Day 100 – Wednesday 27th October 2021 – 198 Km

Packed camp & away before 9am, then just on the outskirts of Roma we were stopped by Police, a very wide load was coming through, it was a house on a truck. The road from Roma to Surat is rolling grasslands on either side of the road, but we don’t see many cattle at all. There is the occasional homestead & the occasional entrance road to a station that we see. There is a bit of traffic coming the other way but nothing passes us at all & we are only travelling at between 80 & 90 km/hr.

Surat is a small town with an interesting history. We stop at the old Cobb & Co Coach house that is now a museum, we have a look through it. They have a very large fish tank in the foyer with lots of native fish local to the area swimming around in it. There is a very comprehensive history of the town, the district plus the role of the Cobb & Co Coach with early transport systems for the outback of Queensland. The museum is very interesting & you could spend all day in there reading it all. In a large back room is a beautifully restored 14 seater coach that was pulled by a team of up to 8 horses dependent upon the load & the road. The Surat Shire Hall is a very impressive building with striking architecture, it is great to see it being cared for as well as it is.

The countryside after Surat is more of the same but the fields change to wheat paddocks, then as we get closer to St George & the Balonne River there are cotton fields. Again hardly any traffic on the highway. At St George we check in to the van park & set up then turn the air-conditioner on, it is 36C & very hot. We have lunch then do some reading, playing cards (Tereza beat me both games) & resting before heading to the camp kitchen for some port, garlic bread & meeting & chatting with some fellow travellers. All very interesting & we get some travel tips for things to see in St George & district tomorrow. Back to the van & a nice BBQ dinner. Another great day.