Day 7 – Roma

 

A cool start to the morning but the glorious sunshine soon warmed things up. Gaz was not keen for a walk and decided to try to find a mechanic to solve the windscreen wiper issues. The rest of us set off for a stroll around town. We began not far from the caravan park and wandered through a lovely park and came upon a small bridge that crossed a creek. There were miniature train tracks on it. ‘We’d better watch out for trains’, we joked, and then the next thing we knew along came a train! ‘Hop on’, the driver said, so we did and had a lovely tour of the surrounds. Alighting at the Big Rig Railway Station, we finally set off on our walk.

It was a lovely stroll along the creek with some signage occasionally pointing out natural and cultural things of interest. We took our time and detoured via Sandy Lagoon which found us near to the main part of town. We had heard sirens (!) and noticed lots of flashing lights, multiple fire trucks and police cars in the distance. Turns out it was a car crash – hopefully everyone was OK, but it was a bit of excitement for Roma!

Most shops were closed but we found a café, phoned Gaz who drove to join us, and enjoyed a pleasant half hour stoking up on caffeine. Gaz informed us the mechanic can’t see us ‘til tomorrow, (because of the crash), so that’s the plan. We continued our walk while Gaz drove back. We found the Avenue of Bottle Trees, the Biggest Bottle Tree and came upon the train again where the guy stopped and said, ‘Hop on!’ We declined with thanks and headed back to the caravan park. Nice walk – good to get some exercise. I took the opportunity to do some laundry before we headed off in search of a picnic spot for lunch.

How lucky were we? We arrived at the Roma Bush Gardens to find that a group was just vacating the undercover picnic table, so we set up there. It was a very pleasant spot for a picnic, ably provided by Pen & Gaz, and then the walkers of the group, (everyone except Gaz), set off to circumnavigate the billabong (?), lagoon (?), pond (?) … well, whatever it was. This was also very pleasant, and we came upon a local who gave us a very detailed explanation of how casting stones into the water would determine the best place to find fish. This local had a rock in hand but no fishing gear so I can only conclude that he was unsuccessful, or indeed rushing off to get his fishing rod!

One of the ‘games’ on the trip is to break into song if someone says a word that is from a famous song – you get a point each time. I was languishing on zero but got on the board when we discovered a (labelled) Coolabah tree near the aforementioned billabong. My second point is still in dispute because we just drove past The Overlander Motel, and no one actually said the word, but I burst into song anyway. As usual, I think Kev is winning.

After our scrumptious lunch, (even if I say so myself), we set out to look for the famed Roma Clay Mural, finally finding it inside the Roma Cultural Centre. You press a button, and a light and sound show tells you the history of the area and the various industries that make up the Maranoa (see I learnt something!). It was then off for a quick drive by the courthouse made famous when the local jury in the 1800s refused to convict a notorious bushranger and cattle thief because they thought he had done so well to steal 1000 head of cattle and drive them a long way. The judge was outraged and for 2 years there was no court in Roma – the locals could not be trusted!

Wayne, Vicky, Maz & I decided to check out the Roma Saleyards Interpretive Centre – a fabulous facility with film, photos & info on the Queensland cattle industry and the saleyards. The Roma Saleyards are the largest in the southern hemisphere (!) and the logistics are incredible. We were able to walk out to view the saleyards from elevated platforms where they are preparing for a sale tomorrow morning, one which we hope to be able to view firsthand. The massive double decker road train cattle trucks were amazing, and we watched them unloading the cattle into the yards ready to be sorted, tagged etc.

Our pre-dinner entertainment was to attend the Big Rig Sunset Show that told us all about the oil and gas industry in Roma … who knew? It was quite interesting, and we ended up with a souvenir shot glass with port, (or grape juice for me), to sample while we watched a 30-minute movie on the history of the oil and gas industry with some colourful characters thrown in.

Vicky had done a magnificent job with dinner, and we were eating within 15 minutes of returning back to the caravan park – beautiful tender pork fillet and vegies. Another pleasant evening eating together outside with a couple of beverages thrown in and then we all decided it had been a big day and, as we needed to pack to leave tomorrow, we might have a night free from games. Early start tomorrow for the saleyards. Did I mention I did 16,000 steps and 10.4km today ... that's a lot ... for me.