Phew, this travelling caper is exhausting, and we’re only two days in. Our plan for an early morning get away was thwarted by a personalized tour of the van and ‘The Beast’ for one of Roys mates, followed by an almost lost dog and an equally almost lost set of keys. The dog situation gave us a fright, when I looked around to see Alvin strutting around the back yard on his own. A quick look for Bethany failed to locate her on the enclosed verandah, as we launched into a frantic search for her. She was happily strolling about down the side of the house, completely unaware of the extent of the search and rescue operation that had been launched to find her.

In response to all of that, rather than hitting the open road at 10:00AM as we had planned, we rolled out at the now auspicious time of 10:40. So now we’re yet another 40 minutes behind schedule.

With the slight delay, it was pretty much right on midday that we said goodbye to Victoria for the final time for six months and hello New South Wales. Not that you’d know it, apart from the small sign. The scenery doesn’t change and the road surface remains the same poor quality.

We stopped for a quick toilet break in the picturesque town on Bombala. Right on a small tributary it would have made a nice spot for a picnic, had we brought anything to eat. We still haven’t got into the habit of ensuring we have lunch packed yet. A lesson we will have to learn sooner than later, for fear of otherwise subsisting almost entirely on take-away.

Leaving Bombala, the scenery began to get prettier and prettier as we drove through lovely stands of towering (if not trembling) Poplar trees, all in various autumnal shades of green, yellow and orange. With the Great Dividing Range in the background, a million postcards could have been photographed. We stopped briefly for only one.

Poplars by the road side

Looking purposeful.

By a bit after 3:00PM we were reaching the outskirts of Canberra, stopping to again replenish the tanks of ‘The Beast’ before striking out for our planned camp spot for the night. This involved driving straight through the center of Canberra to an EPIC location. Well, the EPIC (Exhibition Park In Canberra) Camp Ground in any case. It’s a large multi-use precinct, part of which is set aside for caravans and camping. For $30.00 a night we can set up the van, plug in to power and water, then kick back talking to the other hippies and toothless campers that seem to inhabit the place.

It actually isn’t that bad, and we felt confident enough to unhitch the van so as to be able to go for a drive. The uneven ground made getting the van off of the tow ball a bit of a chore, but we eventually managed. Then Bec got her latest drive of ‘The Beast’. All of a couple of inches forward to move it away from the drawbar, but a drive nonetheless.

I had been hoping to drive ‘The Beast’ right up to the front door of the capitals parliament, however a series of extremely substantial looking bollards put paid to that idea. I was left instead to park lower down the hill and take some rather abstract shots of ‘The Beast’ with Parliament House barely visible in the background through the trees.

‘The Beast’ at Parliament House

We did at least get the dogs out and let them have a run (and a crap) on the parliamentary front lawn. I guess that’s just their way of voicing their opinion of the current government.

On the way back to the van, we wound our way through some of the back streets of Canberra in an effort to locate a supermarket for dinner and lunch supplies. Navigating this place is an absolute nightmare. We were thankful for ‘Shazza’ our trusty GPS, although she could have located the grocery store just round the corner from the camp ground instead of the one that was miles away and buried down a maze of narrow residential streets. We weren’t to know until it was too late.

Back at the van, Bec started on dinner preparations, while I busied myself with making sure that the van was ready for the night. We now have the loo ready to receive and the idiot box to provide entertainment. Ahh, there we have it, now it feels just like home. We just have to move about somewhat gingerly, as due to the uneven ground, the front stabilizer legs can’t be extended. Definitely no nocturnal athletic activity then. I’d hate to have to explain to the insurance company that the van toppled over because…

Dinner was a special Bec beef stir fry, which went down a treat after another day on the road, with nothing more than a few snacks for lunch. At least we made sure to buy lunch supplies for tomorrow.

With dinner done, and Bec also on dishwashing duties, I settled in to attend to my trip recording chores. There are several log books to complete to maintain a record of all of our kilometers travelled, as well as typing up the days blog entry and updating the Google map. I haven’t even started looking at our photos yet, although to be honest, we haven’t taken too many. The bulk of those that we have taken are of the dogs in various tantric poses on the back seat as we travel along.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.