A Minor bird found a discarded muffin at the next table. We had lunch with Ben, one of Stephen’s nephews, who works here in Canberra.
We saw an exhibition of Australian cartoons at the Library, and Stephen went on a tour.
Then to Coles, then home for a rest before heading out to the opening concert of the festival.
Visit to the Canberra Arboretum Wednesday 17th April, 2019
It’s been quite warm and sunny today after a misty start this morning. We got out by about 9.00 a.m., despite some false starts with forgetting things and repacking our stuff to make it easier to carry. We caught the 39 bus into the Central Bus Station. Our plan was to catch Bus 81 which runs by most of the main attractions. All of the bus numbers will change next week as the light rail comes into operation, so remembering bus numbers for future trips is not going to work.
We had a half hour wait and Stephen went off to get a new timetable and I had a coffee at a very small cafe adjacent to our bus stop. It was an interesting experience as it appears to be Vietnamese, but had a couple of Christian messages, including this bible quote for April.
Stephen arrived and started reading the paper.
It was quite a long bus ride and we were in conversation with a local person who was able to fill in some gaps for us. There was no tourist information given by the bus driver.
We visited the Arboretum four years ago in drenching rain. We were able to look out on some of the planting, but the only trees we were able to visit in person were the bonsai, which are housed in a covered area. This time we walked to the top of a hill and were able to have wonderful views all around, including views of the different types of trees and bushes. It appeared to us that it the plants and trees have grown enormously, but it might have been just that we only had a view in one direction from the main building.
We found we got very tired today and were glad to come home and have a rest. We were pleased to have had the opportunity to visit the Arboretum on a sunny day of course.
The Festival begins tomorrow evening, and we plan to have one more bus ride to the city to do some sight seeing. We are hoping to find a bit of time during the festival to take a ride on the new light rail service, which starts on Saturday.
Haircut and visit to National Galleries Tuesday 16th April, 2019
We have walked about 10 kilometres today, partly because we are not allowed into the performance area of the grounds and have to walk to a side entrance and then to our bus. Plus, of course, we visited the National Galleries.
We caught a bus to the town centre, where I stayed to get a haircut. I didn’t find a cheap place, even the shop that advertises as Just Cuts actually charged me $32 for a basic haircut. It seems to be quite a good haircut, but they offer a 7 day guarantee if not satisfied, so I can go back if I find it doesn’t quite work out.
I then caught a Number 6 bus to join Stephen in time for lunch at the Portrait Gallery Cafe. I had a lovely thick pumkin soup, Stephen had scrambled eggs on toast, and we finished off with coffee and a shared slice of cake.
As Stephen had been in the area for a couple of hours before I arrived he knew just the place for our afternoon nap, some beautiful, long couches inside the Gallery.
We walked across to the National Gallery to look at some Australian landscape paintings to see if they would feel familiar from our travels. I don’t think they did, but it was interesting to see how the artists saw the landscapes.
Between the gallery buildings is the High Court of Australia and a waterfall like fountain.
We headed to the bus stop just after 3.00 p.m.
We had a little shopping to do in town for our dinner tonight. I had some beef stirfry and wanted some fresh vegetables for doing a meal in the pressure cooker. We also wanted to get home whilst it was warm to bring in our washing. It was much better coming home in the daylight and we realised that we had gone the long way around once we entered the grounds to find our camping spot when we came back last night.
We bought in all the washing, folded it and put it away. Then, I started cooking. The meal certainly smells good. I’ve set up the pressure cooker outside and being outside I was there at sunset to see a lovely, glowing red cloud. The featured photo doesn’t do it justice, of course.
We are seeing some autumn colours, perhaps not as much as in past years when we have been here.
Arrival and an unexpected bonus 15th April, 2019
We contacted the organisers of the Folk Festival about the possibility of having electrical hookup here, and were told that it wasn’t possible as all places were booked. We drove down from Yass this morning and when we checked in Stephen asked about powered sites. We were told that there were plenty of sites available, but they would be gone by the afternoon. We could choose for ourselves, except in a couple of areas.
We are delighted to report that we have a site with power, water and a drain point for our grey water. Not only that, there is a dump point close by. We are right next to the better toilets and showers, and a laundry. We took advantage of that right a way to do a big load of washing. Geoff will be pleased to see I’m using his method of folding the awning cord.
Where we are camped is probably about a kilometre from the Festival itself. However, we don’t mind getting lots of exercise.
As we got close to the Folk Festival site on our way here we noticed a shiny new tram nosing it’s way along. Great, we thought, we will be able catch the tram instead of the bus to go to the centre of the city. Not so, the service doesn’t start until Saturday, they were just doing test runs. In the meantime the bus stop, which was just outside the front gate has moved to about a kilometre away. Rats! Still, I did say we like getting exercise.
After setting ourselves up here we caught a bus to the centre of the city and walked around visiting familiar places, such as the Workers Club, good for cheap meals.
We sorted out some bus passes, they teased Stephen by saying he could travel for free being over 70, but we would have to go to a special place to get the pass, and it wasn’t worth it, so he has the same type of concession pass as me. We get to travel for free, except during peak periods, just as we do in Perth. We went in on one service and came back on a different bus, they were much of a muchness in terms of walking distance.
I fancied having an ice cream and after walking around for a while we found a new ice cream cafe with Afghan ice cream, very delicious. We shared a large serving.
I sampled a few flavours, but liked best the Traditional flavour I tried first.
The featured photo was taken at a rest stop on the way here this morning. Our journey was only about 60 kms, but we still needed one short break.
We are on a slight tilt, but a wedge under one wheel makes it not too bad.
A restful day in Yass: Sunday 14th April, 2019
And we really have had a restful day. We walk over to the toilet sometimes, and that is a bit of a trek.
We washed the floors of the cab and house. We have a floor covering that doesn’t show much dirt, but we have been in very dusty and dirty environments and knew that it needed doing.
The featured image shows our fridge magnet collection so far. We already had one from Ravenshorpe showing the Qualup Bell flower. We also had one from Onslow.
Added are ones from Gundagai, Wagga Wagga, Narrandera, and Yass.
We took a short walk around the showgrounds to enjoy the sunset.
We helped some children with a hose attachment that was stuck. I held wrench whilst Stephen used another to turn. We make a good team.
Jugiong to Yass Saturday 13th April, 2019
We had a good night’s rest and left Jugiong at around 11 am. It is about 60 kms to Yass, which is to be our jumping off point for Canberra. We wanted to have at least one night on power before a week without to thoroughly barge up the batteries. It would have been nicer to have had two nights in Jugiong and one night in Yass. We are at the Showgrounds and didn’t actually find a level spot. We opted for a sideways tilt, rather than back to front, but may use the van to get around tomorrow and then find a different spot tomorrow night.
We had a walk into town, going to the Visitor Centre, then walked down the Main Street, through a park by the river, then back, visiting a church on the way. That doesn’t sound like much, but we are up a steep hill, and it was quite an effort. We are probably fitter than when we left home and I don’t feel overly tired out.
A little bit of local history on the Woolworths back wall.
The old court house
At the river bank park.
A friendly horse.
Mural under the bridge.
St Clements.
A fellow traveller took an interest in us on our way out on the walk. When we returned he and Stephen got chatting, we spoke about going to the National Folk Festival and it turns out that his son runs the Bushmans’ Camp there and he and his wife are on their way to help out. We have enjoyed going there in previous years for the food and entertainment. A small world.
The featured photo shows Stephen and this man who’s name we don’t know, having their chat.
Gundagai to Jugiong 12th April, 2019
Another day, another free camping area, just us and about 50 other vans.
Nevertheless we manage to look like we are on our own here.
We’ve been here before, oddly. We dropped in and went to the cafe on our way home from the National Folk Festival in 2014.
The garden area outside the Sir George.
After settling in and doing our chores of emptying the cassette and filling up the water tank we sat outside and relaxed. Later we went for a walk around the local area and I bought some sour dough bread from the cafe part of the Sir George.
We have our dinner, listen to podcasts, and have showers and go to bed when we are tired.
Oura Beach Camping Area to Gundagai 11th April, 2019
My dear readers, my apolgies for not posting yesterday. I felt too relaxed! The featured photo shows the view behind our van.
We stayed at Oura until after morning tea, which means we left at about 12.00. During the morning we went for walks and enjoyed a small drama in the trees with a bird crying to another bird to be fed, and the other bird (Sulphur crested cockatoos) giving in occasionally in exasperation. When the feeding bird finally flew off we noted that the crying bird was able to feed itself. We can’t understand why the feeding bird was so patient for so long.
Shaky, unedited video. My apologies.
Our drive to Gundagai was on a back road through rolling hills and pastures, very scenic. We are staying at a free camping site near a small creek. We have flushing toilets about 500 metres away and not too much shade. We have a friendly neighbour with one of the Nikon very long lens cameras and he is able to get marvellous bird photos from a long distance away. He needed Stephen to get his book out and identify them for him.
We put out our awning for the first time on this trip and discovered that one of the runners is out of it’s groove on one side. Very annoying as we had this fixed. However, we were still able to use it and Stephen anchored it down for safety. It helped yesterday afternoon when the sun was fierce and we wanted it for our solar, but shade on the van was very nice.
The evening was mild. Stephen went for a walk to the Visitor Centre and bought we a local fridge magnet, as commisioned. We sat outside having cups of tea and admiring the view. Then we went for another short walk up the hill and around the streets. Stephen had wanted to go to the museum yesterday, but it was already shut.
This morning we are taking it easy, he is at the museum and I am taking the opportunity to blog at a very nice and extremely busy cafe. Our first choice was the art deco cafe next door with lovely booths, but it was cash only. Not only do I not have any cash, I haven’t brought a card with me to get cash from a machine. So, the Coffee Pedelar it is, and when I asked permission to plug in my laptop I was given a very gracious yes.
We stayed at a caravan park when we came here four years ago, which we remembered as being unique in having covered ensuite sites. We were delighted to see them still in operation on our way through to our campsite yesterday. They are well built, like a drive through motel. not just temporary structures. I probably have a photo somewhere.
Wagga Wagga to Oura Beach Reserve 10th April, 2019
We had a morning of sight seeing in WW. We went for a short walk in the wildlife reserve where we were camping, then drove to the Visitor Centre car park and walked around the block viewing churches. There was a Presbyterian, an Anglican, a Catholic and a Uniting Church. I bumped into a local man, a teacher at the Catholic School, and asked him why they were grouped together. He said it was an old part of town near the river, and this was a section of high ground above flood levels. Makes sense.
The Anglican Church and the Catholic Cathedral were both very fine buildings. We were fortunate that when we went into the Anglican church someone was practising on the organ, lovely peaceful music that suited the meditative aspect of the church. The Catholic church is a beautiful sandstone building.
After our walk and meditation in two of the churches we went to the local Botanic Gardens. That involved driving to the other side of WW, missing our entry, going up and over a steep hill and around the streets to try again.
I was more interested in morning tea than the gardens, the cafe was closed, but I had filled the new thermos I bought at Kmart yesterday and the water was hot enough to make our tea. We had some anzac biscuits and it was quite a lovely morning tea. Stephen looked around as much as he could – some things were closed.
At our free campsite in WW we noticed that the toilet rolls were padlocked, a sensible move, perhaps, given all the campers and homeless people using the camp. What surprised me was that the toilet rolls at the Botanic Gardens were also padlocked. What! Is there an illicit trade in toilet rolls in WW?
We decided to head out of town for our lunch and we looked up a place on Wikicamps that was available to camping. The comments section said it was lovely. It is also just 14 kms out of town, ideal. By the time we had finished our picnic lunch we had made up our minds to stay the night. There are many vans around, but the area is large enough that we are not particularly close to anyone else. A couple of people are running generators, but compared with the noise of the ouras (parrots) the constant burring noise is not annoying.
There is a sandy beach, possibly man made though we are at the bend in the river and the areas not covered by water are also sandy. There are picnic tables and fire pits as well. I could not find any mention of camping time limits. There is just one toilet, but it is a flushing toilet and clean. Most of the vans are self contained and where they are not, people have put up little toilet tents.
We have switched over to our winter doona, which is both lighter and warmer than our other doona. The winter PJs are also being taken out of storage. It was cold overnight in WW and we expect it will be pretty cold here as well.
The featured image at the top of this post shows Stephen relaxing on a bench as the sun is setting. We have a view of the river from our dining room window and the other windows look out onto green grass and huge trees.
