This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Author Archives: wendyviney


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1998 Travels March 25

WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

We were up before 6am. Drove to Central, to the bus station. Got there at 7.10 and the bus left at 7.20. Never let it be said that we are excessively early for things!

After the bus had departed, I had to drive Truck out to Belconnen, where John had arranged to have the brakes checked at the Landrover dealer. John has recently been unhappy with the way they are working – not stopping strongly enough. I was just a little ahead of the peak traffic time!

I walked around the Westfield Shopping Centre, from 8.30am till 1pm. Think I saw every shop in the place, and did much browsing. Bought an ice cream cone and had a couple of coffees. Had some lunch – a roll.

At 1pm, phoned Landrover and they said I could collect Truck and go. Good! I was getting rather bored with the shopping centre, and was pleased to be ahead of the late afternoon traffic.

Back to the caravan park. The brakes seemed alright to me. The mechanic said they had driven it up and down Black Mountain to test it, but did not indicate what they had done to remedy the brakes.

I read and sewed for the rest of the day.

Had a very light tea – just some salad.

The graduation ceremony was mostly an evening affair, so I thought of John, hoping he’d travelled comfortably, found his daughter appreciative of the effort it has taken for him to go down there – and that my son has found him a decent hotel room.


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1998 Travels March 24

TUESDAY 24 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Wishful thinking about the cool change as it is another hot day.  It is more humid – some cloud too.

Another trip to Namadgi National Park today. We enjoyed the last one so much that we want to go back for further exploration.

Followed the same route as last time. Had our sandwich lunch at the starting point for the Settlers Hut walk, on the Old Boboyan Road. We passed an intriguing old homestead on the way up that side track; it looks as if it might still be used.

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Near Tharwa – the Murrumbidgee River

Cycled down the Old Boboyan Road. It was quite hilly and rough, with some sandy patches, for the first 6 or 7 kms. I had to walk up hills a few times. My bike chain came off at one point, but I managed to get it back on myself, as John was some way ahead. Grubby hands!

We got to the point we reached from the other end, the other day.

Then out in this place that felt really isolated, we met another cyclist. He suggested to us that we continue up the Naas valley for a way, to where there was an old hut. He seemed a little strange and made me uneasy. He said he brings his family here sometimes, but did not seem to really be familiar with the geography of the area. He said that he was going for a walk – that he was in the habit of leaving his bike and walking.

We did ride up and have a look around the hut, and rode a little further up the valley, which was very pretty. But I was uneasy, and John shared the feeling, so we turned back. Could not see the walker. I was glad to be away from that area.

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Snow gums in the Naas Valley

We found the ride back much easier – the rough stuff was easier going downhill.

In the distance, across a valley, we saw what appeared to be a couple of dingoes. Wondered how pure the strain is, in these parts? One would assume considerable inter breeding with wild dogs.

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Pastoral era remnants in Namadgi National Park

We cycled 25.5 kms – a substantial ride in these conditions.

Back at the van, John packed for his Melbourne trip. He is just taking the day pack.

He phoned S and arranged to go there for tea on the day of his return. When he told me, I pointed out that it would be quite late, as the bus is not scheduled to get in until 8.20pm. He had thought it was earlier, so he was cross. He had to phone back and make a later time to visit.

Tea was salads.


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1998 Travels March 23

MONDAY 23 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Another hot day and yet another Total Fire Ban.

We find this a dry heat so, although the sun beats down when we are outside, it is not the humid, oppressive, draining heat. What I do find depressing is the visual dryness and sense that the land and its creatures are suffering.

We drove to S’s to drop off some information John had for her. Left it on the doorstep.

John did more word processing. I began to put our mounting collection of photos into an album, with captions. I wonder how many of these we will fill before we end this trip?

After lunch, went back to the War Memorial, but the Research Area was not open. So we browsed in the WW1 display area and in the bookshop – for a couple of hours. Spent some time in the Commemorative Courtyard, with its Honour Rolls – walls with the names of over 100,000 Australians who died in wars and associated activities.  This really brings home the scale of Australia’s various wartime efforts – and the toll these have taken.

John’s research efforts had brought to light that there had been a history written of the 39th battalion in WW1, so it was off to the National Library to seek a copy. Found it and John spent time skimming it and taking photocopies of some parts – cost $7.

It was about 7pm before we left there!

Drove to S’s to see if she had gotten the material that John had left earlier, but there was no one home. We did a little getting lost, trying to get there around the circles. I was not navigating, as John said he knew where he was going!

Went up Mt Ainsley again, to see the city lights – that was lovely and worth doing. The War Memorial below Mt Ainsley is lit up at night, but not too brightly – it looks excellent, and the panorama of the city spreads away on all sides. One appreciates the extent of the city – and the way the suburbs are interspersed with parks and bushland, when you see the light and dark areas at night.

We did not get back to the park until 8pm.

John phoned K to get the details of the hotel he will be staying in. They were at P’s parents’ place, but he’d left a message for us on the machine.

There had been clouds building through the afternoon and it became somewhat humid. By night, it was just beautifully balmy. There was no rain, though we thought there might be. Maybe it is just a little cooler change?

Very late tea was leftovers from Saturday.


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1998 Travels March 22

SUNDAY 22 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Today was even hotter – about 35. Another Total Fire Ban Day.

John bowled in the morning – a fairly early start, which was good, given the heat.

While he was gone, I researched distances and routes north and caravan parks.

We are starting to feel that, with all our delays since departure in January, we need to really focus on getting to Qld, if we are serious about getting up to Cape York in the dry season. Will have to “save” much of the NSW coast for later.

I eventually made some phone calls and got us booked into the place that was my first choice, at Tewantin, near Noosa, in Qld, for Easter. So at least we are secure in knowing we have a place to be, over that normally busy period. That will allow us to spend a week near Kempsey, visiting with John’s much older brother whose health is poor, but we will need to be fast moving, before and after that. It will probably mean only two nights to stay at the Gold Coast, where I want to visit a close friend.

After bowls, John word processed the work he’d done at the War Museum. It was too hot to go anywhere. I read and sewed and just generally relaxed.

During the afternoon, a bushfire developed near Red Hill, which is between here and the Capitol part of Canberra. Lots more regular siren noises. With all the open space and bushland between the clusters of Canberra suburbs, it seems quite fire prone, especially as dry as it is now.

A young guy came up to ask us about the Defender – what we thought of it. He stayed around for quite a chat. He is working for the National Parks and staying in one of the cabins towards the back of the park. He told us that one of the other cabin tenants, a couple of rows down from us, had – on Friday about 6pm – gotten into his car and driven it hard across into the opposite row, damaging two cabins quite badly, including this man’s. He wasn’t home at the time. The offender was blind drunk; he had earlier come into the park the worse for wear and driven into the barrier at the park entrance. The police had come – several of them – and arrested him. He has a drink/drive history, apparently. We had not heard a thing!

About 6pm, when it was getting a little cooler, we went for a walk, around the streets in the vicinity of the caravan park. It seems to be a fairly rough area and rather depressing. I did not feel all that secure.

Tea was leftovers from last night.


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1998 Travels March 21

SATURDAY 21 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Another hot day, getting to about 34 degrees. Another Total Fire Ban Day.

After breakfast, I drove to the shops to buy my Saturday Age indulgence, and some more supplies for tonight, plus rolls for lunch, and special bread.

John went off to bowls in the afternoon, and I spent much of it working on preparation for tea. The menu was olives and soy crisps for nibbles. Then gazpacho with Greek kythera bread. Mango chicken salad, green salad. Figs and pears cooked in honey and port with vanilla yoghurt. Cheeses and fruit. Chocolates. A veritable feast.

It was all ready on time. It is amazing what one can do in a small space. I had to plug the Chescold camp fridge into the external power point, though, to chill the drinks and to take the food overflow from our not very big van fridge.

H and C brought beer and champagne, but only small stools to sit on, so I fear they were not very comfortable. We sat outside under the awning, of course. I wonder if we could manage to squeeze in a couple of reasonable guest chairs in amongst what we carry?

C appeared to succumb to some bug during the evening, and by 9.30 was feverish and miserable. His back was playing up, too, and he eventually finished up lying flat out on the ground to try to ease it. Must have looked quite strange to other campers.

So they left about 9.45, with H driving. It was a bit of a pity that the night ended so early, but we would have had to be very quiet after 10pm anyway.

There was not much cleaning up to be done, as I had dealt with it as we progressed through the meal. There were enough leftovers for another meal or two, but that is alright because it was lovely food, if I do say so!

We really enjoyed the evening. Is good to entertain, even with limitations.


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1998 Travels March 20

FRIDAY 20 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

A hot day – low 30’s.

Noticed today that there are lots of currawongs around here now. Their whistling and yacka-yacka calls are a constant background sound. I find it charming. Maybe a sign of autumn coming, though.

John wanted to go back to the War Memorial to do some more research on his dad’s battalion in France, in 1916-17. The available materials are such that really only one person can use them at a time, and he was more interested in this than I was.

I walked until I found a bakery and then on to food shops to get things for lunch. It took me two hours! I must have walked about 8kms! There are times when the layout of Canberra really frustrates  me.

When I got back to the Memorial, all hot and bothered, John was too engrossed to bother with lunch, anyway, which rather annoyed me, after all that effort. I ate mine outside, on the lawn, in a patch of shade.

I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing in the WW1 section of the Memorial, then sitting outside on the lawn, in the shade, reading.

John finished at 4.30pm, when the research section shut.

We shopped for foods for tomorrow night’s dinner with H and C. Cost me $60, plus more for alcohol, however, that was still only about $15 per person. As John pointed out, you couldn’t eat out for that. Especially around here!

Tea was bought fish and chips.


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1998 Travels March 19

THURSDAY 19 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Hot day – 29 degrees, with clear blue sky.

John phoned Trakmaster. He has to call another day to speak to the person he wanted, about the fridge shifting forward in its space. We have noticed that on a few occasions, after we’ve towed, that the fridge protrudes out by several cms, and has to be pushed back. There does not seem to be anything to stop this happening. However, he was advised how to shift the window handle at the foot of our bed, from one side of the window to the other, to make lifting the mattress up and down easier. He did this – it did not take long.

We went for a drive south, with the bikes on the back, to Namadgi National Park. I had not heard of this Park before we got to Canberra. It is within the ACT. Took the same route out to Tharwa as we’d travelled the other day. Got fuel at Conder on the way through – 73 cpl.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre, just south of Tharwa. It had some interesting displays. The National Park came into existence in 1984, so it is not that “old”. As well as the expected natural country, it also contains areas that were used for grazing, in particular the alpine meadow sections.

From the Visitor Centre proceeded south on the Naas Road, initially through farmland – the Orroral Valley. The Naas Road became the Boboyan Road. Saw two big foxes in that section.

Then it was into the Park proper. We ate our picnic lunch at Glendale Crossing – a pleasant spot beside the Gudgenby River, with toilets and tables, but many hungry ants.

South of there, took the Old Boboyan Road, which was unsealed. Parked in a cleared area by the roadside and rode the bikes up the Naas Valley track – a management track. This was a shallow valley, mostly alpine meadow, with wooded slopes at the sides where snow gums were dominant. Very beautiful. Could see why this part of the  Monaro region attracted some settlers.

Found some interesting old homestead ruins – chimney, bits of timber, and what appears to be a stone covered grave. There were gnarled old orchard trees and wild roses. This would have been a very isolated place to live and subject to severe weather conditions. We could see where there were frost hollows in the valley.

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Sundance or Cassidy?

The management trail made a great riding track – we did 5 kms along it, then returned the way we came. A 10km ride in all. Cycling on this little track kind of reminded me of a scene out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! It was quite exhilarating.

Saw no other people in the Park. The road through it becomes gravel, and eventually goes on in NSW to join other tracks to Adaminaby, but it is 4WD in NSW.

It was dark by the time we got back to the van. Tea was simple – warmed up leftover chow mein and salad.  Drove 158kms today.


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1998 Travels March 18

WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

A fairly warm day today.

We had an early lunch before John went to bowls. He enjoyed himself and won $10.

I walked down to the shopping centre and back. Put in a film for processing and picked up the photos after 90 minutes. I do have to ration my photo taking more than I really like, because of the cost. Browsed in shops and bought a few groceries – bearing in mind that I had to carry things back uphill. Mailed some postcards we had written over the past few days.

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing Hardanger embroidery. I am really making good progress at learning this, I think. It is a really engrossing way to fill in time.

Tea was mince chow mien and rice.

John phoned K and they have arranged that John will stay in one of the city hotels of the chain where K is marketing manager. We think (hope?) that may be at a discount rate, or maybe even free.


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1998 Travels March 17

TUESDAY 17 MARCH     QUEANBEYAN

Pleasant, warm day.

We drove into Canberra to attend to various items.

Went to the airport, on the way in, where John checked out the cost of air fares to Melbourne – $200 each way! The bus it will be. So continued on to Central and booked his bus/train tickets for next week. We have some concern over how well his hip will go on such travel, but the air fares are just too dear. At least, on the train segment, he will be able to walk about a bit.

At the NRMA offices, checked out insurance costs and details for Truck, as this is due soon, and we were not sure who to insure with, that will cover all the extras on Truck. While there, I picked up some travel information – mostly booklets and maps for NSW. They have these rather strange little pocket sized regional guide books, with fold up maps in a back pocket.

Continued out to Belconnen, towards the outer north east of Canberra, to sort out the Truck insurance, only to be told we’d have to go to the dealer at Phillip, out on the southern side. Naturally, they were on opposite sides of Canberra! So we trundled back through the traffic and into yet another part of town that was new to us. Got it sorted.

These details occupied us until into the afternoon. Bought lunch rolls at Phillip.

Then drove to Mt Stromlo Observatory, since we were now on the same side of town. Out that way has a lot of pine plantations growing, which I do not find in keeping with Canberra – it should all be native vegetation.

We were too late for the afternoon tour of the Observatory, which was disappointing, so we just browsed in their shop for a little while.

Continued on to the SW, to Cotter Dam and Casuarina Sands picnic area, on the Murrumbidgee River. The Cotter Dam is a water supply for Canberra.

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The Murrumbidgee River at Casuarina Sands

The Murrumbidgee River is really low – barely flowing. We sat on a rock in the stream for half an hour, just enjoying being out of the urban environment for a little while. The picnic area and camping ground looked excellent, but there was no one staying in the camp area. I wondered if that is because of the high fire danger at the moment, or if there is a hoon problem at night. Don’t think I would like to stay here, so close to the city.

We drove back to the van via the Paddys River Road, through more pine forest, past the Tidbinbilla Space Tracking Station – saw tracking dishes in the distance, to Tharwa. So we followed the Murrumbidgee valley. The scenery was beautiful in the late afternoon light, with dramatic hills and valleys and a mix of native and European trees. After all the urban stuff this morning, this was a lovely way to end the day.

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The Tharwa area in the late afternoon

From Tharwa, took the Monaro Highway, then Lanyon Drive which took us to Queanbeyan, without having to go back to Canberra.

Tea was meat patties and salad.


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1998 Travels March 16

MONDAY 16 MARCH    QUEANBEYAN

Another pleasant warm day. It was a public holiday in the ACT.

Drove to the shops where I picked up my photos.

We went to the National Gallery,  on the southern side of the Lake. A white blocky shaped building, I thought its external architecture should be more creative than it is – very uninspiring.

We sat on one of the surrounding lawn areas and ate our picnic sandwiches. The lawns were crowded because of the holiday, with lots of other people relaxing in the sun.

Admission to the Gallery cost us $6.

I found much of the Gallery disappointing. I expected a much better and broader Australian collection on display, especially of 20th century Australian artists. For example, the Broken Hill based Brushmen of the Bush group did not seem to be represented. Why on earth was there no Pro Hart? They did have a small sample of Lloyd Rees work. Did not see much that I liked in their Australian section – even the McCubbins shown were not my favourites. They do have the Nolan Kelly series, which is interesting, even though I would not like to live with one!

We did find their aboriginal art section excellent. It included a large display of burial poles from Ramingining, in Arnhem Land, which was established to highlight 200 years of aboriginal deaths since settlement.

We were intrigued by a sculpture of the globe, hanging suspended over an outside area – done by Neil Dawson, a NZ artist. That and the burial poles were the best parts of the afternoon.

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The intriguing suspended globe by the National Gallery

We did a lot of walking and standing around the Gallery, and were rather weary when we left there, about 4pm and went back to the van.

Tea was salads, steak and fries.