Entry 2 - Travelling Adelaide to Canberra

The yearning of a travel fix to re-boot our well-being soon took hold. Our bodies easily slipped into automatic - caravan packing mode and we were off in our caravan heading towards Canberra for a family fix, naturally with a mix of pleasurable activities along the way. 

The route to Canberra was east but the ambient air temperature forecast for the next few days was predicted at around the 38 C mark. Putting our departure off till the weather cooled just didn’t compute, so we deviated south about 70 kilometres, starting out with a night at the nice cool ocean location of Port Elliot with a more pleasurable air temperature in the mid 20’s.

Our fridge had been full of fresh produce compliments of Ashley & Lauren's garden when we left home. Due to interstate fresh food restrictions there was the need to consume our fresh food before crossing the border. What a great breakfast we had at Port Elliot caravan park.

Port Elliot with caravan park fronting onto beautiful Horseshoe Bay

We continued east travelling in the cooler air temperatures south of home. Eventually our route choices diminished and we found ourselves back inland with the ambient air temperature increasing to the mid 30’s C with Bordertown our next stop over for the night.

Painting in progress of silos at Coonalpyn

Fencing artwork at free camp Bordertown

Continuing east in the middle of Victoria we were passing through a small town called Murtoa and spotted a nice looking lake with a smallish caravan park nestled on the lakes edge. With the execution of a U turn and a closer look we decided to stay the night which transpired into two nights and could have progressed longer if we hadn’t set that commitment for an estimated time of arrival at Canberra.

Sunset at Murtoa caravan park $20 per night with power and great setting

Our preference for short periods of driving followed by plenty of r & r dictated for this trip the requirement to continue with regular periods of driving to meet our eta. We still had time up our sleeve to be able to zig zag a bit along our planned route seeking out new locations for exploration. Our planned route spread out over 7 days = a requirement for about 200 kilometres of driving each day. 

Our next night was spent at a beautiful free camp location near Elmore still in Victoria. It was full of happy friendly people where we found the need to allocate 1 – 2 hours for the 15 minute walk around the camping area. It was a constant stop start for “have a chat.”

Ayson's Reserve near Elmore - Could have easily stayed a week

You meet so many happy like minded people during your travels, every now and then you will meld with some extra special people where you’ll exchange some personal particulars in the off chance you can catch up again. There was one couple whom we bumped into during our Western Australia travels 2014 who lived near our planned route. With a phone call to see if this couple (Mazz & Wanda) remembered us, were home and would like to catch up saw us arriving at their home at about 1 pm in Benalla.

 

This is how we spent time with Mazz & Wanda 2014

Well we talked non-stop till after 11 pm and had to drag ourselves away to continue with our driving around midday the next day both suffering from hoarse voices and feeling rather fatigued. Our bodies and voices were in need of a quiet restful stop over which was obtained at the township of Tarcutta a few hours later for the night.

A nice easy free camp at Tarcutta

We have regularly driven through Yass when travelling near Canberra and a sign to an out of the way town, Wee Jasper regularly caught our eye. We decided to drive to Wee Jasper on this occasion to assess our thoughts of this location. As it turned out the shorter route at the time of our location was from Tumut but reportedly a rough dirt road, unsuitable for caravans, so we chose to travel along the route from Yass. Even this road was very windy with plenty of very tight corners, steep narrow descents and assents. There was some pleasant scenery but a location for us not warranting a return trip.

The above picture shows Wee Jasper area at the main camp ground in what we thought to be the prime camp spot in a large area which we secured due to no other campers present at the time. Cost of $11 per person per night with minimal facilities. On this trip we considered Murtoa to have more on offer for our  preference of scenery, walking and other options including a quiet caravan park with good facilities and power at $20 per night.  

We have arrived at Canberra. Time to enjoy the company of our family members Tim and Penny and all the activities they will share with us.