Failure is always an option.

I see things, even failures as learning experiences, as even if it's a mistake, or something like that, there's something to be gained from the experience, even if it's just not to do it again, and to know what not to do.

Some time ago, when I did a road trip to Perth and back I stayed the night at Border Village, at one of the worst motels I've ever stayed at. It was a partitioned demountable, and...it left me feeling somewhat out of sorts, just...it was clean, more or less, but left me feeling just out of sorts. It didn't ruin the trip for me, and I had a few more stops between it and home. But it did change where I stayed the following night, and it shaped the decisions of where to stay going forward.

Recently I had intended to go to Canberra, I've never been in the winter and thought it'd be an interesting experience, alas it wasn't meant to be.

I booked an tiny house airbnb 'Tiny Baxter' - out at a winery opposite Lake George.

It's one of those that are based on a trailer chassis, for all good reasons I understand, cost and council permits; those two affect the costs of things like that. I know enough about permits, costs and all that to know why decisions like that are made.

I'd stayed in a tiny house on my last venture to Canberra, but that one was rather more permanent than 'Tiny Baxter'.

The failings of this trip are mostly in my court, as I knew some of the failings of the location before going.

And I learnt some things about myself.

In my past longer road trips 8-9 hours I knew was the absolute maximum for one day's driving.

I now realise that 8 hours is the absolute hard max especially on a poor night's sleep.

After an absolutely poor night's sleep at the tiny house, a persistent headache and...I just couldn't go ahead with anything I'd planned.

I didn't have anything pre-booked, aside from the accommodation, so I decided to count this as a loss, and a learning experience and return home, there is no point in pushing through if you're not going to enjoy things. A road trip, holiday or what not isn't something to force through. I was looking at experiences, seeing things and if I'm not going to enjoy it, then I shouldn't push myself through it.

Day 1 - On the way up

I stopped more times than I have in the past going along the Hume Freeway, more breaks that I had felt I needed in the past.

I knew I wanted to stop at Maccas Yass on the way there, just because I didn't want to cook that night, I'd brought two meals with me to cook at my accommodation, and figured the first night could be an early meal at Maccas.

I also knew that I didn't want to be arriving at the accommodation in the dark, not just because of the difficulties of arriving in the dark, but also the roads to get from the Hume to Lake George went through farming country with a some scrub and bush land throughout; I had no desire to hit a kangaroo in the twilight of an evening. Which shaped what time I needed to leave from home etc.

Arriving it looked as it did in the photos, and the first thing I did after brining in my bags was to turn the reverse cycle on; a Euromatic reverse cycle, which as the compressor turned on the side of the tiny house vibrated a bit, not exactly the smoothest of processes.

Making myself a cup of tea I took in the space. I had assumed, as at home that the aircon would be able to push out a decent amount of heat before turning off, alas not, I cranked the temperature up to quite a high state, and it did heat the bedroom area quite effectively, but the downstairs area less so.

The bathroom was fine and present, and the toilet was an experience.

A composting toilet, again it's something I knew about, having watched enough tiny house videos on YouTube to have heard all about a composting toilet, and had read the listing, or others like it.

A convenient way to not have to deal with sewage, septic tank or the cassette toilet that comes in some motorhomes. The reality is rather less ideal, there's a fan somewhere in the back that's obviously keeping air around it circulating and a box of wood shavings that was used to cover up your 'deposits', and an enzyme water to spray on everything to keep it all moving, the enzyme water was distilled water and vinegar.

There was only half roll of toilet paper on the toilet roll holder, I hunted through all the cupboards and couldn't find any more in the whole tiny house.

I would describe a composting toilet as a long drop toilet, made small, it's marginally better than that. Although sitting onto it, it's all plastic so there's quite a creaky feeling to it.

With a headache coming on, and pretty tired from the drive all I wanted was to pop some panadol and have a hot shower to wash away the day's driving and relax in time for an early night.

I had read the instructions messaged to me; that the hot water sometimes take a little time to turn on, and to wait. I took some panadol, hopeful of a warming shower while it acted.

So I turned it on and waited, and it remained cold, I waited some more, and it didn't.

So I turned it off, and waited the then turned it on, and waited again...and nothing, just more and more cold.

Bathroom sliding door that would trap fingers as I closed it.

I didn't want to go to bed dirty from the day's driving, I really wanted to try and ease my headache which was approaching a migraine level of pain. I'd already tripped up (and down the stairs) in my dazed tired state.

Now, I texted my hosts, as the messages from Tiny Away (the management that ran the tiny house) kept insisting I text them rather than it all going through the app, which seemed counter to airbnb's policies of the past, that it all should go through the app so it was all recorded, but whatever.

Texted them at a bit past 7:30 pm, it would turn out I wouldn't receive a message until 6 am the following day. (Thankfully I left my phone in do not disturb)

I made myself another cup of tea and turned the heater up a bit more, to not much warmth where I was sat on the sofa.

I found while sat there a door snake, which I realised was necessary as there was a little gap between the door and floor of the tiny house which did let some cold in, or heat escape whichever, I pushed that door snake in there.

So I sat looking at airbnb and other accommodation offerings nearby, but unfortunately I was quite in the middle of not very much, and had little desire to drive off in a huff in the middle of the night.

But I did think about it, and acknowledge that it's a trait of mine to just up and go in a bit of a huff. However I was determined to try and make it work, and as the panadol slowly ebbed away the worst of the pain I did continue to look around for other accommodation, I thought 'maybe I could make the trip work, just elsewhere tomorrow?'.

Going along with it all I looked elsewhere, but it had taken me a while to plan and plot how I was going to do this trip to be comfortable and everything, and now I was trying to do it in a tired state, in an amount of pain.

As I started to realise my mood was turning sour I had mostly decided that this would be a one night thing.

View down from bed area

Looking up from couch to bed area

I decided to try the hot water one final time, turning the shower on there was nothing, just more, and more, and more cold water, but at this point I had become fed up and worried less about the waste of water, so let it go for much longer than the previous attempts.

Then, I felt a little change in the atmosphere of the bathroom, ...yes, a bit of hot water started to flow, good. I texted the host apologising for my previous text and also sent a message to Tiny Away also apologising for my annoyed tone.

Showering I could feel some circulation and warmth coming to my fingers as I showered, having sat in the cold lounge area of the tiny house while I typed away trying to find an alternative.

Finishing the shower and donning my PJs I went up stairs, grabbing my water bottle and the foil packet of panadol, just in case. It had now been 2 hours since I'd taken it, and I hoped I would be able to get to sleep, I still hoped, maybe I would find a solution and be fine tomorrow.

Lying down in bed I suddenly became aware of the traffic noise from the Federal Highway.

Again this is something I knew of from the reviews of this particular tiny house, one of the reviews had mentioned the noise outside but inside was fine.

It wasn't.

I can deal with traffic noise, that's not inherently the problem, it's the uneven sounds of droning or whatever it was, along with the low frequency engine breaking noises that were somewhat disruptive.

I had noticed the noise driving along, something about how the road had been laid means vehicles make a slight droning noise in parts, and this was quite prevalent at night as trucks drove along it, sometimes from the sound of it using their engine brakes too.

No matter I thought, I'd just put a podcast on and drift off.

Then, maybe an hour later I needed to go down for a pee. I nearly fell down the stairs again in my bleary half dozy state, going back up the stairs I stubbed my toe and crawled into bed, hoping the residual heat would stay, but alas no, I had a cold nose which would not go away, but I tried, and then relented and put the heater back on.

Bathed in a blue light from the aircon and plastic walls.

Now the tiny house was bathed in blue light from the front of the aircon which displayed the temperature on the front of the aircon head unit. Combined with the sound of the aircon, and the traffic noise I lay in the bed.

Now I was just waiting, in pain until the four hours were up so I could take another of the panadol, hopeful there would be some respite from the pain. (Tip for those in pain and taking stuff like panadol, set the stopwatch on your phone, that way you can hit lap, so you can keep track of how much you've taken over a period of time)

After getting to a half sleep for some hours I had to pee again, and again nearly fell down the stairs, crawling back into bed, I got some sleep.

Day 2 - Cancellation and return

Awakening again this time around 6 in the morning I tried to return to some further sleep.

The Tiny House just prior to my departure.

I had by this point decided to cut my losses and go home, count this as a learning experience and re-plan and decide what to do, and what I would do differently this time.

I was going to cancel the reservation just before I departed, but decided, mostly because I could see the hosts' house from the tiny house and in case I was delayed departing didn't want the possibility of confrontation and query. Instead I drove down the road, pulling into a rest area overlooking Lake George and then hit cancel on the reservation, alas no refund for it. I knew there'd be no refund when I booked it, so there was no real annoyance or complaint there.

The drive home was...not great. Still some pain from the night before, a headache combined with neck pain from a poor sleeping position.

I had to have a few power naps on the way back, those signs that say 'yawning take a power nap now' or 'tired eyes' etc, they seemed more prevalent, more insistent than in the past, or perhaps just more relevant to me this time.

I heeded their warnings nevertheless.

It also seemed there were more, better sign-posted rest areas along the Hume, with blue 'Exit' signs into rest areas, contrasted against the green 'Exit'-the freeway road signs.

I stopped at Holbrook to look at the submarine, well actually if I'm honest it was to pee and stretch my legs a little bit. There were half a dozen other cars of people doing the same.

Used to be Holbrook was the last town yet to be bypassed, I'd driven through there several times in the past going to Canberra or further north, now it looks a lot quieter.

As I towards the Western Ring Road, Google Maps informed me of the increasingly congested traffic situation. My power naps having pushed back my arrival to Melbourne's outskirts from 'just before peak hour' to 'around peak hour', which was unfortunate.

I tend to plan meticulously for my road trips, right down to writing notes for myself, even if I don't actually look at them at rest stops etc, it's having planned them enough. But then I also put it into Maps, just so I have an estimated arrival time etc.

But now, this time I put my hands in Google Maps' hands, just because the alternative offered would be 45 minutes faster than going along the Western Ring Road, Tullamarine Freeway etc. Got to see various examples of Victoria's "big build" projects as I skirted around the congested areas.

Now having returned home I am planning a new different trip to Canberra, either doing as I had the last time I went to Canberra, in between the lockdowns of 2021, or perhaps staying outside Canberra, further out than I did this time, while still a reasonable distance to the capital.