18 - 2023 - August - Canberra, catching up with family

 

Entry 18 – 2023 – August –  Canberra – Catching up with family.

We had been at Pilliga Hot Artesian Waters, enjoying its soothing effect on our bodies. There was the need to consider another self-imposed commitment requiring a pre-planned caravan park accommodation booking at the Australian capital city of Canberra. There was a need to reflect on the driving distance of about 650 kilometres from Pilliga.

For us it was obvious, the positive well-being effect on our bodies, provided by the Pilliga Hot Artesian Waters. This created an influence on our departure time line, where we eventually decided to allocate a minimum time line of two days to accomplish driving a distance of around 650-kilometres to Canberra.

It was the last month of the Australian winter season. We were inland in the southern half of Australia, away from the influence of the ocean waters on the daily temperatures. The cooler temperatures make for easier driving conditions with the maximum temperature during our driving time at around 11 C. If it had been during the hot summer periods, we could have expected to incur temperatures in the high 30’s C.

The night time temperatures had been hovering around 0 C. We do enjoy the comforts provided by our caravan with its heating options providing an enjoyable comfortable inside air temperature. When out bush away from services we utilise a diesel-powered heater and during times of access to electricity we use a small fan forced electric heater.

During extreme low temperatures as we were experiencing at -3 C, we added the comforts provided by an electric blanket at bed time. It was very comforting, climbing into a nice warm bed for sleep time.

Towing a caravan around Australia incurs an element of discomfort and work. There is a need for concentration, monitoring how the caravan is travelling as well as the tow tug. The Australian Road conditions seemed to be deteriorating, year after year. Our thoughts and observations indicated this was due to a lack of maintenance (provided by a lack of foresight with bureaucracy cost cutting measures) and the increasing presence of large road train type trucks travelling away from the main arterial routes on road surfaces not designed to handle the huge weights of these vehicles.

The below picture taken whilst driving towards Canberra, was initially aimed at the scenery. Ironically it also showed the decline of the road conditions which were bouncing us about in an unsafe manner. Sadly, this was becoming a common denominator driving around Australia.

It is still enjoyable viewing driving around the Australian country-side, especially during times with good winter rains providing a vibrant look.

 

On arrival at Canberra, we immediately took advantage of the spoils provided by a busy city environment. We purchased a new pair of hiking boots for Steve, replacing the one he lost in the creek, described back in entry 12. It was noted the price of his boots from the original purchase at about $400 had now risen to about $600 adding some further impact to his indiscretion of the moment. This provided an influence for purchasing another pair, not quite as expensive.

We were in Canberra to spend time with our son and his family.

As per normal our son took advantage of our presence. There was time with our grand-children and the baby-sitting duties whilst our son and wife had some time out to themselves. There were the hard labour duties with the redesigning of their front garden layout. This involved removal of thorny rose bushes and a lot of digging for plantation of new plants. It was tiring work. We could see the potential of a good-looking self-supporting garden area.

It was winter and Canberra was cold with most mornings waking to a fog covered landscape. Though it is always great catching up with family.

It was another busy week with lots of manual labour at Canberra. Our bodies were indicating that’s enough of that achy feeling stuff, so it was time to move on.