Roma and Amby

The good weather continues to follow us and our time in Roma was no exception. Daytime temperatures are still around 30 to 35 degrees C each day with a slight cooling off in the evenings. On Friday we thought about the weather and our journey so far and we have not seen any rain since our departure from Brisbane in June. One cloud creates a bit of excitement nowadays!!

Roma is situated approximately 500 kilometres west of Brisbane on the Warrego Highway. Historically the region was cattle country but it is now seen as the cradle of Australia’s oil and gas industry. Every second vehicle on the road is a ‘company vehicle’.  It seems the growth in the Roma region has been at the expense of the growth in the Emerald region.

Our few days in Roma were spent mainly on domestics – giving the motorhome a good wash and clean out (red dusk get into the most unlikely places) and stocking up food and other essentials in readiness for the next leg of our journey.  We are doing far more freedom camping now than we were able to do in the first two months of travel so we are having to be more careful with our planning – especially in the management of our fresh water and diesel.

On Saturday afternoon we spent a relaxing few hours at Roma’s Fire and Food Festival. It was similar to our Wine and Food Festivals at home with local wines and food being freely available. We wondered what the ‘fire’ bit was all about until we saw that all the food was being prepared on the bar-b-que.  A very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

We departed Roma this morning and made our way to Amby to catch up with young Laurie Coggins. Laurie and Rod joined the Navy together in January 1966 and have kept in touch over the years. Laurie moved to Australia in 1993 and has lived and worked mostly Queensland area. We had a great 24 hours with Laurie and Dale on their home turf, swapped ‘historical memories’ and experienced a little of the  ‘swinging of the lantern’.

While in Amby we spent an hour or so at one of the local fossicking areas and came away with a couple of nices pieces of ‘petrified wood’. We plan to have them polished up as home treasures.

Tomorrow morning we are back on the road and making our way towards Toowoomba and the flower festival next weekend. There are quite a few places of interest on the way to Toowoomba so we are not planning to get there until this Friday sometime.

We will try and update the blog as we go this week but if you hear nothing from us you will know we have no communications.