After having had a lovely time in Charters Towers with Charlie and Jill it was time to head west and begin what is known as the dinosaur trail and first stop was Hughenden. There wasn’t much to see on the way out as the landscape just got drier and dustier and hotter!
Hughenden was a one street, one pub and one campsite town and when we arrived it was about 1pm and our dusty campground also only had one tree in it…and we weren’t under it. It was about 38 C and we had to get our camper trailer set up in order to get any shade at all. It was a hot start to the stay and while the wind was blowing it too was hot. In fact the water tanks on the camper had heated up to a state where the water coming out of the taps was warm enough to make tea with. It was pretty difficult to get any respite.
We only had 2 nights to get through and even though the temp was only going to get down below 30 at midnight and then bottom out at 24 before rising again the next day we were committed to doing it.
I have to admit we didn’t really do much day 1.
We did find out that there was a man made lake where we could swim which while not exactly the most pleasant place was at least not hot and gave us a chance to cool down. Otherwise we just relaxed in the shade and reminded ourselves that at least it was a dry heat and not humid!!! Well I did at least.
The lake 
Our campsite
Day 2 and after surviving a warm night we were excited that we could take Griff with us to see the museum at Hughenden and see our first dinosaurs and get a good idea as to why we were out here. Unfortunately the small sign on the window read that the museum was shut for 3 days!!!
There were a few expletives uttered I have to admit yet we were still conscious of not getting too worked up as the mercury was again rising towards 40 and we had little choice but to relax and wait it out. There wasn’t even a conversation as to whether we would wait around for 3 days just a mutual understanding and disappointment.
We enjoyed a drive around town in our air conditioned Ute which unfortunately could have taken longer, went for a swim and bought cold drinks from the local shop. It wasn’t pleasant but it was bearable. We both noticed how a bit of green grass and a couple of trees can make these high temperatures quite enjoyable. When these are replaced with dust and gravel it’s not quite so nice.
Come sunset we drove a few kms out of town and up a small hill where we could see for miles around and enjoyed a quite spectacular sunset!! Always a silver lining! T
A view of Hughenden from the hill 
Amazing colours