Early on in our winter trip, at Wandoan, we had shared a camp fire and several glasses of wine with a couple who had rented out their farm in Victoria to travel around Australia for 5 years. They were heading off the following day for Roma to visit the cattle sales, the largest in the country processing half a million cows each year. So when we noticed we would be passing very close to Roma as we wended our way slowly back towards New South Wales, we decided to have a look.
We needed to start putting a few more kms between stops so drove 3.5 hours to Yuleba and set up camp at Judds Lagoon, planning to drive into Roma in the morning. The campsites in Roma itself had not looked very appealing but we did need to find a place where we could happily leave the caravan unattended all day, Yuleba was a free camp and seemed to fit the bill with enough campers around to make the place feel safe but not so many as to make it feel crowded (we don't like anywhere too peopley these days).
It was the fifth day of the final Ashes test so we hoped to be able to listen to the coverage and were dismayed to find no coverage at Judds Lagoon even though a huge Testra tower was positioned just outside the entrance and Wikicamps had said there was good mobile coverage there. We discovered later on the trip that there had been a massive Testra outage so we would not have been able to see the cricket wherever we were. It was a top spot however, camping among the trees on the banks of the lagoon with plenty of spaces for camp fires and even bags of wood for sale with an honesty box. Apart from the single drop toilet being very smelly indeed, it was a good choice.
On the journey to Yuleba we had travelled along one of many country roads which are essentially just a strip ot tarmac the width of one vehicle laid along the centre of a much wider dirt road. When another vehicle approaches from the opposite direction, the protocol is to both move aside and put one set of wheels on the dirt while the vehicles pass each other. Ian bought a CB radio for this trip and we have enjoyed being able to talk to the massive trucks as they pulled up close behind us to let them know we would move out of the way as soon as safe to do so. There has always been a sticker on the rear of our caravan saying what channel we were on so, for the seven years we have had the van prior to owning our CB, I can only imagine that truck drivers have been radioing us and yelling at us to get the f**k out of the way while we have been happily oblivious.
We got up early and drove 60kms to the Roma Saleyards. The road in was only one lane each way and used constantly by road trains which made it a little unpleasant but worth it to reach the cattle sales. The set up was amazing, unbelievably huge with hundreds of pens full of cattle as far as the eye could see. They had made a real effort to make the operation accessible to tourists. There was an excellent visitor information centre and cafe with walkways above the cattle pens so visitors could watch the auctions and see all the cattle without getting in the way. Nobody seemed to mind Harvey being there but we kept him away from the livestock and took it in turns to go and watch. The auctioneer was accompanied by couple of helpers, including one with a huge paintbrush and bucket of yellow paint. They would move along a platform on one side of the first pen while potential buyers moved along a platform on the opposite side, each cow would be pointed out, auctioned, when sold a splodge of yellow paint was daubed on its back then the whole party moved on to the next one. It was all very quick and soon the newly purchased cattle were being loaded into trucks and going off to their new homes.
The town of Roma was fun too. It was a big town with bottle trees lining the streets. We had heard about a shop which was apparently a must see, the Ace Drapery Store No.2. There were several Ace stores but number 2 was the best. There were boxes piled up both inside and outside the windows (a bit like Hartex in South Harrow but on steroids). They sold everything and I mean everything. The customers squeezed down the aisles between mountains of assorted stuff and of course the owner knew where everything was but the most astonishing was the fabric aisle with thousands and thousands of bolts of every kind of fabric you could imagine, fantastic. We finished off our day with a quick visit to Roma's largest bottle tree then back to camp.
After all the excitement of Roma we needed to make some progress south so decided to head for the Nindigully Pub which seems to be a bit of a pilgrimage for caravanners. A dirt road took us into Surat covered in red dust, there is a sign as you come into the town asking trucks to stop and let some of the dust drop off before entering the town. Surat was nice, on the original Cobb and Co route with a very informative visitor centre and Cobb and Co museum. When we stopped for coffee someone pointed out that we had a cable trailing and we had destroyed the plug on the end of it so we diverted to St.George where we were able to buy a replacement. St.George was a bit ordinary but served its purpose and we were soon on our way again.
The Nindigully Pub was built in 1864 and is preserved as originally built. The camping was in the huge dirt car park surrounding the pub and was packed, a donation got us toilets and showers and a spot to park. We had dinner in the pub garden which was pleasant but not really to our taste (very peopley) and the place had really got the hang of cashing in on its name. There were t-shirts, hats, stubby holders, fridge magnets, you name it, they had printed Nindigully Pub on it and were selling it by the shedload.
Fantastic showers at Nindigully before we drove 30 minutes to Mundingi which straddles the Queensland/NSW border. We free camped on the banks of the Barwon River which was in Queensland and the town was in New South Wales. It was a wonderful place to stay with toilets and BBQs and amazing gnarley trees full of kites, it was like being back in Rickmansworth where the kites would constantly circle above. Still no budgies but we saw some beautiful kingfishers and herons and Ian finally caught a fish, only a little yellow belly but a catch all the same. The town was lovely too and had a great sculpture trail which led visitors all through the neighbourhood. We would stay in Mundingi again for sure.
After excellent egg and bacon rolls in Flocks Cafe in Mundingi we headed south to Attunga which was truly horrible so continued for a last stop in one of our regular overnighters the First Fleet camping area in Wallabadah. We were away for a month altogether and found some fabulous places to stay. Queensland had really pulled out all the stops with the new free camping areas and I hope we will be back to try some different ones next year.
