After one night in Brisbane we headed out west to Ipswich then to Toowoomba, after stocking up with goodies in Toowoomba we headed off towards Roma, then north to Emerald.
Thirty years ago Roma was just a little one horse town, but, now with a lot of mining going on it has come to life as with most towns in the area everything is booming.
Our Plan was to head to Longreach and take in Carnarvon Gorge en route, I had been past Carnarvon Gorge turn off about 30 years earlier, but, because we were the scout vehicle in a Military convoy. One could not just wonder off so I had never been in to see the actual gorge.
The road into the Gorge was good except for the last 19 k, and with a lot of traffic heading out to the area, the road was in a real bad state.
The Gorge has some very interesting sights, it is a 9 klm bush walk out and 9 klm walk back. We started our walk at about 230pm in the heat of the day, as we wanted to get back well before dark . As we walked several people were coming back, one person was a woman who asked us how far we intended to go as she was interested in our wefare. We told her about another one K and she said that there was not much to see unless you walk a lot more distance. On walking a little further and decided we better return a I was starting to get a little weary after my hospital stay a couple of months ago.
We have been to the Grand Canyon twice and were pretty sure that the Carnarvon Gorge would be no match. but, it would have been nice to walk the 18k. and take it all in.
From the Gorge we headed to Emerald to stay for the night.
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| Boab Trees in Roma |
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| Roma |
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| Shop front Roma |
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| Birds in Cherry Boys back yard |
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| a town called Injune north of Roma |
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| I'm off to Maccas next week |
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| Carnarvon Gorge |
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| Aircraft crash site |
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| Crash site |
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| Cattle being driven by Drovers |
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| Drovers |
It was a early start from Emerald heading towards Longreach, the best thing was that there was only a few trucks on the road. Most vehicles we encountered were vehicles of all descriptions towing vans , but, the road was littered with road kill, which made one keep a good lookout for Roo's. and wild pigs. Kangaroos are mainly on the move during the night and one expects to see lots of them at dusk and dawn that's when they are out looking for water, however, in broad daylight and only 40k out of Emerald one bounced across right in front of us, the problem being in a hire camper any damage is classed as a single vehicle accident, which means you pay for any damage. When we drove out of Longreach returning towards Emerald Teresa counted 60 dead Kangaroos on the road in 35 klm of driving. Wicked Campers have a policy of no driving in the outback during dawn to dusk to avoid damage to there campers. As we headed towards Longreach we stopped at several small towns to see any points or things of interest and at Longreach the main attractions are the Qantas museum and the Stockmans hall of fame. Longreach was a real buzz with people out and about in town. The two caravan parks were full and a free camp area about two Klm out to the west of town was filling up fast. We were told you can use the showers at the swimming pool for a small fee $2.50PP so we decided to go and have a shower before deciding if we were going to stay at the camp area just out of town. I paid the money and went in for a shower, There was no privacy what so ever, the four showers were all side by side in one big open area. Teresa told me that the female showers were all single showers with walls and door.. We had seen the town and the attractions so decided we would start heading back towards Emerald as there were plenty of places to stay overnight in our style of camper. I guess our visit to Longreach was short, but, we had seen the attractions and thought we could see plenty of other sights if we got under way as we had to follow the same route back to Emerald before cutting across country to Bowen. 
