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Published: October 18th 2015
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Day 1 (15/10/2015) Left Cranbourne at 8.05PM to get a start & shorten the following day’s drive.
Arrived Seymour at 10.35PM & camped near a 24hour service station.
Day 2 (16/10/2015) Departed Seymour at 3.45AM. Extremely busy road with hundreds of semi trailers, but being a 2 lane highway in each direction made it an easy drive.
Arrived Wangaratta at 5.10AM for breakfast. Caffeine need was high & it gave the necessary kick to get the body into second gear.
Departed Wangaratta at 5.50AM. Stopped in Albury to get petrol:
Unleaded $129.7/L 48.74L 379.5km 12.7L/100kms
Arrived Gundagai at 9.35AM. Took some photos of the dog on the Tuckerbox & had a brief walk to stretch the legs.
Departed Gundagai at 10.05AM. Had lunch 30km from Canberra under a nice shady tree just to freshen up before having to set the caravan up.
Arrived in Canberra at 12.55PM, staying at the Alivio Caravan Park in O’Connor. Nice park within reasonable distance of facilities.
Set the caravan & annexe up in less than an hour which has to be an all time record. High 5’s all round & we decided
to hop in the pool & spa to cool off. Deb decided to do some stunt work, missing the step & crashing into the dividing wall. A massive bruise up near the right hip & another huge bruise down the right forearm from elbow to wrist, plus a bit of skin off. Only Deb is capable of doing the impossible!
Deb lounged on a recliner with some ice on the wounds until a very large Italian family with about 9 kids started dive bombing in the pool despite signs against it. For kids under 14 the language was colourful & with the volume of a ghetto blaster on 100%! (MISSING)
We retreated back to the van, got changed & went to the supermarket. $1.50 an hour for the car park to get your groceries. Must be struggling for $$$ in Canberra. Following this a 20 minute wait at the slower-than-snail register to get out of the supermarket before heading back to the van to drink away the tiredness & pain then collapse for the night.
Day 3 (17/10/2015) Woke early & visited the Westfield shopping centre at Belconnen. This has to be one
of the best set out Westfield shopping centres I have seen.
Headed off to the Canberra Glassworks in the morning. Sat & watched a few people make their own paperweights (which they paid $70 to do) under great instruction from their instructor. It was amazing to watch & extremely simple to make. Well worth a visit if you are ever in Canberra & it is free entry.
We then went a short trip down the road to the Australian War Memorial. This turned out to be one of the most brilliant places I have ever visited, as well as the most emotionally draining. So many names on endless walls of those who gave their lives for us to be able to live as we do today.
Highlights for me were reading about every one of the Victoria Cross recipients & their heroic exploits; the plane hall which has from biplanes to a bomber suspended above your head; the Burma Railroad section which is where my Dad fought for survival; then finally the Walls of names & memorial room. The memorial room is quite eerie & evokes a lot of emotion.
Whilst the War Memorial is free,
it does ask for a gold coin donation. When you see what is inside, it is well worth far more than the value of a gold coin.
Substantially drained after that, we returned back to the caravan for refreshments, dinner & more well earned rest. A thunderstorm & lightning rolled across before vanishing into night.
Day 4 (18/10/2015) Woke early for a nice hot shower & breakfast before heading to the DFO at Fyshwick. Not as well set out as most of the other DFO’s around the country, more like a conga line maze.
From there we went to the Westfield shopping centre at Woden. A bit ordinary by Westfield standards & polar opposite to the one we visited yesterday.
Back to the caravan for more refreshments before contemplating dinner which will more than likely be on the BBQ, followed by more refreshments!
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