After what ended up as a kind of faux death march in Carnarvon Gorge, I was more than happy to embark on a cruisy ‘mail run’ through southern Queensland on the way back to the NSW border. First stop was Roma. Roma is a large outback town, about as ‘XXXX’ as you could imagine. The landscape had softened, with the return of more familiar landmarks – McDonalds, KFC and diesel under $2 a litre. With free RV parking behind the Roma Bowling Club and a full weekend of footy ahead, I was giving myself every chance to catch my breath.
One of the tourist attractions is the largest bottle tree…….in Roma. Normally, that would seem a rather empty claim to fame, however Roma is probably the bottle tree capital of Queensland. Every street is lined not with your usual suspects, but with bottle trees. Talk about taking an idea and running with it. They make the point that bottle trees are NOT boab trees by another name, those being confined to WA and Madagascar. Anyway the largest is indeed large and over 130 years old.
With the Sawnnies now in the Grand Final, the road map was on the table. Had to have internet next Saturday and Dalby looked likely – 268klms and six days to get there. I turned left onto the Warrego Highway, free to take the proverbial off-ramp on a whim. My first chance was a little town called Yuleba and Judd’s Lagoon just a few k south. Almost deserted when I arrived mid-morning, I felt a tad guilty for taking the prime position. That didn’t last(lol). It wasn’t until mid afternoon that they started to trickle in.
I hadn’t lit a fire in over three months so I took the camera and a bag for a walk. Found some wood and this butterfly. The portrait option on the camera worked a treat
I spent two nights there and on the second, met a couple of long time campers who had just bought there first van and were getting to know it better. Turns out that David and Deborah had recently spent six weeks hiking around Tasmania, a destination definitely on my ‘To Do’ list. So we swapped hints and stories for all it was worth. They went away with some van ideas and I went away with an itinerary.
Next stop was only 50klms further along, Gile’s Weir again just a little south of Miles. By this time I had officially entered Southern Queensland. The scrub was giving way to farmland. Outback Queensland was now officially in the rear view mirror. The weir is set in a pine forest and the parking area allowed quite a few vans. It was only an overnight stay and just a way point as I wanted to get to Chinchilla the next day.
As far as accommodation went, I was kinda winging it. Just outside of Chinchilla, a largish sign was promoting Old Man Lagoon. It sounded ‘free’, so I took a road out of town and was there in about 10 minutes. Despite the roadside promotion, I had the place to myself. The rain was coming the next day, so I thought I’d better take some pics while the going was good.
The last stop before Dalby was unexpected. I needed to fill some water containers and had already passed two small villages without luck. The little town of Warra loomed up and they had worked hard to pull you over. Rest area, park, loos and most importantly, water.
I was fascinated by the Roll of Honour. The beaten copper and incredible detail of the stenciling and engraving was literally outstanding. I was now moving through cattle country then a little further on, the ripening fields of the wheat belt appeared. A golden carpet stretching away to the horizons on both sides.
Dalby Trailers was my destination as I had forward booked those van springs back at Roma. The truck was somewhere on the road from Brisbane when I checked in, so I found a spot just off the highway near the Condamine River around lunchtime. So many truck drivers tooted me as they went past, I thought something was on fire. However, I suspect that they were just making sure they were disrupting whatever I was doing at the time. Darkness put an end to that.
The next day was a waiting game that I played with shopping, laundry and desk work. I did find out that no space is left uncropped as far as wheat is concerned. This is probably the only racecourse in Australia that has it’s very own wheat crop.
Two o’clock and I’m at the point of leaving yet again without the goodies. One last drive by and on the way there the phone pinged. The springs were still on the pallet when they sent the message.
There was no way they’d be installing them on a Friday afternoon, but that didn’t matter. I quickly parted with the $142.00 and de-parted with the springs. Now I’ve just gotta find someone to fit ’em.
