19 - Canberra family time - Nov 2021

Entry 19 – Canberra family time - November 2021.

It had been a long time since we had personal time with our Canberra based family, since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. There was still the stigma of covid-19 all around us with media created panic and way too many conflicting rules.

There was an atmosphere of unease, created by a woeful lack of constructive political leadership. Way too many chiefs implementing their own rules without any form of consistency with the other chief’s own rule implementations. Anyone would think people were getting frustrated with our country’s political leaders handling of the covid 19-pandemic?

It felt wonderful catching up with our son, daughter in law and Granddaughter Pippa and meeting our latest family addition, 7-week-old granddaughter Lacey.

Three-year-old granddaughter Pippa, enjoyed removing lots of wrapping paper from an abundant supply of presents built up over the last year and more, loving each one.

Since our last visit our Canberra family had also moved to another house and our son was keen to get the assistance of his dad with some home maintenance / upgrades.

Mary was about to enter her golden years, turning sixty in a month. For a special celebration of this milestone age, Tim and Penny had arranged for Mary to experience a balloon flight over Canberra.

The alarm announced it was time to get up at 3.50 am. First chore was to make a phone call to verify the weather conditions were suitable. Weather conditions were good for the morning balloon flight. It felt far too early and our consciousness was in sleep mode. A quick shower did the job awaking us and we drove to the balloon flights meeting point. The excitement level was rising, watching the inflation of the balloon. We boarded the balloon basket and floated up and away.

It was very peaceful floating above the Australian capital of Canberra. It provided a different perspective of life on the land, looking down from above.

Mary “SO” enjoyed her balloon flight, somehow managing to stay aboard the basket after everyone else had alighted.

We even got to help deflate the balloon from its inner sanctum, pulling down its fabric walls forcing the air out.

It was a fabulous experience; one we would be reminiscing about for many years. Thankyou Tim and Penny.

We spent our days at Tim and Penny new home for eight days straight and we took it in turns providing lunch time meals. Pippa enjoyed Mary’s home-made pasties and another day we had roast where she ate a whole parsnip, half a turnip, broccoli, carrots and meat. She did enjoy all types of food.

We had a fabulous time enjoying the company of our grandchildren.

It was a wet week with a few days of over 30 mm of rain fall making for some colourful sunsets and foggy mornings.

We had a fabulous time at Canberra. Our primary focus on family time. We do like the large variety of attractions on offer in Canberra but for this visit we chose to segregate away from people gathering areas due to the covid-19 pandemic risk.

We were about to leave Canberra, heading home. It was time to focus on the latest covid-19 debacle, rules and hot spot locations along our route.

More to come.

 

18 - South Australia driving to Canberra - 2021

 

Entry 18 – South Australia to Canberra – drive time - November 2021.

We had researched several options for overnight stopovers along our planned route for our planned week of drive time from our current location on the South Australian Yorke Peninsular to the Australian capital of Canberra. We were about to start our first planned days itinerary when it came to our attention it was a close friend 65^th birthday whom lived along our planned route. We got on the phone and yes, he was having a small gathering with family and friends that night. Yes, it would be wonderful if we could make it. We fitted in two days of planned driving into one and enjoyed a great night of socialising.

We stayed two nights with John and Kathy, immensely enjoying their company.

We crossed the border leaving our home state of South Australia on the 15^th November and immediately felt vulnerable as the proposed border re-opening date when we would be permitted back into South Australia didn’t commence until the 23^rd November.

We travelled from Renmark in South Australia to Balranald in New South Wales, our first nights stop over. The impact on travel caused by the covid-19 pandemic was extraordinarily evident. The roads in this area of Victoria and New South Wales were the most deserted we had ever experienced. It was an eerie feeling travelling along near deserted roads, normally busy with traffic. The primary vehicles sighted, the transport road trains moving goods around Australia. It was rare to see another caravan or motorhome. With nearly 300 kilometres covered over the day we suspect we would have barely seen about one dozen caravans/motorhomes in total. Normally there would be hundreds. Even solo cars were absent considering these are the primary vehicles we see travelling these routes. On a positive, the quiet roads assisted with the ease in which road trains could pass us without the need to slow down, waiting for a safe gap in the oncoming vehicles.

It’s rare to spot wild life when travelling these routes. We spotted several mobs of emus enjoying some poor farmers crops prior to harvesting.

We had initially thought a few nights at one of Balranald’s nearby national parks on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River felt appealing. We had last stayed at this location in 2018 finding to be a beautiful, quiet and peaceful environment. The below picture from our 2018 camp site.

Unfortunately, the dirt entry road into the national park was closed to vehicles. We parked at the nearby historic Yanga Woolshed and walked towards the camp site for a personal closer inspection. The river level was high lapping at the top of its banks. We couldn’t get near the campground due to it being surrounded by water. We certainly didn’t want to get bogged whilst on foot.

With most of the bush settings around the town of Balranald effected by high levels of water, making it unsafe to drive onto we re-assessed our options. We stayed one night at Balranald parked up on a bitumized carpark and continued down the road a bit to the town of Hay.

Travelling across the Hay plain is quite boring. Occasionally you might see some sheep but mostly it is nothingness. It was even duller than normal with the absence of other vehicles due to the covid-19 pandemic.

At one stage as we were getting closer to Hay with the nearby Murrumbidgee River, we were attempting to get a picture of some large irrigation activities. These pictures are obtained by the passenger when in motion whilst the driver just concentrates on the driving. In this instance the second picture shown was of the front of a transport road train travelling in the opposite direction, unsighted by the photographer at the time as they were concentrating on the irrigation equipment in the paddock. The transport road train with its 60 ton something loads, travelling at 100 kph and us in the opposite direction at about 90 kph = a point of impact at 190 kph if one of us moved onto the wrong side of the road. What a scary thought and is why our driver just drives. This also reiterated to us the importance of keeping the driver fresh and alert, where we regularly share the driving chores swapping before the driver gets tired.

We set camp at one of Hay’s free camp areas next to the Murrumbidgee River the 3^rd longest river in Australia about 1,500 kilometres long. Its water level the highest we had ever seen.

We walked about, along some walking trails set up around Hay and toured one of Hay’s 18^th century homes, the Bishop’s Lodge Historic house.

 

After a couple of days at Hay we continued down the road to the township of Narrandera, setting camp at its Brewery Flats free camping area. Once we were set up, (deciding where we should park) we walked the kilometre or so into town attending the towns information centre. There was a small foyer and we were provided with some local information via a small window. Once it was established, we were double vaccinated for covid-19 we were provided with entry into their inner sanctum where we were able to obtain more of the type of information we were seeking.

Our entry experience at the information centre was a sign of things to come with the latest government initiative requiring people to provide proof they were fully vaccinated for covid-19 prior to being granted entry.

We initially walked around town admiring some of the town’s older buildings.

The following morning, we were up early walking the publicised flora and fauna reserve trail with the advertised possibility of spotting some koalas. It was a lovely picturesque setting and even better when we indeed spotted some koalas. The area was water logged and hindered our progress around the trail. Though our spirits were high with our eyes tantalised by beautiful scenery and the koala spotting was very special.

We enjoyed a wetland’s walk with several bird hides scattered around its perimeter.

All the above walks we were able to seek out on foot from our base camp, adding to our enjoyment. There were a few other options of interest to us but required some initial drive time to these various areas. When we return to this area, we would like to allocate more time exploring its offerings. Our strategy for this trip during stop overs was to utilize our time for some rest and relaxation between our longish driving days on our way to Canberra. Narrandera seemed like a proud town with great walking trails, good aquatic park for the locals and visitors during those hot periods and the Murrumbidgee River.

After a couple of nights at Narrandera we continued our driving, choosing to deviate away from the main highways for this day’s travel time. There were a couple of larger towns, impacted by the covid-19 outbreaks along the highway route which we chose to avoid.

Travelling along the less travelled roads of the Australian country side provides a more interesting outlook of life away from our crowded cities. The progression of farmers canola crops over the growing season was fascinating. Early September we had seen paddocks with canola crops covered by vibrant yellow flowers and now in late November those same canola crops cut and stacked in wind rows waiting for the correct timing to remove it from the paddocks.

Our final stopover before arrival day at our target destination of Canberra was at Jugiong, with a large open area with camping permitted. We set camp on the picturesque outer edge with a view of the fast-flowing, very full Murrumbidgee River.

Canberra’s not a huge city by current modern-day times but it still had a population of 462,000 residents, still making it big. Our primary reason for travelling to Canberra was to be with our son and his family. Due to the ongoing lack of current appropriate information from our governments dealing with the covid-19 pandemic we chose to prop just outside of the Australian Capital Region at the smaller town of Yass to complete our food shop for our following weeks requirements. We were constantly strategizing with ideas to lessen any possible exposure from the effects of the pandemic.

We arrived at our planned destination at a caravan park in Canberra located about six kilometres from our son’s family home, spending the rest of the day in preparation for our planned nine days of activities.