FriendBurst Blog

Day 3 – Saturday – September 18, 2010

Weather:  Sunny, Windy & Chilly

Destination:  Canberra, Australia Capital Territory, Australia

Odometer Reading:  We forgot to record it and the rental company didn’t either.  Guess they really don’t care since the rental comes with unlimited mileage.

Price of Fuel:  The tank was almost full so we didn’t need fuel today.

Route Taken:  Sydney to Goulburn to Canberra

Highlights:  We arrived at the Cheapa Campa offices about 15 minutes after they opened.  We couldn’t have planned for better timing.  They didn’t have our 3-Berth vehicle for whatever reason and they ended up putting us in a 6-Berth.  Same price, gave us twice as much room, but it was a much larger vehicle than we wanted to have to be driving.  Lucky for me I won’t have to drive it.  I’m just the co-pilot on this trip.

We went through all the paperwork, did the vehicle inspection walkthrough, watched the instructional video and talked with the rental guys for a bit.  They were really nice, but they couldn’t help us with any questions about anything much out of Sydney.  We then loaded up, turned on the GPS (with a smooth Aussie male voice named Lee), and headed out.  I thought the Man would have some issue with driving on the wrong side of the road, but except for getting out of the parking lot (the side road was tight), he didn’t seem to have any problems.  At least I didn’t suffer any white knuckle syndrome.

We made it through the highway and toll road system of Sydney and were out on the open road without any problems.  As we’re driving into Goulburn, we saw a huge ram up ahead.  I had read about Australia’s love of huge things like this and one of my goals is to get a photo of every one that I can.

The ram is built around the building that houses the Merino wool shop in Goulburn.  We made the stop so that I could get this first one.  After snapping off a few, we went into the convenience store/deli/coffee shop next door to grab a coffee and a sandwich.  I ordered a cappuccino and the Man ordered a short black thinking it would be a small sized coffee.  Boy was he wrong, and it turned out to be a demi tasse cup of espresso.  It was a tiny little thing, but it wired him out until we were almost to Canberra.

We reached Canberra in the early afternoon and stopped at the Visitor’s Center for a stretch and to find out what was in the area.  I bought the first pin for my vest and picked up a couple of postcards.  The Man grabbed a couple of the travel brochures and then we went looking for a place to stay the night.  Unfortunately, everything in Canberra was full so we tootled down the road a bit and found a place in Queanbeyan.

Stops:  Goulburn, Canberra and Queanbeyan

Where We Stayed:  We were lucky and got one of the last two spots at the Queanbeyan Riverside Tourist Park.  It was a nice little place and it was right across from the grocery store which made it really convenient since we had to pick up supplies.  The rate was $28.00 AU (from here on out all reference to money is in the Aussie dollar, which unluckily for us is climbing in value daily) for a powered site.  The park was situated on the bank of a river, but we were so tired we never made it over to really see it.

Where We Ate:  We walked over to the Coles and picked up some supplies.  Some food stuffs for a couple of days, some beer for him, and some vodka cruisers for me.  We’re stuck with instant coffee since there is no coffee pot in the motor home just a water pot.  Everything, especially the alcohol, was expensive (the 6-pack of beer was almost $20.00) and we ended up spending almost $100.00 for the food supplies.  By the time we got back to the motorhome and put everything away we were just too tired to eat.  Since our body clocks have not yet adjusted it didn’t really matter and we just went to bed.