road trip

Canberra 2023-08 -4- Return

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I awoke and remained in bed, having gotten to bed pretty early the previous night, but not quite ready to arise at whatever o’clock it was (it was about 5 am), and decided to roll over and try to sleep or watch some YouTube or something.

Eventually I dragged myself out of bed into the quite cold space of the guest house. The fire had gone out I'd messed up the air intake on the fire; closed it a little bit too much down it seemed, leaving a bit of an unburnt log within. However the small oil-filled bar heater was only just keeping back the worst of the cold.

The previous night I had already tidied away everything I could. I have a separate dirty clothes bag to my clean bag, so that was waiting near the door for my PJs to go in before being chucked in the back of my ute. I'd boxed up my snacks container that contained snacks, biscuits, tea, sugar, my mug and emergency trangia as well. My remaining clean clothes were in my Big Bull roll-up bag.

Quickly dressing and re-packing everything I made ready to leave, getting my bags and other stuff out into my ute I firstly marvelled at the frost that was on my ute’s tray, and then realised the large amount of frost on my ute's windscreen would actually need melting before I left.

Starting my ute I sat with the windscreen de-mister / heater on full power for more than 10 minutes as I waited for the frost to melt to enough depart. According to my ute it was -3º outside. 

I think this might be the coldest I’ve begun to drive in.

When I was in Tasmania it definitely got cold enough to snow while I was driving, but not so still and cold. 

It certainly felt quite cold as I waited for things to start to defrost. 

Then after enough time had passed to warm the vehicle enough to get the wipers to free the frost I departed. 

Within Canberra it wasn’t too bad, I’m not sure if that’s what passes for peak hour, but none of the traffic had gotten to a stop, or stop start sort of position, all of the traffic was moving pretty well.

I had to get from Beltana Road, Pialligo to the start of the Barton Highway in Lyneham.

The route (the same as I took to get to the AirBnB on Monday) was Fairbairne Avenue, past the War Memorial and onto Limestone Avenue, along that past some nice examples of Australian inner-surburbia architecture and then left at Wakefield Avenue. Crossing the tram tracks onto Northbourne Avenue and then north up to the Barton Highway.

Then it was just a case of following the Barton Highway all the way until it met the Hume Freeway.

However, leaving Canberra on the Barton Highway I encountered one of the least comfortable conditions to drive in; fog. Thick fog.

Can’t really do anything about fog, and especially on the Barton Highway which is undergoing upgrade, so there’s very few safe places to pull over.

And really unlike really heavy rain, which you can pull over and wait for it to pass (I have done so in the past when I’ve not felt safe), fog isn't going to disappear quickly, unless there's a breeze or a sudden burst of sunshine to get it moving, and there was not a lot of either this morning.

As got further along the Barton, thankfully the fog did start to lift.

And once the Barton became a separated road with a median strip it had pretty much entirely lifted. 

Entering onto the Hume I stayed on it for long enough to get to Yass, where I stopped at the McDonald’s in Yass for breakfast. 

A little over 180 kilometres later I stopped at the Little Billabong Rest Area, to pee and have a little bit of a walk and stretch. Without having taken photos and it being geotagged I’m not sure if I’d actually be able to say where it was that I stopped. 

I had decided that I would not be driving to the end of the Hume Freeway, and would not be using the Western Ring Road to come home. Given the experience of my last return from Canberra and my general dislike for the Western Ring Road I elected instead for the B300, the Melba Highway and other related roads.

The B300 is rougher, I think it’s gotten worse since the last time I drove on it. It is a much more visually interesting drive however, going through townships, past paddocks, abandoned farm houses. Driving past bodies of water, and changes of elevation. 

I stopped at Bonnie Doon, mostly as I was stuck behind someone doing just under the speed limit, although not quite enough to overtake safely.

I took some photos, stretched a little bit and had a bit of a snack and a little drink of water before returning to the drive home. 

On the Maroondah Highway, approaching Ringwood was the only place were the traffic got really heavy, which was surprising as I didn’t think it was quite peak hour time just yet at around 4:00 pm ish.

If you're on the Maroondah Highway heading for EastLink at the turn off for the Ringwood Bypass stay in the left-most right turning lane when you're turning on and stay in that lane. Otherwise you'll have to get from other lanes into that to get onto EastLink, in heavy traffic that's going to be more tricky. 

My day finished, at home, having left Canberra decently well rested, I hadn't needed to take any power nap breaks like the last time. Yes, I was tired after the drive, but not as much as I had been the last time. And especially so, that I hadn't needed to contend with the Western Ring Road, and associated roads in the midst of peak hour upon my return.

Canberra 2023-08 -4- AirBnB Pialligo Guest House

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After my rather terrible experience in a tiny house on my last (attempted) trip to Canberra I knew when booking for this trip what I didn't want was a tiny house, or a the very least not a clinical almost hotel set up of tiny house thing.

Located within an orchard this AirBnB was located in Pialligo, a suburb of Canberra seemingly wedged between the Molonglo River and Canberra International Airport.

I did harbour a little bit of concern for the aircraft noise, it being so close, but it was hardly a concern.

The AirBnB host provided detailed instructions on how to get there and how to find the guest house.

Fire lit, on the second day.

Arriving in the late afternoon I entered the guest house, knowing that there would only be heating provided by the fireplace and a small column heater. But was pleasantly surprised, especially compared to the tiny house, because inside was surprisingly warm, especially compared to outside. Even though it had concrete floors (covered by cow hide rugs), it managed to not feel freezing underfoot.

In the photos it had looked bohemian, and in person it did, but in the best possible way. Quirky interiors, along with considered curios and the furnishings made this place feel loved and lived in at the same time.

The bedding on the bed had this soft, well used feel to it, kinda reminded me of the table cloths and other stuff I've got at home that was my mum's. That's been through the wash hundreds of times and has this really soft texture to it. Made me feel welcomed.

I really wish I’d come here first than going for that tiny house experience on my last attempt.

Wifi was provided and a decent speed, over 50 mbps down.

My first task was to light the fire, knowing that the column heater was not going to heat the space, it did heat the bedroom space decently well.

But the wood burning heater would be the only source of heat while I was there.

I’d not lit a fire myself for a long time, although my dad used to have a wood burning heater a lot growing up, so I do know how to do it (and when I was in Tasmania I had one there). But doing it growing up was always with newspaper and sticks. 

Here all that was in the wood burner was sticks, a pine cone and a fire lighter. I think dad never went for fire lighters because they cost money, and the newspaper was free.

Anyway, I lit it, messed around with the wood burner’s controls to get the air flow right…and almost didn’t get it lit. I had to chuck in an extra pine cone and an extra fire lighter. But eventually got it lit and it warmed the room up.

I’d brought meal I'd frozen with me, and along with a microwave rice tub and some frozen veg that I’d brought with me, sat down for an early meal before having a shower and bed.

Wonderfully large shower head.

I'd ensured to bring a bathrobe with me, just in case it was really cold, given my past experience out at the Lake George tiny house. But showering that evening the shower head was large the water gloriously hot and and I slept perfectly fine. The noise of the aircraft barely a worry.

On day 2, the second full day of being there I awoke to a fairly cold room, the column heater, which I'd left on low overnight, aware that while I'd chucked a bit of wood on the fire and set it to low, was pretty sure it wasn't going to stay lit. 

I could hear the aircraft at Canberra airport this morning and it was noisy, but not terribly so. 

I found it weirdly comforting for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. 

After being out at Old Parliament House and buying some food I returned to the AirBnB guest house in the afternoon to write up my thoughts of the day.

I made myself a cup of tea. There was tea provided, a pretty good assortment of herbal and regular teas, instant coffee (and I think ground coffee in the fridge). But I always travel with my own tea bags, and sugar. So many places just have brown sugar on hand. 

The main living space and edge of kitchenette.

I've found that there's something comforting to have your own tea with you when travelling. I've also got a collapsible kettle in my ute, but it's all sorts of terrible, I had it with me in Tasmania. Motels are especially bad for terrible condition electric kettles. But at this guesthouse it was in perfectly fine condition.

As the afternoon wore on I knew I'd need to light the fire before afternoon transitioned into evening.

Stacking up the fire with a pine cone and sticks around it I thought I had done a decent enough job of having enough sticks and other combustable things around to get the fire going in order to take a log that was provided. 

And...not quite, it wasn't terrible but I did have to chuck in more sticks and an additional fire lighter in order to get things to properly take.

I was lamenting the lake of any paper that I could properly build a fire around, just having the fire lighter to get things going felt a little...I dunno. 

As the evening continued I was quite pleased with myself, had a good roaring fire going and it felt nice and warm within. I did have to open the exterior doors to the portico to actually grab some more wood, as the only bits that were left within were huge, and seemed far too big for the remaining of the evening before I retired to bed.

On the third day it was also quite cold, so remained in bed for a bit before throwing myself out of it once the sun had risen suitably enough for a chill to slightly come off the air.

In the afternoon having returned from my explorations, and again began to write up my thoughts I turned to lighting the fire once again. 

Wood burner on third night.

This time I put in two or maybe three pine cones, put the sticks around the pine cones to ensure there was enough fuel to get everything going properly...and still managed to screw it up a bit, but only needed a second fire lighter before I could get larger logs into it.

That evening I ensured everything had been washed up and was on the drying rack after dinner (of course I'd been doing this every evening also). 

I had put the food scraps in a container as the instructions said they had chickens, and had intended to put it outside on the portico for them to collect, but forgot and realised after looking through my photos I'd left it on top of a half eaten packet of terrible jam rollettes.

Leaving on my fourth day was the most frigid and cold, and while I had put a sizeable log into the fire, it seemed I had turned down the air intake a little too much and it had gone out while not quite having totally burnt the log within.

Canberra 2023-08 -3- National Museum of Australia

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While I was in Canberra I thought I’d head to the Museum of Australia and visit the ‘Feared and Revered’ exhibition about female spiritual beings in cultural traditions and beliefs across the world.

Unsurprisingly I guess there were lots of women in the exhibition space looking at the exhibits, but it was hardly busy.

It was interesting. It wasn’t the a sort of exhibition that the children outside were being taken to, for starters this was a paid ticket exhibition instead of the free thing that the other parts of the gallery were.

Also there was a statue with a breasts and exposing her vulva so probably not the sort of thing that primary school children would be exposed to.

There was also some Greek pottery with gay acts being displayed.

And a wine cup which amused me greatly, that you’d be having your bacchanalian party and be given this wine cup to drink from, and as you tipped it up you’d see an image of hetaira pleasuring herself with a phallus.

It just seemed like one of those ultimate sort of amusements at a party.

After wandering through the museum, being disappointed that the Landmarks display was closed, from above it looked interesting but I guess something to see next time.

Then having walked around for about 6 hours or so combined between the two locations I decided to return to my Airbnb lodgings, kinda tired and done for the day.

Canberra 2023-08 -3- National Arboretum

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I have been intending to come to the National Arboretum for more than 5 years, and every time I’ve come to Canberra I’ve done something else, and not got around to it. I think it’s like the Strathgordon Dam in Tasmania in that regard, somewhere that’s been on my to go to list for ages, yet each time I'm nearby have not gone to.

So today was the day to actually go there. It was a pretty easy drive from my AirBnB out to  the Arboretum. 

I’d woken early and decided not to get up because of the cold really early, but spent the morning trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast.

In the end I had a little fruit pot from my travelling snacks container for breakfast before leaving, then at the Arboretum I would have…a second breakfast.

Upon arriving I took the longer road up to the arboretum, going to Dairy Farmer's Hill.

Inside the arboretum's visitor centre was a cafe, where I had an egg and bacon roll. Yes, similar to yesterday, but this one was made out of more fancy ingredients. But was less fresh and piping hot than yesterday's offering, with bottled juice.

I sat in the visitor centre for a little bit, just having my breakfast and juice, there was barely half a dozen people in there in the morning.

After this I had a bit of a wander around the bonsai area. 

Then I went down to the STEP (Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park) area. Having paid and parked near the Arboretum entrance I was going to walk down there. But instead decided to drive around to the car park nearby, the ‘overflow car park’. After wandering around here for a bit - I chose this because it was one of the shortest tracks to walk along.

I then went around to the Himalayan Cedar forest.

This was majestic in an odd way, tall forests is not something I see a lot of, so to wander around one, and be safe in one, despite all of established folklore telling me that it’s not safe to wander a path in a forest like this. Here be monsters, or people in red cloaks, or wolves or whatever. Regardless of the fact that the most scary thing likely to be encountered would be a magpie.

I didn’t even see any of those, only saw a handful of people.

It was early-ish in the day.

Notable here is that there’s a toilet and a barbecue area as well, although it’s a decent walk down hill to get to it, but you’re rewarded with a nice view.

I proceeded to walk up to hill towards the 'Wide Brown Land' sculpture.

I took a few more photos around here for a bit before returning to my ute to return to head onto the next destination; the National Museum of Australia. 

Canberra 2023-08 -2- Queen Elizabeth II Island

Returning to my ute from Old Parliament House I briefly considered exploring the tennis courts and nearby parliamentary gardens, but it was currently being utilised by some of the school children that were having lunch. I decided no, I didn’t want to wander around while they were doing that. I remember (very vaguely) being that age and seeing other adults in space that you think you’re inhabiting can be weird. I also didn't want to be confronted by them, children en masse are like ducks en masse. Fine in small groups, but a flock can be intimidating.

So returning to my ute and dropping the windows, as despite the cool weather it was surprisingly warm in the sun.

I had a list of places that I intended to go today and had intended to go and wander the National Gallery. But after 3 hours or so wandering around in Old Parliament House, I was kinda done in the ‘looking at stuff’ mood. 

So instead decided to go to one of my ‘secondary’ options which was Queen Elizabeth II Island and the carillon. Which Google seems to state is temporarily closed, I dunno if the carillon was ever actually open to the public. But it was tolling while I was there.

I’ve also never been on this side of Lake Burley Griffin. Never really wandered around the lake much when I've visited in the past, just went and looked at it from nearby to the National Gallery or elsewhere nearby to there when I've visited previously.

I wandered around the island for a bit, went to the end of it, took in the Kings Avenue Bridge. Sat down for a little bit to enjoy the atmosphere, and seemed to immediately attract magpies, they all came running over. They’re obviously used to people sitting down and eating, one hopping up on the table barely an arm’s length away from me and giving me some bird song.

Australian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae)

I moved on and sat at a different location and sat on my phone for a little bit enjoying the sunshine which at times was almost a little too warm.

I did kind of wonder if I was just a bit more used to the cold, I saw some people in puffer jackets, beanies etc. I had a sherpa lined jacket on that's mostly synthetic with something like 5% wool. 

I was looking through my list of places in Canberra that I wanted to visit, but none really grabbed my attention at the moment. Sitting there I was just kinda tired.

I’m not really good at the ‘doing touristy’ things, in the past on my road trips it was all about doing one thing, and focusing on that one thing, the West Coast Wilderness railway in Tasmania, MONA, etc, doing multiple things is a lot more of an outlier for me. 

I’ve always been about going places as the journey being the thing to do, not going to places to go to places and do stuff.

So after returning to my ute I looked again at my list and decided as I was close I’d go and see the Eagle aka "Australian-American Memorial". 

As it was just up the road from Queen Elizabeth II Island, but upon arriving at the car park (to the left of Kings Avenue) I realised it was unlikely that I’d be able to get a parking spot. There was an older Hyundai already doing loops, aggressively so, they tried to block me from driving through on side, then sped off when they saw someone walking through the car park.

I realised pretty quickly that I wasn’t getting a spot, and it wasn't worth hanging around.

Nonetheless it was interesting driving through this car park, which is for or related to the government's Defence-related operations, lots of different vehicles in the car park, more than two Jimnys, some Hynundai i30 Ns in pale blue, some Teslas and a variety of other interesting vehicles. If I’d been able to stop, it would have been interesting just to stop and take photos of the vehicles, which I imagine is probably frowned upon, especially given the where I was in Canberra was for defence-related stuff.

Hitting the hazards on my ute so I could look at my phone I decided to go for my fall back, doubly so place to go and check out some of Fyshwick’s antique shops, only one of the collection actually open today Dirty Jane’s, no matter I thought, it was something to look at that didn't require too much cognitive engagement.

It was interesting enough, similar stuff on offer to that which I’ve seen in Victoria in similar sort of re-purposed old industrial buildings. 

There were the similar ranges of dealers; book sellers, mid-century, garage-alia, clothing, garden etc. Not too much in the realms of older furniture.

Not sure what the building used to be, decently high ceilings, lines painted on the concrete floors.

Leaving Fyshwick I went to the Woolworths at Canberra Airport, wandering around for something for dinner. I’m not one for going out, unless it’s convenient to where I’m staying. In the past I liked to stay at pubs because it was a quirky place to stay, and you just walked down stairs to get a meal and could have a drink without any worries, although that sometimes burned me, staying above a pub. Going further out it’s still a great option to experience the life and culture of a town.

In buying food I was somewhat limited by my airbnb’s cooking offerings, it’s listed as a kitchenette, but there is an oven built into the wood burning fire place. Not quite something I wanted to try and mess with. There’s also an induction hot plate and microwave, and there’s also a sandwich maker and bench top convection oven (the one with the glass bowl). It’s not something I’ve used in the past, so instead I went for a ready meal for tonight and tomorrow, but bought some additional vegetables to go with it that I can cook quickly in the microwave or in hot water quickly and easily. Some asparagus and some sugar snap peas. 

Canberra 2023-08 -2- Old Parliament House

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Leaving Fyshwick I continued on to Old Parliament House.

Parking around on the east side, next to the parliament tennis courts.

There were busses parked along this side, and it seemed there were school children coming in and out of the building throughout the day.

For car parking, I had brought a bag of coins with me as there wasn’t a lot of info on if the parking metres accepted tap to pay parking, or even cards at all. Some things suggested they accepted payment via an app, but thought I’d use up my coins I had knocking around in the house. Upon approaching the machine I discovered yes it does take cards both insert and tap, as well as coins.

As I had brought coins, I put in $10 worth of coins, and that yielded me not a great deal of time, and I used most of that time wandering around Old Parliament House.

It’s free to go in, they just want your postcode, that mine started with a 3 seemed to make the guy entering the numbers stumbled. Which was odd, it’s be more unusual if I was from Western Australia or something, not the neighbouring state of Victoria, 

Old Parliament House isn’t just a museum, I’m not sure if it’s even accurate to describe it as that. It’s wonderful that it still exists. 

It’s an education tool, teaching kids about democracy and what our parliament and government is, along with all the history of the building. 

I think that’s something that you don’t appreciate until you see it from the outside, overhearing kids being educated about it, and seeing the ways / paths that are taken to educate and engage with the subject matter.

It’s not just stuff you read on the walls and information provided like that. There’s panels to open and close, drawers to open and shut and touch screens to interact with.

It’s all very well thought out to engage people. 

I wandered through some of the other parts of Old Parliament house, which it seemed weren’t covered by the school tour groups, and therefore were a lot quieter than the other areas of the building.

There’s a whole room dedicated to referenda and how they in general fail, it’s hard, deliberately so to get a referendum to pass, and this area explains how it works, what ones have been done in the recent past, and how that all unfolded. 

There is an area just on the furnishings of Old Parliament House, I didn’t see anyone in this section, but I found it thoroughly interesting. 

That they kept it all, and how so much of it was specially designed for Parliament House.

Also, the overhead lights are so fabulously Art Deco and beautifully produced, it looked like turned aluminium, they’re very nice pieces. I wonder if they were produced for anywhere else? They’re probably worth a bit now.

The museum curators or whoever it is who has ‘dressed’ the rooms have done an amazing job capturing an area in their dressing of the rooms that show off different areas of Old Parliament House. 

Mostly set to the 1960s through to 1980s, it’s the little details that make it look amazing. In one room which is the copier room, complete with fax machine and small kitchenette, there’s a half finished cup of tea or coffee that’s been propped next to the copy machine, so it looks like you’re peering into the past of this room and seeing everything caught as it was. The shelves are still full of the various things a copy room might be filled with.

Then as you make you way through there’s receptions for the Prime Minister, which are also dressed as though they would have been, and it’s so perfect, it’s just as though you’re looking back in time, there’s white out, computers, a ‘thank you for not smoking’ sign, it’s all so wonderfully period correct.

In other rooms there’s a full ashtray of cigarette butts, a book of matches sitting beside it. 

I just really appreciated the set dressing, the mood was just really and properly set.

At times wandering around Old Parliament House I did think I was going to get lost, even though I had a map with me. 

There were some places that I just didn’t explore, in part because I didn’t want to wander, but in part I’m more interested in actual things in-situ rather than being presented lacking some of their context, so the Howard Library, which seemed a large indulgence for out past PM, I walked in and had a brief look and then left. It’s down a long corridor at the back side of the building which it feels like you have to go looking for it.

The Prime Minister’s office was pretty low key considering it was the PM’s office. What I loved however was the PM’s kitchenette, and in particular the jars for the tea, coffee and sugar, which are old instant coffee jars. I know this because I’ve got them at home, inherited from my late mother, and we used them growing up. It’s just kinda lovely that even in Parliament House, and in the PM’s kitchenette, they’re not using fancy coffee, tea and sugar canisters, instead they’re glass jars that have been recycled.

After getting a little flustered in the cabinet meeting room as people started to come in as I was trying to leave, and I become a bit of a stuttering mess needing to interact with people, I made my way down stairs down to the ‘Truth, Power and a Free Press’ exhibition, which includes the original ABC offices, buried down in the bowels of Old Parliament House. Including where the sound recorder would work in what was essentially a corridor, nicely carpet lined to sound proof it, but still a corridor.

Interesting thing was how warm it was in the building, and that's because the building's hydronic heating was still working and was on. It's fantastic that those old radiators in the rooms are still functional and still heating the building. 

Eventually I made my way out, exiting through the gift shop, it has a lot of books on politics, but nothing really in the realms of souvenirs that are specific to the building itself, otherwise I might have bought something. Instead I left empty handed.

Canberra 2023-08 -1- Hume Highway

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The Western Ring Road remains my most hated road, I hate driving on it. Everyone is so aggressive.

I entered the road and stayed in the far left lane, merging onto the road I saw a guy in a white 1990s Ford ute who seemed to accelerate towards me, then proceed to tailgate me for 30 seconds before swerving into the middle lanes and continue to accelerate before getting stuck behind a truck.

Like, mate you saw me, I’m in a Ford Ranger ute, it’s not as though you’re going to intimidate me, and you accelerated up, why…? 

Also the design of the Western Ring Road is just not great, it feels like it’s from another era with different considerations of safety and design. 

I made the mistake of being in the far left lane and then needing to change lanes before Sydney Road. 

It was a relief getting onto the Hume.

It was nice as I went further north to see that the the canola in bloom. It always puts a smile on my face to see the sea of bloom. And especially so when there’s a sea of bloom next to a field of green that hasn’t yet to bloom, it’s this intense colour contrast. 

The drive up to Canberra was fairly simple, there was a little bit of rain after I crossed into New South Wales. 

I stopped a couple of times on the way there, mostly to pee, dunno why I needed to empty my bladder more this time around. Firstly in Victoria at the Wandong Rest Area.

At Mullengandra rest stop I used the number on the side of the toilets to report that one was blocked and the one I used the tap was loose, so when you pushed it, it didn’t stay on.

I think it’s a good system, it being there so you can report it.

I didn’t see anyone else making a report, everyone else was just going in, doing their business and then leaving, or maybe walking around and chucking some rubbish away.

I was going to stop at the same Coles Express as I did on my last attempt to come to Canberra, at Gundagai, but decided as I had a little bit more fuel I could make it to Canberra. That fuel stop would have made me arrive an extra 10-15 minutes later, and I’d already stopped more than I would have liked.

Arriving into Canberra it was raining off and on as I made my way through the outskirts of the city.

I was glad of having CarPlay and Google Maps open. I had already looked at the route, and even written myself notes, although mostly the writing of the notes was so so I had it in my head, having already looked at things. However driving through Canberra it was good to have something guiding my way.

Arriving in Pialligo the road that my AirBnB was on I found had become a one way road, they seemed to be upgrading the road. But nevertheless I continued along the road, easily finding the address, and was grateful of the detailed instructions provided by the AirBnB host.

Red Oxx - Big Bull Roll-up bag

This is one of the most useful bags I use for going on road trips. It's a bag that basically combines a luggage roll with packing cubes. 

It's incredibly well constructed, made not just in the USA but Made in Montana, which is stated on front. 

It's my go-to road trip clothes bag.

The bag unrolls to a length of 915 mm and you have 6 mesh pockets where you can store (and stuff) clothing for a time away. I particularly like it as it means fewer things to unpack and repack - a problem with packing cubes especially. Unrolling it or hanging it up you can see everything you've got within, without needing to unpack further. It also means that when it's time to leave I just roll it back up and take it back out to my ute. 

Unlike packing cubes, which are great, but you can forget things, this it's all attached, it's one thing to remember to grab. 

I have a separate dirty clothes bag that goes elsewhere, so this just contains clean clothes.

If I were doing longer trips than this bag could handle I'd probably pack a duffle bag with extra clothes and then at a point when this was mostly empty of clean clothes I'd cycle in new ones. But this can handle a surprising amount of clothes, rolled or stuffed in and then the whole thing strapped up.

When I bought it back in 2017, it was kinda pricey, but fine enough for a bag at $285 USD, plus $55 USD postage to Australia, totalling $340 USD all up. But now looking on their website it seems inflation and increased costs has got to its price quite a bit and it's now $450 USD, although postage is still $55 USD.

If I were reading this at this point I would probably be thinking 'is it worth it?'. As of 2023 that price of $505 USD is about $685 AUD. Looking through a site like Rushfaster.com.au and sorting price high to low on their various bag categories it reveals this price is way up there in the high prices of bags.

But...there's nothing much out there on the market that completely replicates it. However I'm not sure I would buy this now at that price, back in 2017 it was a gift to myself. Now though I think I'd just go for a duffle bag with compartments, or maybe one or two duffle bags that I'd just cycle clothes through or something. 

Full dimensions:

50.8 cm L x 20.3 cm W x 20.3 cm H rolled up
When open and laying out flat: 91.4 cm L x 50.8 cm W x  7.62 cm H (pocket height)
Capacity: 24.4 litres
Weight: 2.38 kg

Canberra road trip failure 2023-07

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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'.

Lake George

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.

Rest Stop at Balmattum.

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.

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.  

Holbrook submarine

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.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 4 - B300

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I'm loathed to use road designations as I've always grown up knowing roads by their names. But the road names along my route home are so multiple that the road number designation works better in this instance.

Returning home to the south eastern suburbs from Wodonga there are two routes; the Hume Freeway, then the Western Ring Road/Metropolitan Ring Road, and then the 'missing link' of roads to the Eastern Freeway followed by a trip  down EastLink. I hate the Western Ring Road / Metropolitan Ring Road, I just find it a very dangerous-feeling road to be travelling on. 

I've driven both routes in the past, and the B300 is a much more interesting and landscape-diverse route to drive.

Glenrowan Maccas

Leaving Wodonga in the morning, cold vapour escaping from my breath I departed, not stopping anywhere in Wodonga for breakfast. Instead opting to pull into a the road house in Glenrowan of the petrol station and McDonald's for a fill up of diesel and breakfast. There was only one QR code in the McDonald's and it was on the pick up counter, I didn't notice any on the doors. 

Bonnie Doon

Continuing along the Hume Freeway Google tried to re-route me towards Melbourne because it would save 7 minutes. No thanks. 

Turning left off the Hume Freeway (M31) onto Mansfield Road (B300), this becomes the Midland Highway, which then joins the Maroondah Highway and goes through Bonnie Doon, which then joins the Goulburn Valley Highway and then in Yea you turn off onto the Melba Highway which takes you down through the Yarra Valley where eventually you end up back on the Maroondah Highway, and eventually onto EastLink. 

It's a shorter route, however in theory it takes more time owing to the speed limit being a mix of 80 and 100 km/h vs the Hume Freeway's 110 and 100 km/h. 

And the changes in elevation / road shape as you travel south vs the quite consistent and few extreme curves on the Hume Freeway. 

But it's just a nicer route, going through small towns, up and down the landscape through farms, some bushland and past dams and other things. It's the more scenic route.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 3 - Wodonga

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Arriving into Wodonga around 3:00 pm was…something of a surprise. Looking at it on a map it looks an average sized (rural) city area, but I wasn't expecting it to be as busy as it was.

It didn't help I guess that it was peak school pick up times. 

I was staying at the Motel 24, which was quite close to the freeway and the main road connecting Wodonga and Albury, which also made it somewhat difficult to get to coming off the freeway as it was on the west side of the road.

With my phone plugged into my ute for Google Maps suggesting I turn across the the traffic in the other lane and do a loop (at least that's what it looks like replicating it now in maps) or needing to do a u-turn on High Street in Wodonga, neither of which I wished to do on the quite busy road, I went for a little drive around Wodonga. 

New Coles in Wodonga

It certainly feels like a town which has recently expanded quite a bit to accommodate a new population, with new buildings and A LOT more traffic which the roads seemed to barely be coping with.

In looking into this now, it seems the Wodonga Rail Bypass realigned the rail track away from the inner city of Wodonga moving the railway station from where it had been. I assumed something like it had happened when I later parked and ate at Mann Central Shopping Centre. Which was new and looked like it had been recently developed. 

Eventually I found myself back to Motel 24. 

I booked this motel because it looked modern and did not feature brown bricks. It also had no check in, or rather no check in reception, it was all through a "state of the art check in system". 

Problem number one, I parked at the check in and proceeded to begin the check in process, then someone came in behind me, I was half way through the process which seemed to be taking a really long time.

In hindsight I should have parked inside and then walked back to the check in touchscreen. But I didn't and was a little flustered by the old person in their red Hyundai beeping their horn while I was trying to check in. I moved my ute and parked across four spots, which seemed to annoy the person who'd tooted because they drove through the motel and drove off. 

Returning to the check in screen the "state of the art" might have been a few years ago when it opened. Now you can clearly see a mouse cursor on the touches of the touch screen and you need to be careful with these touches too. 

It's fine, it works, it's just not as responsive as you might be used to with modern touch interfaces. 

You don't get a room key, once you get through the check in process which involves agreeing to the terms and conditions it then assigns a number for the room key, by default this is your mobile phone number you used to book the room plus the # key. 

Then when you get to your room there is a number pad on the wall, you punch in your number and the door unlocks. 

It's very efficient.

The car parking spots are on an angle and they do not really align with the the rooms. The room I had booked a king single room was at the very front of the building on the right as you come in. A Ford Falcon was parked in the spot closest to the room and this spot was one of the few on that side that wasn't on an angle. I parked in the next one down but one, which meant there was a sport between mine and the Falcon, but no car would have been able to get in. (Image of entrance)

I think it must have been in the about book inside the room that said that parking wasn't assigned and you could park anywhere you wanted. But it was a bit of an odd change from most other motels where you essentially park outside your room and there's a spot per room. 

The book of information in the room had obviously not been updated recently, despite being plastic pocketed paper so they could have, because of the suggested places to eat was an Irish pub across the road, which had shut down. 

I elected to go into town and go to the Mann Shopping Centre which I'd driven past earlier in the day so knew there was easy to get to parking there.

I ended up at Burger Urge, which didn't have any defined opening times unlike some of the other dining options I looked at that were around Wodonga if I wanted a more pub-type meal. 

I was the only one in there when I first walked in, signed in with the QR code when I stepped inside. It was nice, the tables were a little high. 

The style aesthetic is industrial meets bar, but with a lot of windows all around, and round booths with green leather seats. It was here that I was sat opposite the quite large door. 

As I sat having ordered there were several food delivery people coming in and out picking up food this was around 4:50 pm. I'd not had lunch and wanted to eat and go back to my motel room early so I could relax and get an early night. 

Watching the traffic go past on Elgin Boulevard and High Street further cemented that Wodonga had increased in population but the roads not kept up because there was a lot of traffic. It was fortunately flowing without any issues, but seemed from where I was sat quite fast despite a 50/60km speed limit. Also sat where I was I could see a former rail bridge / signal lights across the road, which made me realise that this area had been rail-related before obviously all being turned over to commercial. 

The motel room itself seems to be trying to offer more than your average motel room, or possible steal some people away from AirBnB-type accommodations by offering a kitchenette, including two burner induction hot plate, extractor fan, along with toaster, microwave and various knives, cutlery and bowls / plates. Although only two of the cutlery and bowls. Which given the room's bedding arrangements etc that's probably more than enough. There was also a full sized fridge, it being within cabinetry and perhaps being a better brand of fridge it was not remotely noisy. 

Milk was provided in the fridge in the form of two different brands of 15ml UHT single serve milks (Dairy Farmers and Anchor). 

Tea (Lipton's), Sugar and Instant Coffee (Moccona) was also provided.

The bathroom was fine, with an unusually deep stainless steel sink, until you remember that any of the cooking items you use in the room you're expected to wash up and put on the provided dish rack, otherwise you're charged a $25 cleaning fee.

The shower is a "rain style" shower. It's a large square shower head mounted from the ceiling, which is glorious to use. However, because of the angle of where the door hinges for the shower, and how the water hits you, a large amount does make it through the (about 1mm) gap between the door and the rest of the shower, it makes the floor a bit wet. Not so much that the bath mat and towel can't mop up. 

Being on High Street and closest to the road there was road noise in my room at Motel 24, but it wasn't egregious road noise. Once it got into the evening the traffic dropped down to a pretty low volume and noise level.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 3 - Snowy Mountains Highway

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I stopped in Adaminaby to use the loo and to take a photo of the Big Trout. 

It was surprisingly cold outside, after the drive along Bobeyan Road it had been warm, I'd had the windows cracked, although but not by much.

Now stepping outside into the fresh air it was surprisingly chilly especially as it was still blue skies and sunshine. 

The Snowy Mountains Highway starts out as many a rural highway;  sweeping through the country side, but then it starts to climb and there are slow vehicle passing lanes along with snow chain fitment bays every tens of kilometres along this part of the route.

The road markings also switch from being white to yellow and the plastic road edge markings go from being white and normal height to being red and double height, all very indicative that this area gets snow. 

I stopped at Sawyers Hut which unfortunately had been burnt by the Black Summer bush fires, now with only the chimney remaining. 

The worst part of the Snowy Mountains Highway was I think the decent down to…well not exactly water level but the road next to the Tumut River. 

Almost needed to put my ute in sport mode to change gear manually, and certainly a good workout for the brakes in any car.

In the Blowering area the view of the water…it was an almost intimidating amount of water looking out there.

And again looking at street view, it's obvious that at the movement in 2021 it's a lot fuller than it was in several years past.

In Tumut I had intended to follow the Snowy Mountains Highway and sort of meander through the countryside until I got to Wodonga, and in fact deliberately drove past the turn off for Gocup Road (which leads to the Gundagai and the Hume Highway). But then driving out of Tumut was behind what looked like a convoy of horse floats and decided to do a U-turn and go back to Gocup Road, at that time and after the drive down from Snowy Mountains I just wasn't in the right mood to deal with that at that moment. 

Joining the Hume Highway, noted that when I got to Holbrook it had been bypassed, the last time I drove along the Hume Highway it had yet to be bypassed, one of the few towns that had yet to be bypassed. (Looking through my photos the last time I drove the Hume Highway was in 2012)

Canberra 2021 road trip - 3 - Bobeyan Road

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I had at one point wanted to do Alpine Way from Jindabyne back into Victoria. But each time I looked at it was a bit more worried about its narrowness, and the fact that I'd left travelling to that area a bit late into the autumn. I needn't have worried about the weather aspect as the temperature was around 17-20ºC for my three days travelling. 

Just outside Canberra on Bobeyan Road.

Instead I decided to explore the Snowy Mountains Highway from Adaminaby to Tumut. 

Putting Adaminaby into maps from Holt suggested two routes. The Monaro Highway out of Canberra and Bobeyan Road. 

Bobeyan Road looked sealed for a little under half its length and then a dirt road for the rest. 

I got slightly cold feet, wondering what sort of condition the other half was as I'd read some mixed reports of it. And reading some more some forums suggested that it was driveable and was still a road, not a 4x4 track because it was graded regularly.

The only vehicles aside from a truck that I saw on the dirt road portions of the road were Toyota Land Cruiser utes. 

The sealed parts of Bobeyan road are lovely, you could take a sports car along this route, it's a fabulous run of sweeping curves, straights and elevation changes, it's a thoroughly enjoyable drive with wonderful views and everything. There were one or two points where road work was going on, including a bridge being worked on. 

Then the sealed road just stops. 

There was some road work happening where it stopped, and there the road was very rough.

Even though I had enough traction I needed to stop and put my ute in 4x4 mode to feel safe because the road was incredibly rough and full of pot holes. The proclamation online that it was graded regularly did not seem true.

Now reading into it, looks like it's being fully sealed.

There's several spots along the way both the sealed and unsealed portions of the road where there's walking tracks and look out points. I only stopped at Hospital Hill lookout and had a look, took some photos, it was amazing landscape to look at.

The worst roughest part of the road is through the Namadgi National Park.

But then even as you exit the Namadgi National Park there are still hazards. There's cattle grids across the road which are only as wide as a gate. There are several down hill parts of the road which are somewhat precarious with a nice view down the hill, with only multiple eucalyptus trees to stop you if you somehow veered off the road. 

Then as the road opens out into more fields and more indications of civilisation and I started to relax a little more I came upon a puddle. 

Reminded that despite the dryness around me it had poured with rain last night, and this puddle was more like a small pond of water. 

The level indicator beside it didn't indicate a huge amount of water, although in hindsight I perhaps should have tried going around it then powering through. 

Thankful of my ute's decent water wading capacity I plowed through with only a large amount of water being thrown onto the windscreen, but no worse for wear I continued on. 

The road then does become sealed, like a lot of country roads where the sealed section just seems to end there seemed to be no indication of why the road stopped being sealed where it did, but I enjoyed the sealed road. It was smooth, long straights and gentle curves. 

The Adaminaby Racecourse was interesting as I approached it, noticing the grander buildings first and then the somewhat overgrown racecourse next. 

Bobeyan Road finishes at an intersection with the Snowy Mountains Highway. Turning right I headed for Adaminaby.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 2 - Mini-G Tiny House

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Part of when I'd scheduled my trip was so I could stay at the Mini-G - Ginninderry's Tiny House that I'd seen on AirBnB. 

It's located within the suburb of Holt (or possibly slightly outside it in an un-defined area of the ACT). 

Within a new housing estate located along Pro Hart Avenue.

I had mostly deduced where it was down to the street level even before being sent detailed instructions. 

But arriving there was something of a revelation, there's a lot of construction still going on around the estate.

The Mini-G itself is located within a display village which is pedestrian only. You park in the display village's car park and then walk in.

You can if you park in the corner closest to the road of the car park see your vehicle from the second level balcony of the Mini-G (if that's going to worry you). 

There's large concrete road blocks preventing anyone from driving in. 

This is odd during the day as it's this quiet display village, at night it's kinda eerie, in a weird safe sort of way as some of the display homes' lights and TVs are on. The street lights are also all on, but there's no one around, literally no one so you just walk back to the tiny house and it's quiet.

You can hear people and children in neighbouring streets, and behind the Mini-G are garages for the houses that back onto the display village which are occupied as I discovered around 9 pm as someone with a V8 was manoeuvring their vehicle in / out of the garage. 

Inside the Mini-G it's fully equipped, with everything supplied if you want to do some cooking. A lot more than some AirBnBs I've stayed at. Two pots, two frying pans, 4 small plates, 2 big plates, a serving plate and 4 bowls. Plus chopping boards, decent amount of cutlery and other cooking utensils. 

I only used the electric kettle. Tea bags and instant coffee plus sugar are supplied, however there is no milk. I travel with a few small boxes of UHT milk just in case, but if you're staying you may need to buy some milk.

In the house manual it notes under "Places to Eat" the "Brindabella Bar and Bistro is in walking/e-bike distance from Mini-G" 

According to Google Maps it's a 10 minute walk, not something I was willing to do, so I drove, it's on a road, or shows as a road on maps, but looks like a golf course entrance (which it is). 

It's also members only, in theory, which I didn't completely expect. It does show members / non-members prices on their menu on their website. But a lot of golf courses will let you eat there without all that joining thing.

Here though they informed me 'you kinda need to be a member, but we'll let you in to check it out 2-3 times before you need to join', and was pressured to join the club. I didn't really want to say 'yeah I'm from Victoria'. So I just nodded and said 'okay thanks'.

The guy in charge of the bistro had a slightly British accent and seemed to look down on me being much younger than everyone else and only interested in eating and going. Meh, whatever, I ordered, paid and awaited my steak.

The bistro started to fill up very quickly with people which was surprising, and when I left everyone was a member it seemed. 

One couple, who were wearing lanyards came in and sat down. The woman then pulled out a wooden boxed chess set and proceeded to set up a chess game. It was such an…interestingly out of place thing to happen before me. 

Returning after my meal at night it was quiet, and kinda like walking on a film set back to the Mini-G. 

That night I filled in my entry permits for New South Wales, which I'd be travelling through the next day but not stopping, and Victoria, where I'd be staying that night. 

The next morning when I departed it was equally quiet, there was lots of building work going on at houses outside of the display village area, but from the display village confines there was still nothing visible.

I really enjoyed staying there and would definitely stay there again were I visiting Canberra.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 2 - Parliament House

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While I was within the middle of Canberra I thought I'd at least go and look at Parliament House up close. I wasn't really in the mood for tours or anything, so just wanted a wander around outside. 

I briefly considered walking from the NGA to Parliament House, it was, according the Google only a 10 minute walk to old Parliament House. But elected instead to drive up there instead.

There's free 1 hour street parking on Federation Mall, so happily parked there. 

I was the only one wandering about on the grass in front of Parliament House.

The grass at the top of Federation Mall was quite flattened. Watching the news I realised this is where all the journalists stand, so it's obvious the grass had been trampled down over a long time. 

Canberra 2021 road trip - 2 - National Gallery of Australia

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I've driven to Canberra twice in the past neither of which I had GPS in my vehicle so I must have just written myself instructions to navigate.

It's not tricky to navigate in Canberra, but I certainly appreciated having my phone plugged into my ute with CarPlay giving me Google Maps directions to the National Gallery of Australia (underground car park). There weren't too many places with awkward directions, but it was appreciated having that (metaphorical) hand guiding me. 

There's no outward indications that there is an underground car park for the National Gallery. It's opposite the National Gallery rather than being underneath it, and it's got a park on top of it. 

It's located at Parkes Place East.

The sign says it's 2.0 metre height clearance, but driving through it definitely feels lower. Going down the ramp there is a left corner and then you're in the car park. It's two long lanes to park with the option turn at two locations. 

Be careful exiting the car park, there is a slight dog leg from the exit lane which requires a left and then you need to be straight on to get your window level with the ticket machine which is at the car park level (there is a barrier at street level that opens automatically). Don't follow really closely in the line to exit, as you need that extra car length to manoeuvre properly to line up with the ticket machine.

Exiting the car park on foot is either lift or stairs, both depositing you to the entrance of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA). 

I'd gotten there early, and mindful of the COVID conditions, didn't want to try and enter the exhibition too early than what my ticket read.

So I went for a little wonder around outside. 

The High Court of Australia is just across from the NGA, and it has a nice view of Lake Burley Griffin also. 

There were a few school groups at the NGA as well, many congregated outside. A bunch of high school kids shouting "wanker" to anyone (including me) as they walked past them.

Inside there were a lot of older people in the NGA and the exhibition I was there to see as well.

The exhibition itself was…fine?

About 10 years ago I visited the NGA to see the exhibition "Masterpieces from Paris" which included Van Gogh's Starry Night, and that was a really moving exhibition. I remember being able to lean in quite close to look at Starry Night, see the globs of paint, the 3D-ness of the painting, something I'd only ever seen in print or on a screen. Seeing it in person was a moving experience for me. 

This exhibition Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London was somewhat…underwhelming. 

Although still insightful, the different ranges of artists and styles on show were broad and really explained and displayed a lot. 

I feel a saw a lot of different styles.

The two drawcard paintings Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Monet's Water Lillies were…good?

Both paintings I learnt from the information cards beside were one of multiple versions of the paintings.

Although the version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers was one of two that was signed by the artist himself. 

So that was interesting and notable seeing that.

Monet's The Water-Liliy Pond was kinda underwhelming. 

Probably because I've seen different versions of this artwork, this version (one of more than 200+) was somewhat odd.

It's quite oddly shaped, while it does show the bridge and the lily pond below, it doesn't show the banks of the pond. 

The information beside the artwork claims "this shows it floating above the water". But to me, it just seemed an odd perspective, like the painting had been poorly cropped.

The exhibition is three and a half rooms, with paintings generally on three of the four walls. There is one half room  covering “The Grand Tour” as one of the tour people described a grand tour as a "kind of gap year" (where {the tour guide said} the people on it were expected to churn out paintings while on it). 

There were some large and interesting paintings of Venice in this room.

Overall it was the other paintings that really enlightened me on the styles of the periods covered, not those draw card paintings that were on display. 

One slightly detracting thing were the tours that were being run of the exhibition. One was alright by a woman who seemed professional and part of the NGA, she had an official looking lanyard at least and spoke with knowledge and authority (and not in too much of a loud voice), and had a small gathering of older people with her.

The other was an American woman, and she had a raised voice, had to keep checking the information plaques on the wall, didn't speak with much authority and was kind of annoying. I tried to stay away from her, but it did get close to irritating and kinda ruined the self discovery of the art works as I wandered around looking at them.

The exit, through the gift shop

You exit through a gift shop, not THE NGA gift shop, that's downstairs near the exit. This gift shop was just for this exhibition. There were various books, mugs, water bottles and other collectable things related to the art work. Plus other things like tea towels and napkins that seemed to tout their Australian-ness, but when you looked closer the might be designed in Australia, but their actual manufacture was a little less clear.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 2 - Monaro Highway

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I've never driven the Monaro Highway (B23), and it was a really interesting and engaging road. 

Immediately leaving Cann River it's a different road to the Princes Highway.

Farm land to the left and bush to the right. 

Then it starts to hug the Cann River, making it twist and curve for many kilometres. 

Crossing the Victoria / New South Wales border, where I briefly wondered how checks were done when the borders were closed because there was no phone reception. I had the previous night filled out my entry permit for New South Wales, so had that on my phone should I have needed to provide it. Although now as I write this realise I should have had the email or its number saved / screenshotted given the lack of phone reception (not that I knew that at the time). 

A short ways from the border I pulled over at a rest area to take a few photos. Only now looking at them, and comparing them to the street view of the same location realise how much damage the Black Summer fires had done in that area. 

Driving through Bombala it seemed relatively busy with most of the parking spaces in the main street full, with all of the cars reversed into the angled spots. It looked like a nicer place to stop for a bite to eat and a wander than Cann River. But as it's 2 hours from Orbost to Bombala probably a little too long to hang out for breakfast if departing from there.

I stopped in Chakola at a rest stop next to the Numerella River to have a pee and stretch my legs a bit. 

It's quite a picturesque place for a rest stop, with views of the mountains in the distance, farms across the river and the highway set far enough back from the rest stop to not be as noticeable (especially compared to some that barely anything separating them from the road). There are a lot of signs warning that the location is under surveillance, which did seem a little bit weird.

From there was only about an hour to reach my destination of the National Gallery of Australia, and its underground car park.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 2 - Cann River

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I ended up leaving Orbost early at around 7:30 am. I had a ticket for the Botticelli to Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia that had a time on it (although when I went in half an hour early no one mentioned this), so wanted to get to Canberra with good time. 

I had considered eating in Orbost, there were some other cafes there (other than the one I ate at the previous night), but they opened at 8 am, so elected instead to drive to Cann River and eat there, it being a little less than an hour from Orbost.

You can tell the road from Orbost onwards is the much less used portion of the Princes Highway; with much more curves and turns to it and combination of these with elevation changes.

It's through picturesque farm country.

In the early morning only the mist, and the smoke hanging above the landscape from people's chimneys marked the houses and farms along the way. 

I arrived in Cann River and went to the Relics Cafe, scanning in before I walked through the door, the couple ahead of me did not scan as they approached or went in. They only ordered a coffee before leaving. I ordered the Big Breakfast, the guy behind the counter seemed apologetic that I had to scan in, told him I'd done it before I'd walked in.

I sat myself near the window so I could look out at the intersection there. 

The wall felt like it was almost emanating cold through it, feeling like it was exceptionally thin. Meanwhile there was quite a 'clunk' as the compressors for the fridges beside me kicked in.

Whilst sitting there was trying to work out why I'd seen this building before, then remembered I'd seen in on Domain, it is for sale.

The Big Breakfast was fine, wasn't expecting 3 fried eggs. Bacon was good. The sausages weren't, I had two mouthfuls before deciding 'no not for me thanks', and a bite or two of the hash brown suggested that the oil it had been fried in wasn't at its best.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 1 - Orbost Motel

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Orbost was a convenient place to stay, knowing that I would want to be within driving in one day's distance to Canberra, and not wanting to drive the Monaro Highway late in the day given its twisty layout I elected to stay in Victoria before transversing New South Wales and the ACT to get to Canberra. 

That left two options to stay the night; Orbost and Cann River. 

The Orbost Boutique Motel seemed a good option, new updated rooms, with no dark brick in sight (something of a consistent theme in country motels is the dark / brown brick construction). 

I'd received a text message earlier in the day informing me that in order to maintain social distancing and COVID safe practices there'd be no need to go to reception; here was my room number and the room would be unlocked with my key in the room, and to remember to check in with the QR code when I went in.

I arrived to the motel, found my room, parked and entered. It was as the photos online showed with one or two interesting elements. 

The tiles in the bathroom were a lot darker than appeared online. 

Also the fridge was loud.

A big fridge is great…for some people. People who travel with food, who want to store a lot…or something, I don't know. 

I am more practical with regard to a motel, it's a place to stop and sleep for the night before moving on, it's transitory place to visit. 

So the primary consideration for me in a motel is to get a good night's sleep; undisturbed. 

The fridge did not allow this. 

It was loud, whenever the compressor kicked in there was a very loud noise. 

Later that night as I tried to get to sleep (and as it kept turning on) I got out of bed and unplugged it, figuring there were only drinks and the tea pot of provided milk in there, nothing that could go bad, and the fridge being off without power for 8 hours would be akin to there being a black out or something. 

I know that having a full sized fridge is meant to mark it out as being more luxurious or something, but it's not helpful to me and my stay - getting a good night's sleep.

I had intended to go eat early and get an early and decent night's sleep. The pub in town had a menu online, it promised some interesting specials from their American chef, plus the pub staples of chicken parma, steak etc. 

I wandered in through the door, checked in with the QR code and then looked around. 

There was a barman, one older guy in high vis sitting at the bar drinking and someone in the back room playing pool (I think).

Asking "do you do meals", the bar man said "not tonight".

Great.

Going back outside to my ute I recalled when I met the owner of the motel as I was leaving he said that the pub in Marlo had a deal with the motel wherein you got a free drink if you showed your key to them.

I considered going, but it was a 15 minute drive in pitch dark, so that was a 30 minute additional drive I didn't want to do.

Driving up and down the the main street or Orbost I took in my options. Google said there was a chicken shop somewhere, not that I could see it in the dark. There seemed to be very few businesses open.

There were two supermarkets, and I almost went in to the larger one; a Foodworks and bought something microwaveable, the motel room having a microwave. 

In the end I went to the fish and chip / burger place, which said cafe from the outside, so I wasn't sure what I was walking into when I went in, there wasn't a QR check in code that I could see as I walked in, and it had those plastic slats / door cover thing like milk bars have. Not the best thing to deal with in the current low-contact situation we now live in, I tried not to think about it too much.

I got the burger meal with chips and a drink and took it back to the motel to eat, not feeling like sitting there, nor sitting in my ute and eating. As it was less than a 3 minute drive back there it was still piping hot. I did make one mistake, I got a burger with the lot and didn't realise the lot included pineapple, had to dig that out of the burger, served me right for just skimming the menu. Was mostly just wanting to get it ordered and done, hadn't really been expecting the pub not to be doing meals.

The motel itself was fine, the interior design decision to use corrugated iron for the ceiling and walls made for a different, although not overly harsh industrial style. One of the major flaws with using this material was around the support of the bed. When you sat on the bed it pushes air out the bottom which makes the corrugated iron rattle, surprising me on several occasions when I sat or got out of bed. 

Canberra 2021 road trip - 1 - To Orbost

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Leaving from the south eastern suburbs to Orbost was an easy enough four or so hours driving.

My intent with this mini road trip was to drive to Canberra from the south. 

I've been to Canberra by road a few times in the past in 2009 and 2010, but all times had been via the Hume Freeway coming down from the north. 

Using the Princes Highway to get Orbost in order to get to the Monaro Highway to head towards Canberra was enlightening. 

Enlightening because it goes through lots of towns, which the Prince Highway hasn't bypassed. Unlike I think the Hume Freeway which now bypasses all of them. The last time I went along the Hume Freeway it was still going through Holbrook; no longer however as I discovered upon my return.

I stopped in Morwell to look at the now closed Hazelwood Power Station, pulling over at the somewhat sad memorial stone to the early development of the Hazelwood district by returned soldiers from World War I. They were allocated land by the settlement commission to develop dairy farms. But that area is now covered by the Hazelwood Pondage.

Drove up the road to the Hazelwood cemetery, as on the map there was a curious road that seemed to just go no where, and was close to the open cut coal mine that I was hoping to have a closer look at. The road itself was blocked off. The cemetery has a nice view of the surrounding countryside. The high tension power lines make an audible buzzing noise overhead.

My biggest regret along this route was taking the "tourist road" Great Alpine Road B500 in Bairnsdale  and C620 from Bruthen to Nowa Nowa. I'm sure it's enjoyable for some people. But for a lot of it, it was just through forest and trees, and with the sun setting behind me making a yellow glare behind me, I found it isolating in a weird way.

I don't mind being alone on the road, that can feel liberating and relaxing, but there's a feeling of isolation too, and this stretch of road brought this. 

At some point I guess I'll have to explore the bit of the Princes Freeway I missed by taking the "scenic" / tourist route.

Driving into Orbost realised that I could save some time the following day by filling up with diesel the night before. Stopped in Newmerella the township west of Orbost at a BP petrol station there. Had I looked would've realised there was a petrol station in Orbost. I had mostly focused on (in my planning) filling up in Cann River where there's a large United petrol station there.