Audi S4 45 TFSI quattro

Recently I had a car in at a dealer getting an engine warning light, and check engine light sorted, I was told it might take an hour…or longer, so they had a loan car sorted for me as it turned out to be the latter.

I was given an Audi S4 45 TFSI quattro, which according to the rego was a 2020 model.

The car I was leaving with the car dealer / mechanic wasn't an Audi, and this was the first Audi I'd driven.

Starting the car up it initially seemed a little unsettled, but as I drove it, this feeling seemed to go away completely.

Upon leaving the car dealer I didn't really take it for a drive, I departed for home; driving in the city's inner suburbs and then mostly on the freeway home, driving for a bit more than an hour.

Steering was very light.

My every day vehicle is a 2018 Ford Ranger Wildtrak. 

I sort of will use it as a yardstick to the Audi, mostly because it's my every day vehicle and it's comparable in production year, more so than the car that was being fixed.

My Ford Ranger has these driving aids; radar guided cruise control, speed detection in the dash, lane keeping assist.

Additionally in cabin it has sun visors that slide (so you can cover the whole window), Apple CarPlay and a touch screen.

What the Audi A4 doesn't have is the odd thing.

It didn't have a touchscreen. While it does have Apple CarPlay, you control it via a wheel / dial control in the centre console. While the wheel is also a circular D-pad control type sort of thing depending on the menu you have to mostly use it as a wheel to move around rather than a D-pad.

The Audi A4 does have radar guided cruise control…and that's it as far as I could tell. It's also got some sort of radar guided safety system, it kept flashing a red light in the instrument cluster when I got too close to a car in front, which I couldn't work out how to disable so I just ignored it.

It does not have lane keeping assist. But it does have blind spot assist (which my Ranger does not have). It's in the form of a large orange square light on the side of the wing mirrors that gets quickly annoying. The wing mirrors are also a very odd shape, contorting the available space to see stuff in it in odd ways.

The sun visors in the Audi also feel weirdly light and plasticky, and they don't slide, which was surprising, considering how big the doors / window glass is compared to the sun visors.

The whole dash was air vents. It was an interesting design choice, which I'm not sure I liked.

It had a digital instrument cluster, which was fine it's probably something I would get used to if I drove this car, but it looked like it needed some shading or something adding to the dials just to give it some sense of depth and reality. They looked dated in an odd way.

There's a digital instrument cluster in my Ford Ranger and if I was being optimistic I'd say it's practical. It's got an analogue display which is in the middle and a digital display to the right. It's practical, but looked a little dated when I bought it. But functional, and now it's…functional.

Unfortunately in the Audi it looks modern, in a sort of late 2010s sort of way. 

The view interface is fine, it's very smooth, it's just not very….I don't know. It's functional, but sort of stylistically functional, enough thought has been put into it that it most definitely is designed but…it's sort of trying to straddle the unreality and realness and not quite doing it.

The display in my Ranger is functional, but it's not trying to be anything other than a functional gauge (although the digital circular rev counter display in the Ranger is also terrible in a pretend sort of way).

On the instrument stalks there's also some oddness. 

The indicator stalk was very firm, I felt it required too much force to engage. 

Audi also seemed to have eschewed dials/rings on the instrument stalks for switches. Such as on the cruise control stalk, to adjust the radar guided cruise control distance (from the car in front) it's this lever switch that you click up and down. 

On my Ford Ranger it's buttons on the steering wheel. 

And on the windscreen wiper stalk to advance the speed is a switch to be rocked left to right.

These switches feel like you need to brace the stalks when adjusting them.

The two "real" displays on the instrument cluster are temperature and fuel, which are indicated by lights along the side. It's an…interesting choice, that sort of interrupted the clean look of the instrument cluster. But I guess there's some utility to having non-screen-based gauges.

The interior was very ergonomic, with my arm on the centre arm rest the volume knob and other controls were easy to hand. 

I could imagine this being a good car for tedious drives to and from work and other places. 

The centre arm rest also has a wireless charging plate to charge your phone. I used Apple CarPlay to connect my phone rather than messing around with bluetooth to connect to different car.

Which means I didn't experience much of the Audi menu system (aside from discovering the lack of a touchscreen).

On my drive back to the dealer I discovered that the location of the wireless charging plate (in the centre arm rest) did not allow for very good airflow, resulting in my phone overheating just before my arrival. A not great thing considering I needed it to scan in for the COVID QR check-in code upon arrival back at the dealer.

The speakers were really good, and I could hear a subwoofer somewhere in the rear. I heard stuff in some of my music I'd not heard outside of listening on a stereo at home or with good headphones.

On the whole it's a very good...'car'. It was perfectly fine to drive, it's well designed where it needs to be, with some odd quirks. It just didn't have much personality, it'd be a great company car, or as I was using it loan car.

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.

Canberra 2021 road trip - 0 - Planning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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