought his last 17!

Our plan was to stop quickly in Hughenden and then drive the 40km to a small town, Prarie, where we would meet a great friend of ours ‘Blue’ who was driving out from Townsville, stay the night there and then come back and see Hughenden on Saturday. However as soon as we found out the races were on in Prarie on Saturday we changed plans and decided to stay in Prarie both nights! The entry to the Flinders Discovery Centre was part of our Dinosaur Trail pass we bought yesterday so we spent an hour wondering around it. 

Similar to Kronosaurus Corner it was filled with fossils that had mostly been discovered by local graziers going about their days work. When they were unearthing the Muttaburrsaurus, that closely resembles a T Rex, one of the kids had to go home to get its bottom jaw that they using as a door stop in the family home!

They know how to build windmills in this part of the world!

We rolled onto Prarie where we set up at the ‘free’ camp behind the pub. I say ‘free’ as it is that as long as you have a drink at the pub. Based on those rates I think I might be able to retire there! We weren’t there long when Bluey arrived and the festivities began! 

As he lives in Townsville I only see Blue once every six months when I drive through for work but the boys and De hadn’t seen him for nearly 2 years so they were even more excited!

Sitting on the dentists chair

Bluey caught the interest of a few of the local ladies!

But these girls were no dummies....

 We had some nibbles and beers at the van before we headed into the pub. It is a great old county pub. The walls are decorated with old Akubras and bits of farming gear from yesteryear. Tom and Andrea who own the pub have three daughters and the boys had a great time tearing around the pub with them. We had dinner, but unlike most places where you all sit at seperate tables they had a dining room with a massive old table beautifully set where everybody ate together at the same time.  It was really cool!

The remainder of the night was spent holding up the bar and getting to know the locals as they came in for some Friday night refreshment! Around 11:30 we called it stumps and retired after a great night!

Postscript: Tomorrow Bluey will be our guest blogger and for Tony’s sake I hope his spelling and grammar is better than mine! Enjoy!