All in just One Day

---

Today we left behind the east coast heading inland to Canberra. This was a day of massive contrasts.

No longer beautiful ocean or fresh waterways to drive over or beside. Again our TomTom decided there was no need to head to the main roads, why not the scenic route. Hence, we found ourselves on a couple of very steep, windy back roads before finding our way back to a much more sensible route. This did however take us past a number of dry-stone walls for which this area is famous. Ho hum. Been there seen these before. It also somewhat prepared us for the eventual step climb over the mountain range.

Seeing the looming mountains in the distance is a little daunting … actually a lot daunting. Towing a caravan in these situations is not a lot of fun but at some point the Great Dividing Range needs to be crossed.

So, climb we did. And wind we did. Up. Up. Up. The trees got taller and closer to the edge of the road. In many places these formed the guard rail, protecting you from the steep drop off the edge of the road. On the other side you were often hugged by steep cliffs. There were signs warning about being careful about meeting trucks on corners. Thankfully we didn’t meet any big ones. There were virtually no passing lanes until we got close to the top and the few places where someone might have been able to pull off were only big enough for a small car.

Thankfully this was no racing track and we were not the slowest vehicle so we didn’t feel bad plodding along.

We seem to have been driving for hours and yet had only gone 60km. Yes 60 km of up, up, up.

We were thinking for all this up there has to be an equal amount of down on the other side. This was a scary thought. But as it turned out once we go to the top and onto the Southern Tablelands the incline was very mild. Perhaps at this stage we are not down yet.

We drove through fog once we reached the top and through open farming land. It was quite a contrast.

Eventually we left the Illawarra Highway and joined the open, fast moving, Hume Highway with big sweeping curves and modest undulations. Vegetation became sparse and the landscape very dry.

Finally, we arrived in Canberra where suddenly we were surrounded by high-rise everything.

No cheap caravan park deals here. $75/night. To think that the $28/night was a bit more expensive back in Eden made us chuckle.

---

Photos

Just another big rig
Do we really fit with this group?

Something slower than us
We did eventually pass it

Looking flatter
We must surely be near the top

Getting closer
The Federal Highway