Day 3 - Through to Roma

It took us rather longer than we imagined to strike camp. The site had a lot of dust which we were trying not to import into the car. We had also left the chairs out over night and we had to wait until the dew had dried off. Today we headed for Roma.

First stop was Wallumbilla where we were trying to find the house where Dell’s mother lived and went to school. We pieced fragments of her stories together about walking over the railway bridge when the creek was flooded. We found a candidate bridge, creek and houses. As we finished taking photos, an elderly lady came out of the end house to sit on her veranda. Against Dell’s inclination, I approached her to ask if she knew Dell’s mother. Yes, she knew Vera Haase well and had been to school with her. The house, which we had not seen, was just round the corner.

We then looked for the church where Dell’s parents were married. We found a building that looked like a church. On closer inspection we realised it was a Masonic hall. Fortunately, Lynette, in Wallumbilla Information Centre was able to confirm with her father-in-law that the building was originally the Anglican Church building. It was amazing luck to find two people with the information we needed.

Our camp site for this stop was Meadowbank 12 Km west of Roma. It is run by Don and Pat Tite. The site is next to their museum farm. The showers and toilets were clean, if a little basic, with a good supply of hot water. Don and Pat have a delightful tradition of ‘Smoko at 4’ when they bring tea and Pat’s baking to the shelter in the centre of the site and invite all their visitors to join them.

We were a lot slicker at setting up camp this time. The slowest part was driving pegs into the stony ground. I was glad I had bought a selection of extra strong tent pegs. Some of those supplied with the tent were too light for this ground. So far we really like our Bedarra tent. It is easy to erect, has plenty of height and lots of well thought out features.

As with Possum Park other campers were very friendly and we joined them round a warm fire for a chat to end the evening.