I'd been planning a mini road trip for a while, or at least thinking about it for a while since the lockdowns lifted and we're able to travel a bit. (Yet as I came to the end of my little road trip Victoria was heading into a "circuit breaker" lockdown)

I thought Canberra is…nice? Well it's a nice drive, or looks it I guess.

I've been up the Hume Freeway several times, up to Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane several times, so I'm familiar with the northwards route out of Victoria.

But I've never taken the M1/A1 – the Princes Highway / Princes Freeway east away from Melbourne.

I mean I've taken the Princes Highway east, but haven't gone so far out that the road would intersect with another highway offering the chance to go north.

Just a three night/four day road trip, a night in Orbost, a night in Canberra, then a night in Wodonga on the way home.

Looking around Canberra I had been intending to go to the National Arboretum, but then saw that at the National Gallery of Australia there was the Botticelli to Van Gogh exhibition.

The National Arboretum is something that can wait, I could do it all in this trip, but I'd rather do one or two things on a road trip and give myself a reason to do another trip.

Not much planning was required for this trip, save for double checking Telstra's mobile coverage which remains a bit patchy along the Monaro and Snow Mountains Highways.

Plus, because this is the age of COVID I needed to download the Service New South Wales app and Check In Canberra app to use their respective QR check in systems. Additionally within 24 hours of travel/crossing into you needed to fill in an entry permit for New South Wales and Victoria (even if you're a returning resident I discovered).

That's I guess the cost of being a responsible traveller during the age of COVID.

No need to plan or worry about fuel, there's plenty of petrol stations along the way at all major towns, and a lot of smaller towns.