As we head along the Great Inland Way we follow the rail line south. Some of the trains cart coal. With so many wagons we were told each train load is worth $750,000 and we saw at least 4 full trains that day. The one below has cattle.
At Roma we parked at the Gun Club on the outskirts, Highly recommended, with a huge flat parking area on seal.We chose to go on power as we were having trouble lighting the gas on the fridge after we had run out and changed gas bottles. We rang the Jayco (our make of caravan) help line who suggested we blow compressed air across the fire box to remove any dust. I tried my best with a paper funnel but no change in the situation. We also sought advice from the Jayco Journey Facebook page and within the hour Geoff Archie suggested I re-seat the fuses and hey presto we were back in business.
The Gun Club....is yes... a Gun Club with shooting ranges. They regularly hold national shooting events so it is well established with its own bar, laundry, nice clean toilets and showers. We attended a lively happy hour, with five couples only one of which was fair Dinkum Aussies, the rest were blooming Kiwis! In the morning I stretched my yoga mat out on the green grass (a rare sight in drought stricken Queensland) and admired the kangaroo poo around my mat!
This informative sign in the toilets...hmmm they don’t say what the snakes attract!
This is a Bottle tree and Roma is famous for them. I also had my second Magpie attack in 3 days so I was quite glad to say Arrividerci Roma as we headed out towards Miles, which was miles away!
We motored onto Chinchilla and parked out of town at Chincilla Weir, a great spot full of other campers chilling out.
The dam was also very low, but the birds didn’t mind!
Fishing was allowed....well if anyone can a pelican can...
We returned to the park up in the Ipswich Showgrounds, wondering if there would be room as it was Queens Birthday weekend. It was also their Market day and a State Schools Basketball tournament was just finishing, so we were lucky to find a good spot for the night!
My morning walk around the block sort of turned into a walk around the city centre, admiring and photographing a few really nice old buildings.
1859 is the date on the front of this being restored lovely old building.
This old corner Pub is now an Indian curry house.
I’ll bet these walls could tell a story or two.
We headed for the Rhino car wash near North Lakes in Brisbane, to give our new caravan and whole rig its first wash.
Everybody around here assumes you already know how to wash a car using this system....but not me!
This is what’s called “A Tonner”..it’s the modern equivalent of a hotrod, behind the cab is nothing but sleek bodywork covering the rear wheels.
(I didn’t manage to get a photo of the rear as he was moving pretty fast)
But not as fast as this guy, tho he didn’t really know what he was doing, his shoes and clothing also got a wash and wax.
You keep loading coins into the machine and pressing buttons to make suds and more suds.
Sure was a lot of fun, tho for a Scotsman $45 is no small change!
Didn't actually try this one out as the temp outside was well into the 30’s
I returned back to our canopy makers who had missed this little aluminium weld, which we needed it to make the canopy red dust proof (we’ll see!)
There are 5 Chinese guys who do all the cutting, bending and welding of these aluminium canopies. Three of them don't speak English...all of them don't wear safety footwear or ear protection. I mentioned all this to one of them, and he kindly showed me the earmuffs still in the plastic bag!
The only snake we saw on the trip on the footpath in Brisbane was a dead snake...it had been run over hence the straight bit!
Next came the backing into the park up area for the Queensland summer.
Quite a bit of head scratching and to and fro-ing, but we got there tho!
A little pruning of the neighbours tree (with permission)
We had to attach a shorter vehicle to be able to back it under the tree branch...must remember this when we come to the next trip, next year!
I duck taped some foam over the sharp corners
so the new Caravan cover would be protected from the sharp solar panel edges.
This screw traveled on the roof loose for over 1000kms, which is quite a feat!
The caravan cover came with no instructions, so it was the blind leading the blind.
We got there in the end!
So our caravan handover trip is completed. We still have a lot to learn about caravan travel and will take up where we left off when we resume our Australian travels next year.
Till then, take care, be creative and have fun.
Jimu and Christine
