Reaching Roma and Visiting Virgin Rock (Springsure)
Tuesday 21st May
My being in denial about Paul going off to Afghanistan
has come to a crushing end and I shed a few quiet tears last night.
We went to the local café and had a bite to eat.
It was probably just as well we didn’t notice the sign
out front until after the event!!!!!
Fortunately we ordered the pies!
Then we headed off to Roma and opted to stay at the
Showgrounds. We decided to take an unpowered site for $11.00.
Paul rang to say goodbye (more quiet tears). He sounded
very upbeat and happy now that all the organisational rubbish is over and done
with. He seems much more relaxed than I. He flew out about 11.00 pm.
Wednesday 22nd May
It is freezing again and raining! I’m sure my toes
are about to drop off. Maybe we should have paid the extra a got the powered
site.
I have now taken to my bed, it is soooo cold. It has not
stopped raining all day. We have spent our day reading, shivering, knitting,
shivering, eating, shivering, watching TV and shivering.
Thursday 23rd May
Because a foggy morning usually heralds a sunny day, I
decided to try out my new semi-automatic washing machine (read plunger that Ron
bought).
I must say, it worked a treat!
We then packed up Indie and headed off. Ron heard on the
radio that in the area yesterday had been one of the coldest May days on
record. It was certainly the coldest day we have had.
We bought supplies, stopped for chocolate éclairs and
coffee by the side of the road and arrived in Injune around 2.00 pm. We pulled
into (861) Injune Caravan Park ($27.50) and set up camp and hung out the
washing. I am not holding out much hope for it being dry in the morning.
Ron decided to have a bit of a rest; his back was a bit
sore and so I went for a walk around town.
While I was at the hairdresser, she told me about a
walking track by the creek behind the caravan park so I walked down there as
well. Turns out it was not so much a creek as a little pond.
It was really pleasant walking as the weather had turned
out to be very mild, so much so, that after we had had our dinner, Ron and I
went for a stroll around town together.
Friday 24th May
The landscape was completely different with outcrops of
rocks and gorges as we skirted Carnarvon National Park.
We stopped at (432) Beazley Park, a day stop only at
Rolleston for lunch.
The local council is quite proud of their rock however
and it is even floodlit at night and does look quite spectacular out here in the
middle of nowhere!
First up, we met Arthur, Lyn and their little dog Molly
from Victoria. Lyn had tripped over the dog and broken her wrist here a couple
of days ago. Fortunately, there is a hospital here and she is going back in a
couple of days, when the swelling subsides a bit more to have a proper plaster
put on so they can resume their travels in their big coach.
Then we were joined by Barb, who will be 80 in July. She is travelling
alone just in a little Corolla car that she camps in.
And finally there was Allan,
an ex truckie, also almost 80, driving a Hino bus.
Talk about diverse people
and diverse transports.
We had a great time swapping
stories for a good couple of hours. Then the sun went down and it turned quite
cold again. We all fled to our respective vehicles and turned in for the night.
Saturday 25th May
We were up, breakfasted and ready to go when we decided –
why? Arthur, Lyn and Allan were staying and they were nice so we decided to
stay as well.
I spotted a butterfly on a nearby gum and went into
nature photography mode.
It was very windy and it was blowing around something
fierce so I decided to grab a picture of Molly instead – at least she was
stationary!
We had new neighbours move in, Keith and Val from
Victoria.
She popped over to see what I was doing and we had a
great old time nattering about knitting and other odds and sods.
He had been gone no more than two minutes when Andre and
his wife Gerry lobbed in and pinched his spot.
They do a lot of fossicking and had some really nice
gemstones, amethyst, garnet and crystals with them. They send them to Thailand
to be cut.
After Allan returned, we all sat together and talked and
shared travel tales.
We got a call from Paul around 4.00 pm. It was so lovely
to hear from him so soon. He sounds great. He rang to check out how we were
going and catch up on last night’s footy with Ron. He couldn’t tell us what his immediate plans
are (or he will have to kill us lol).
After that, Ron and I re-joined our little group of happy
campers and we all chatted for a while and then the sun sank and that was it!
It got quite cold and everyone headed indoors except Ron and me of course. We
braved the elements, had dinner and even sat outside for a while longer. We
spotted two satellites, figured our job was done and headed inside to the
relative warmth of Indie.
Ron has now retired to listen to the footy on the radio
and I will do some more knitting.