Heading South

no bananas around here..................................

...................................................plenty of trucks though

not much in Taroom either, but found a shortcut to Roma and saved 100ks....................................

......but saw plenty of these mums and daughters along the way

slowed us down a bit

Plenty of boab trees in Roma, someone must have been obsessed years ago, they were planted in rows all over Roma 

chickens? at the picnic day in Roma  

fire engine for the kids 

 pretty Roma Railway station 

Sunset at our camp--Roma Gun Club

on our way again 

Surat, a favourite place for Cobb & Co 

 

 

moving along, Sharon's turn to drive .....

look at the speedo!

they reckon the fishing is good here, but we took their word for it and kept going

Dirranbandi, interesting place

and plenty of Emus around here 

took a detour to Thallon...............

...................beautiful painted silos 

....................and a pub, not much else

Hebel

Hebel Pub

                                                   it's standing and operating!

 crossing into NSW and getting closer to cooler temperatures, yuk

 

Angledool weir for free camp, fire, drinks and a peaceful night, we were the only ones there

 

this was a beautiful spot, surprising there was no one else here 

 

Lightning ridge for a visit

giant emu made from junk steel

 

Coonamble main street

 

one of the hotels in Coonamble, too big to fit the photo

painted silo on the way out of town 

our next free camp not far after Coonamble

on our own for the night again 

almost missed the photo of sunset 

moving along again 

 

 

stopping at Narrandera showgrounds for the night, getting close to familiar ground and same route to home as last year, might stop for a few days in Shepparton. Time to clean, wash, tidy up the van and car, do some washing and get ready to go home with not too much to do. Hope the weather warms up to come home to. 

Rockhampton

they were waiting for us, they prepared this earlier

 

 

 

Gracemere Caravan park....home for a week

                                                                               

very nice and peaceful park

they were here everyday for a feed 

 

picnic area on the Mount Archer lookout

view of Fitzroy river from Mount Archer

 

 view of Rockhampton from Mount Archer 

charity truck rally through Rockhampton Saturday afternoon, 100's of trucks

 

one of the bridges crossing Fitzroy river in Rocky  

 

 

lookout on the way to Mount Morgan

 

selfie at the lookout

 

 

you got to wonder where 100 years of gold went to......although its a very pretty town, there's no sign of gold now 

view of the open cut mine

main street......near one of the many hotels, I guess these trees got plenty of overnight "watering" over the years

the billy was full of beer and used similar to a baton in a relay and went from pub to pub, the quickest runner and drinker would win if still standing, this tradition is now an annual event in the town.

In the early mining days one of the young guys was sent to get the beer at the end of the day. He had to run along the edge of the cut mine and back again. 

 

no 7 dam, beautiful picnic area 

 

 

pretty old, but not so pretty

one of the many hotels in the town

 

 

looks like  a picture, a perfect building, still impressive

a visit to the Capricorn caves, north of Rockhampton

 

 

 

statues like this are everywhere around this place, they love their bulls

 

 

time to leave after a very pleasant relaxing week