One week to go
Buoyed with our success of surviving a
weekend in Bombala and weathering the very frosty conditions, we went to set
the van up the next week to start packing it properly. There isn’t much room so
one has to be a bit strategic about the chossing and packing of items. Unfortunately the weather had
other ideas and the weekend was cold, raining, sleeting and otherwise
undesirable to move very far outdoors at all.
We did manage to get the new mattress in. I
had measured the mattress in the van before Bombala and I was hoping and praying
that I got it right. The tape measure and I aren’t always that accurate. We got
it custom cut at Clark Rubber in Fyshwick where the staff was extremely
cheerful. Anyway, it fitted. Greg was surprised and I tried hard not to look
relieved!
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| the cruiser with her new bull bar |
Our cruiser was due to go and get her bull
bar, new shocks and various other 4 wheel drive specialty items fitted and we
were to pick her up on Saturday morning. We had also organized with a friend of
a friend to look at a caravan they have for sale. This was 15 minutes out of
Queanbeyan. The idea was to drive falcon to pick up cruiser – in Fyshwick at
ARB. Leave the falcon there and travel to look at the van, come back, collect
falcon, go home, commence final packing and getting house ready etc.
Well all this went out of the window when
the guy at ARB said that we had to bring the car back in 500km for a tightening
of bolts etc. 500km!! We were going to be away by then! Visions of things
falling off the cruiser when we were in the back of beyond with no help, no
mobile signal and stranded flooded us so now we had to have a 500km pleasant
drive so we could take the cruiser back for a once over. That’s one heck of a
drive - unplanned and in a tight
schedule already. What to do!
Greg suggested that we pop down to my
parent’s place at the coast which was great except it’s a 3 ½ hour drive and
then we have to come back with the snow traffic (much impatient traffic on the
way home overtaking at dangerous times and tailgating etc) It would have been
just lovely to see my folks before our trip. I would have loved that so much.
It’s a long way, however, and we wanted to
go to bike hash house harriers the next day, as we wouldn’t be doing that for a
month either. We both just didn’t feel like that much of a drive so we decided
to go to Goulburn via Gundaroo as there is a dirt road the back way. If they
wanted us to shake the car about to alert the mechanics to loose bolts, this
would be it.
Unfortunately I had alerted my mother to
the possibility of us ‘popping’ down for a night and she had started
apologizing for the state of the house – which is rubbish as its immaculate on
her messiest day! I promised to bring dinner with us to save worrying about
what to feed everyone, but would have to scram early the next day making it the
fastest visit ever. I felt so bad calling her again and telling her that we
would not be down. I hate these types of decisions. One half of you says that
it wants to stay and the other says it wants to go and you don’t want to
disappoint people and in the end you feel guilty and bad whatever you do. She
was disappointed, I felt bad. I opened a chardonnay!
The drive
After I upset my mother but before the
opening of the chardonnay, we threw a thermos and some yucky cake into a picnic basket and set off
for a sizeable drive that would suffice for most of the 500km. We went the back
way to Gundaroo, passed through there and went to Gunning. I have been to
Gundaroo for lunch on a number of occasions and it’s the best place for a good
meal. Choice of places, mostly open weekends and in winter they have open
fires…mmmm cozy. Then on to Gunning which I have driven past on the Hume
Highway but never been through. Quite a pleasant surprise town and would like
to go back there for a proper explore.
We went the way of Crookwell and got half
way there before I spied a sign off to the right saying ‘Goulburn’ so I turned
down it. Well if the dirt road wasn’t enough to shake the car – which since
it’s a well maintained dirt road it wasn’t, this bitumen road with the repaired
potholes was. It almost like driving on a patchwork quilt of bitumen and it was
so uneven that it was a blessing not to be driving the falcon right now.
However it was very narrow and there was not a farmhouse to be seen. After
about ¾ an hours drive we came across an immaculately kept church. Here, in the
middle of nowhere, with no population a really nice church! I had to take a
photo. It was chained and locked at the gate so no ‘artistic’ photography here!
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| the church in the middle of nowhere, beautifully kept, all locked up without a house in sight for miles! |
The new shocks on the cruiser and maybe the
added weight of the bull bar gave her better handling on the road. She purred
like an oversized kitten (one big white one of considerable pedigree – with
short hair as long haired white ones are too much maintenance!) making a
mockery of hills, uneven terrain and laughing at potholes in the face. Where as
before on similar ground, there was a bit of slop in the front end, now she was
sturdy and great – and we haven’t even been on a challenging track yet. Her
4.2litre turbo giving her lots of torque and the roof racks on top whistling
away with the wind. Oh it was lovely driving in the evening winter sun – with
the heater on as outside was freezing.
Eventually we arrived at the back end of
Goulburn and our nav man thing was trying to tell me how to get to the Post
office – which was shut and I didn’t need to go there anyway. I used to have to
go to Goulburn once per month as a stationery rep back in my early days of
living in Canberra so kind of knew where I was. We did find the cheapest diesel
for miles around at a Shell service station. It was 10 cents per liter cheaper
than Canberra and I had a discount shopping docket which gave us a further 4
cents off. We thought we were very canny indeed.
Back home to Canberra, we defrosted the
house, lit our combustion fire, I opened what was by now a well earned
chardonnay and celebrated one of the most enjoyable drives of the cruiser (from
my point) ever.
I must tell you that my husband Greg is a
great guy and is a fully qualified photographer with over a gazillion years
experience. He is up on every professional gadget, camera, lens, filter,
technique, software, etc you name it. He is so knowledgeable and great to
listen to once he gets wound up about his passion, which is photography.
However, he cannot for the life of him take a photo out of a car window (down)
to save himself.
I, the non professional, can, and well.
The problem is if its me driving there are
no photos. If its him driving – plenty of photos.
I can’t understand why such a wonderful,
talented individual finds it so difficult to wind a window down (which they are
electric so saving effort and energy), aiming a simple Nikon Coolpix out in the
general direction of scenery, and pushing a button, difficult. Why is that so
hard? But he does find it beyond him and refuses. So for this trip there are
not many photos. Actually when there are not many photos you know that its me
driving - so unless I pull over to
take a shot, this might be our first stumbling point!! The blog needs photos!!
You may wonder about the cake……
I have a wonderful gadget called a ‘shuttle
chef’ and its made by thermos(brand) and it works like a slow cooker without
the power. Google Thermos Shuttle Chef and there is a heap of info on it.
Actually please do as explaining the concept of it would take me another day of
blog! In short it comes with as set of saucepans which, to do a soup, casarole,
lamb shanks etc, I can do really well but you are also supposed to do cakes. I
ordered the cake steamer and my first cake, whilst following the instructions
in the book to the letter, was uncooked and yuk. In spite of re cooking it in a
conventional oven, and trying hard to eat the cooked bits of it – it ended up
in the bin.
I will have to alter the recipe cooking
time and try again. I hate waste and even more – failure!
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