The Australian 500

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DAY 500

We woke early with the screeching and squawking of the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo’s, in the tree’s having a debate about something or other, what ever it was they were debating it at the top of their voices, so it must have been important.

Today is a very special day for Kangaroojack, he/we have been on our travels for 500 hundred days, that is just amazing to us, and it has gone in a heartbeat.

The Blog to us has been a useful archive of our trip, which at times has seemed difficult to write, whilst on other occasions it has been so easy. Sometimes you can sit at the keyboard and hammer words out like there is no tomorrow, however another day you can sit at the keyboard and wonder when the words will flow, but I guess we have not done too badly.

I suppose whilst typing this on a coolish Canberra morning, my thoughts just seem to blend into one, about the trip, but when I think back and break it down in my mind and with the aide of the blog to recall certain people, names and events its hard to comprehend just what we have done.

Of late our lives have gone back into flat out hectic mode, not dissimilar to our old life back in the UK, but their definitely is an interesting twist to it, may be at the moment still living in the Wendy House is somewhat interesting, I don’t think either of us would have guessed that the trip would pan out like this, going to and from work with a different view each day, especially driving over Lake Burley Griffin when the sun is coming up, the view is spectacular. When you are in the office life is generally the same, but you look out of the window and the view is different.

What we are both sure is, is that we gave the “Going Around Australia” thing a really good crack for our first attempt and we are again both quite sure we haven’t got the travel bug out of our system yet and recognise that there are places here that are ours to discover and there are plenty of them!

It may seem a bizarre existence to some but the sense of freedom is over powering, we have had all the financial ties and the like, we still have a lovely house in the UK, which can remain with the tenants that are in it at the moment, so who knows what will happen next, what ever happens next I don’t think it is worth worrying about.

So this stage in our trip is a poignant mark, the adventures we have had have been truly inspiring, we need to top up our piggy bank after 16 months of not working, which is all good.

Its strange to see, the travellers that is, they are all shapes, sizes colours and creeds all chasing something, not necessarily a dream, but an adventure may be?

Has it changed our opinion or outlook on life? Probably a great deal, but in the main a healthy respect goes out to people who get off their ars*s and get amongst it, in particular the travellers who do the hard yakka and have to find a safe place to stay each night, who just may brush their teeth in a mug of water at the back of the vehicle and not shower for a couple of days and swim in the various natural pools because that is the only water your body is likely to come into contact with for several days, this has been just a part of the adventure we both feel that it has changed our lives forever.

The ones that make me smile are the Europeans who come over, hire a Wicked camper or buy and old car and set off, many I am sure without the comprehension of what they are taking on, although I have no doubt they achieve what they want to along the way with the absolute minimum.

So the throng of travellers, be it in a Winnebago, tear drop caravan, camper trailer or caravan and for all those who have wee’d behind a tree, had to dig a hole with your trusty shovel so you can have a poo in peace and quiet, doesn’t shower for a couple of days and who throw together all the “eat em ups” into a meal fit for a king we hope to meet you all on the road soon, this has been our adventure.

Well back to the blog, Caroline stayed in bed an extra ½ an hour this morning, as it is something she hasn’t had the opportunity to do for ages, so I asked Caroline if she would like tea in bed and the reply of course was “yes”.

After a quick shower, I had promised Caroline a cooked breakfast this morning, so I soon served up poached eggs on toast with bacon and lots of HP sauce.

The morning is gorgeous, it was a bit late in blossoming, but it is sunny and warm, though they have forecast rain, there is no sign of that as yet.

We laze around for most of the morning, every now and again finding something that needs doing so it gets done and we sit back down again, Caroline does some ironing so that our clothes are ready for the week, we both take the time to read.

We were going to have a hike up to the Telstra Tower but the enthusiasm for that is lacking, it will have to be done another day. However we head into town to do a bit of research on snorkels and flippers, it is also Caroline’s birthday soon so I am looking for a bit of inspiration but I am sure that Caroline will help out there.

As we visit the cinema so frequently (well, we don’t have TV at the moment!) we decided to join the Dendy Club, which means that every four cinema visits we are entitled to a free ticket and every ticket we buy costs $10 instead of the usual $16, so we feel that it will not be too long before we get our moneys worth out of it.

Anyway we sort that out while we are in town but the desire for a latte in Borders bookshop beckons so we sit and read, drink coffee and generally enjoy the atmosphere.

Back at camp we decide that a swim would be in order, so head down to the pool, there is no one else brave enough to enter the water so we have the pool to ourselves, bliss! I take my usual dive whilst Caroline takes the casual approach, but still manages to get into the cold water quicker than she used to, I have only done 2 lengths and soon Caroline catches me up.

In no time we manage to knock out our 30 lengths, we are both pleased with our efforts, the water only seems to get colder each time, it is warmer on the outside than in the water, it seems quite pleasant to get out and warm up a bit!

After a light tea we head back out to the Dendy to see Hurt Locker, we booked the tickets online yesterday, we have both been looking forward to seeing this film and are not surprised to find that the cinema is quite full.

It is a long film, we both enjoy it but we felt that it did lack a little something in the story line however I guess it’s a reality of war that the film is giving us.

Things are not so good back in the car park though, we find that the ticket machines have broken so are directed by security to the nearest one which is still a fair hike, there is a long queue for the single working ticket machine, by the time it gets to us, Caroline puts the money in and nothing happens, and then we find out that they same thing happened to the people before us that just walked away.

There was nobody answering the telephone, however to cut a long story short, the security guard reappeared and manages to get my money out of the machine, so we try again and bingo we now have a ticket that will let us out of the car park, I hope that everyone behind us manages too but by now we have all wasted 20 minutes trying to get out of here.

The night is cool and bedtime beckons so we head straight back to camp and turn in for the night.

The weekend is over already!

KJ

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Photos

Parliment House
Th Pointy Bit

Comments

[Gary]

I guess I'm one of them!!
Yep, we might be Canadians, but could be lumped into your European bunch. Although we had done a couple of small trips. Motels (ugh!!) mostly, the last and best trip was by hired campervan. It was, however, an awesome trip. Saw a lot, missed a lot, but enjoyed every minute. Unfortunately, we spent the children's inheritance in Oz. So unless we win the lottery, we (I) will live vicariously thru you folks, the Wallaby Wanderers and bloggers. You do such a great job with your blog. I know it will be difficult while you work, but I wait with anticipation the resumption of your travels. I am sooooooo envious. ENJOY