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There was a magical swirling mist rising off the unseen Basin Creek this morning (OK, call it a fog then, killjoy) when I poked my head out the tent at 06.00, all eager to pack up and get going, but I had to wait until 8.45 for the mist to clear before it was safe enough to venture back onto the highway – not that there was any traffic to worry about. My mud-spattered tent and the soggy ground were reminders of last night’s tempest, but the wind had died down at least and I positively zoomed in to Surat by 11 am, where I immediately stuffed myself with the usual pie/ iced coffee/ energy drink combo. Its a nice little town, Surat, and my positive view of it was hardly diminished by having to repair a puncture in the trailer tube under the awning of the Wagon Wheel café/ hardware/ supermarket (the town’s marquee business) – its an easy job, anyway, fixing a trailer puncture.
And so on to Roma. When you think you’re nearly there, it is still a long way to go. Its a big place – it even has one set of traffic lights (entirely superfluous, in my opinion), uh huh and, btw, also the widest streets per capita of any town in the world, I’d venture to guess – why is nobody else amazed by this. The railyards and cattleyards and industrial areas seem go on for miles (or kilometers even). The biggest cattleyards in the Southern Hemisphere, apparently. Yaddah yaddah. Anyway you’d know what I mean if you’d been there – I was quite bloody exhausted by the time I got into the town proper and made a promiscuous motel choice (its OK, PC-Nazis, I do believe that particular adjective can quite legitimately be applied to the random selection of motels, or any other random selection, for that matter). The quixotically-named Roma Motel, where I stayed for the next 3 nights for some R&R.
Not that there was much R&R to be had in Roma, even on the weekend. Think takeaway Chinese, takeaway KFC and takeaway Jack Daniel and takeaway coca cola and you’ve just about summed it up. I did buy a camp stool though, to replace my beloved Helinox number that got wasted in the fire at Grawin.
Roma. See what I mean about wide (and empty) streets.