Yes, we are still alive, and the great surge of icy weather hasn't frozen us yet. Couldn't believe it the other day, was -9 in the van and only 4 in the fridge. We tried to get in to get warm but no luck. Yes, I know, you are full of it.
We have now left Roma and have been at Dalby for a couple of days. The morning we left Roma it was beautiful sunshine and definitely T Shirt weather. On the trip Deb commented how good the road was, so I had thought about pulling over and getting her to drive for a while. Just as those thoughts came into my head, I could see flashing lights way up ahead. As we got closer, it was 2 police cars escorting a wide load. The load took up the entire road surface and we had to get off the road. The only place to go was down a bit of an embankment. To say that Deb was a little bit concerned as we went down the embankment would be an understatement. Piece of cake. Never even looked like tipping over. Suffice to say, there was no longer any thoughts of Deb driving that day.
We stopped about half way, in the little town of Miles, for a coffee. Checked out the information centre, and got a photo of the bottle tree out the front. Not the regular type of bottle tree but quite novel. It was then on the road again and into the town of Dalby. This is a bit bigger than the places we have stayed lately, a population of about 12,000. After setting up, it was down to the information centre, but alas, it was closed. Obviously they don't have visitors on Saturdays.
We got some brochures from the caravan park and rested up for the rest of the day. It was then down to the information centre on the Sunday, but, you guessed it. They were closed. I will concede that it was just after midday, but we still expected it to be open.
On our drives around the local roads, you can see lots of cotton wool on the sides of the road. The paddocks have a fairly short stubble, with small amounts of cotton also in the paddocks. We have done a bit of research and of course, we will share it with you, in brief. The cotton takes between 4 to 14 days to germinate after planting. After another 5 weeks the first flower buds appear, similar to Hibiscus flowers. In a nutshell, these plants continue producing flowers for the next 3 or 4 months. The flowers change from white to pink, to red, mauve or purple and the petals start falling off. Seed capsules then develop and after about 6 weeks the pods burst open and the cotton appears. A tractor similar to a header is used to pick the cotton. The cotton then goes into huge cotton factories, called cotton Gins, where another process is undertaken to remove all grit, seed pod bits and sticks. Every part of the cotton plant is used, the seeds are used for oil, plastics, cosmetics and margarine as well as for next years planting. The lint is transported to other countries to further spin the cotton and the final waste part can be used in making ethanol or in products that clean up oil spills. And there endeth the lesson. Sorry no photos as wrong time of the year.
We did our own exploring after that. Headed out to check out the Dingo Barrier Fence. This was completed in the mid 1950s to protect the sheep and cattle from the dingoes and wild dogs of the outback. When it was initially erected, it went for 5600 klms and was the longest man made fence in the world. The starting point for the fence was just out of Dalby and it extended through southern Queensland and through New South Wales and South Australia. Over time, of course, parts of the fence fell into disrepair and it has now been shortened to just over 2100 klms. This fence is now maintained by 8 crews of workers on a full time basis.
Next on our tourist trail was to check out a little shack called Jimbour. The original homestead at Jimbour was built in 1840, but obviously as the price of livestock improved, so did the size of the house. The Jimbour station was the largest cattle/sheep station at the time, and with lots of workers required to work the station, they also built workers quarters and a chapel, to be used as a school/picture theatre/church services. The chapel is still to this day used for church services. The magnificent house, in its current form was built in 1874.
The sprawling gardens are a delight to walk around. They have huge trees, possibly fig trees, surrounding the house, as well as a couple of fountains and a delightful swimming pool. At the rear of the house they have their own air strip and a plane in a very secure hangar. The owners of the house allow tourists to stroll around the gardens, a great pleasure for us. They also have a stage erected at the bottom of the garden, where the gnomes are, and on a yearly basis the Queensland Opera company come out and perform an opera in the open air. That is a truly fantastic gesture by the owners, as it is a free concert. The last concert attracted a crowd of 4,500 people. Pretty good, as it is out in the middle of nowhere and about 20 klms from Dalby.
Come Monday morning, we tried again for the information centre. Hooray, it was open. Alas, it wasn't really worth the wait. We picked up a lot of info about the next couple of places we are heading, but not much about Dalby. About the only place worthy of our auspicious presence was a tiny town called Bell. Sounded about the best on offer.
After a gentle cruise of 39klms we pulled into the huge town of Bell. The population is about 500. We completed our drive of the town, about 10 streets, all about 100 metres long, and were slightly under impressed. It was time for a bit of divine intervention, so we pulled up outside the Bell Catholic Church. It was a very pretty yellow weatherboard building in quite good condition.
It was quite unusual, but the church was actually open. As we walked in, we were both truly amazed at what a beautiful church it was. The altar was really striking and just looking around the walls, what a great sight. All of the walls had paintings of a religious theme on them. They were painted by a local artist, Meg Cullen, and were really inspiring. I found myself just staring at these wonderful works of art.
We then walked into the garden next door, where there is a biblical garden. This was just amazing. Every plant in the garden had some mention in the text of the bible. There were numerous mosaics around the garden as well as wooden crosses, all signifying a different part of the journey of Jesus and the cross. There are fallen crosses at parts where he fell, right up to a wire sculptured piece of him on the cross. Photos just don't do it justice. It was a really amazing garden. Changed my opinion totally of the town of Bell.
It must have inspired Deb as well, as before getting back into the car, she had to go and have one final look inside the church. Well worth the trip.
It was now time for a trip back into town for a coffee and relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will go and check out the little pioneer museum across the road from the caravan park, but not much else planned. After that it will be into the big city of Toowoomba.
Bye for now
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