Day 240 / 2014 - Roma to Lightning Ridge

The day after we lost our awning the storms came in with some heavy rain overnight. This tested our water tightness and we are happy to say there were no leaks detected so far. The following day was pretty much gloomy and we spent most of it inside the van. There was one quick walk into town to pick up some bread and milk from Woollies and a brief as time possible spent BBQing some sausages for the evening meal.

Our last day in Roma started to fine up after a day of storms and rain so we went for a walk along the river path which starts at the tourist centre opposite the caravan park all the way into town. Anne had to try out all the brightly coloured exercise machines along the way I just took photos. There is a minature tourist train which runs on 1 and a 1/4 kilometres of track but wasn't running while we were there. 

Next day we left Roma and headed south once again. It was at least a nice fine day and about 3km out of Roma turned onto the Carnarvon Hwy towards St George. We made a stop in Surat about 80km south of Roma. Surat is a small town and was a staging station for the Cobb and Co stage coach services right up to 1924 when Horse drawn gave way to the motorised vehicle as a primary means of transport. As the Coach would come in fresh horses would be prepared and changed over when the coach arrived while the passengers were refreshing themselves for the next leg of the journey. There is a fully restored Cobb and Co coach in Surat's Heritage Museum.

After having lunch we left Surat and headed for St George our next stop. We though about camping at a rest area about 10km north of St George but another storm was forecast and this area was quite exposed to the wind so we decided to stop at the Pelican Tourist Park 2 Km from town.

Once we had checked in and unhitched the van we made our way to the tourist information centre. They suggested we check out the Egg Carvings at the Unique Egg. This was quite interesting where the carver started off with a DVD narrating the history of his life and how he came to St George from Greece. He had been carving these Emu Eggs for over 40 Years and the best parrallel we could draw would be to a Faberge egg. The carver would scrape the layers away leaving only the various shades of the eggs natural colour to depict an image. He then placed lights inside to iluminate the images.

We also visited Riversands winery on the banks of the Balonne River. The Winemaker who manned the cellar was very informative and allowed us to taste each of his wines including a port labelled F.G.P. (I'll leave you to work out what the initials mean). We ended up purchasing 4 bottles a Sem, Merlot, and 2 bottles of Sweet Muscato Annes Favorite.

That night the storms once again came and dumped about 15 mm of rain we were happy we had some protection from the caravan park and not in the open area. Next day was still cold and windy but at least the rain had abaited we were starting to wonder if we had made our way south just a tad to early. It's Annes birthday today and we decided to celebrate by going out for lunch as the evenings weather was forecasted to still be miserable. We tried pub after pub but either they only serve counter meals leaning up against the bar or they were closed.

We finally found a Chinese Resturaunt which was open it look like a Coles Caferteria and was empty and we started to wonder what the locals new that we didn't and did we need to contact the hospital. Well the meal turned out okay and the bottle of sparkling helped soften the suroundings and we didn't need our stomachs pumped. The weather was pretty ordinary so we decided to stay indoors for the rest of the evening.

Next morning the weather was once again clear skys although a little fresh. We packed up and headed south once again and about 5km out of St George we turned onto the Castlereach Hwy and headed towards Hebel. We stopped at a small town called Dirranbandi for a cup of coffee and cake. Like a lot of small towns in Queensland Dirranbandi also has a suffering economy and is struggling to survive. There are a number of shops either forsale or closed down. The main industry here is cotton which relise heaverly on irrigation due to its low rainfall.

Leaving here we drove on through mostly flat plains untill we reached the town of Hebel. Finding the rest area close to town and on the banks of a billabong we decided to stop for the night. At the rest area there was town water and flushing toilets with large flat areas for recreational vehicles of all sizes. Town is proberbly and overstatement as there are only a couple of commercial buildings mainly being the pub and general store. The pub is famous for the tale that Ned Kelly and his gang drank at the bar and that Neds Brother Dan and another member of the gang Steve Hart actually lived here under alias names. Anne and I also fronted the bar and had a drink to old Ned we tips our lid to im.

The pub is pretty much as it was back in the 1900 including old hitching rails still out the front and the inside walls lined with hessian. There has been some modernisation like electric light and refrigeration. John Murray who depicts outback australia has adorned some of the doors and shutters with his art.

Hebel is on the border of Queensland and New south Wales about 60 Km North of Lightning Ridge. Hebel was also known as a checkpoint for customs and stock crossing the border in the years prior to Federation of the states.

Spending the night in Hebel we though was going to be a quiet one as there was only one other van parked on the other side but about 10pm a car and trailer came in presumably to use the toilet. After much yelling and swearing at each other they finally left us in piece once again heading off into the dark night. About 2 am another car rattled in and drove down to the river bank. They were using torches to look for something then after about 15 minutes drove out and off down the highway. We wondered what they were looking for.... proberbly a place to camp we guessed.

Next morning we headed again south crossing the border. Unfortunately there were no parking areas for us to stop and take a picture of us standing in front of the border crossing most disapointing. About 45 minutes later we arrived in Lightning Ridge which is famous for the black opal and a steaming hot artesian pool. We checked into the Opal Caravan Park a new park opened in 2011 and is a member of the Top Tourist chain The park is large and has many drive through sites which are all gravel. The park is only 200 Metres from the Artisian pool. We unhitched and headed into town for a look around. There are a number of tourist attractions such as John Murray's outback paintings. Other attractions we planned to visit was the Chamber of the Black Hands, The Big Opal Mine and the Bottle House.