Saturday 4th November 2006

Tura Beach just north of Merimbula

Rocky headlands in Tathra

Old wharf in Tathra Bay

After a cool and overcast day yesterday, this morning we woke to a beautiful bright blue sky and a magnificent day, with the sound of the waves crashing on the sand of the beach only a hundred metres away. The kangaroos were out in force inside the caravan park and children were enjoying all the activities around, from trampolines to putt putt Golf, from swimming to bouncing and so much more.

With all that activity going on, we thought we had to do something as well, so at about 9:15a.m. we headed off out of the caravan park and made our way through Pambula and on into Merimbula, which is set in a beautiful location where a river meets the sea. There is a very green golf course, houses on the sides of the hills, boats in the river, oyster farms spread over the shallows and a shopping centre that looks straight down to the river.

From here we continued north along the coast to Tura Beach which is not far out of Merimbula. It is a smaller community located in the hills that run down to a beach, with some homes having views that would cost an absolute fortune if they were located closer to the bigger cities.

We continued further north where we wound our way through some small mountains before coming back down to Tathra, which is another town set in the hills overlooking a large bay with rocky headlands and blue water as far as the eye can see. Here we stopped for a little time in a park overlooking the bay and the old Tathra wharf and we admired the view for a while before walking down to the old wharf via an old washed out road, then returned to the Patrol via the new road, taking a good number of photographs along the way.

Next we made our way even further north until we were almost at Tinja then we turned west and drove up through the timber covered mountains on an unsealed road and down the other side until we passed through Tarraganda and into Bega, the home of the cheese of the same name. Our first stop here was at the Bega Cheese Factory where we spent time wandering through their visitors centre before tasting a number of cheese samples and then purchased a packet (and a tin) or two to take with us on our journey home.

After leaving the cheese factory, we drove into the town centre and found a Woolworths store where Pammy enjoyed a little shopping therapy and we picked up enough bits and pieces to last us the next couple of days, or until Pammy can manage a bigger shopping therapy session in Canberra. It was then time to head back to Pambula, about thirty four kilometres, but we decided to travel back via Merimbula, which was only about three kilometres further. In Merimbula we refueled the Patrol at a Woolworths service station with diesel costing 131.9 cents per litre before any discounts. From there it was only about seven kilometres back to Pambula and then another three kilometres out to the caravan park at Pambula Beach, where we arrived at around 2:p.m.

It was then time to have some lunch and put the feet up for the afternoon, or at least Pammy wrote a letter and an email or two and the 'Other One' completed the web site and printed some photographs to go with Pammys letter. Tomorrow we leave Pambula and start our journey west, with our first stop intended to be Canberra, or maybe Queenbeyan which is right next to the ACT border near Canberra.

Sunday 5th November 2006

Even a farewell from the Kangaroos of the Park

Farmlands where Bega Cheese in made

It was a hard climb up to here

Not sure where the sun had gone this morning, but we were back into overcast mornings, however it was quite dry and the kangaroos were out in force with around twenty or so gathered in front of our caravan to say farewell to us. We didn't stop too long to admire them all though as it was time to move on and we were on our way out of the park with the caravan in tow by around 8:30a.m.

Our journey took us back up the Princes Highway for about forty kilometres until we had passed through Bega once more, then we turned west onto the Snowy Mountain Highway. The countryside here consisted of rolling hills covered in green and quite lush grass, with dairy cows making milk and starting the process required for the Bega Cheese Factory.

We continued up and down these fairly large hills for some time, passing through Numbugga and Bemboka before reaching the base of the Great Dividing Range. It was then time to start a long and steep climb up the side of these mountains, winding back and forward whilst the valley we had just left dropped down far below us. After the Patrol had been lugging the caravan up the mountain for about twenty minutes, we stopped at Pipers Lookout which is at the top of the climb and took the time to look back down into the valley from where we had come and we took a photograph or two of the valley and the lookout. Meanwhile the Patrol just sat there idling, waiting to get on with the next part of the days journey.

When we left the lookout, we found the going was not bad at all and although there were still a good number of hills, there was nothing to slow us down much and the regulated speed limit had changed from 60 kmh on the mountain climb (not that we managed 60 anyway) to 100 kmh which we were able to maintain quite often. We were still in forest country for a while and then came to large treeless areas of the High Country as we reached Mimmitabel and Cooma. Just prior to reaching Cooma we had a country boys ute following us with the name 'Bundy Pig' on it and the young driver contacted us on UHF channel 18 and we had quite a good chat for a while before he eventually passed us as we came into Cooma. On the way through Cooma, 'One of Us' guess who!) saw a KFC shop and threatened the 'Other One' with all sorts of painful options if he didn't stop and let her satisfy her cravings. Obviously he is not really a brave man so we had an early lunch of KFC chips and chicken nuggets.

Back on the road again the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we passed through Bunyan, Bredbo and Williamsdale before we crossed into the Australian Capital Territory, then continued through some of the outer suburbs of Canberra before crossing back into NSW and pulling up outside a caravan park in Queanbeyan. Unfortunately this caravan park did not have a site available for us for three days so we decided to continue on to Sutton, on the North East side of the ACT where we booked into the White Ibis Tourist Resort for the next three days.

After setting up the caravan, we made a quick trip into the shopping centre at Dixon where a few things jumped into out shopping basket, then we drove passed the War Memorial and down around the Canberra Airport before returning to the caravan for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow we will visit some of the attractions that Canberra offers, but will wait until the morning to decide on which ones come first, we have visited Canberra on two other occasions, however there are a few places we want to visit, and some we want to re-visit, like the magnificent Australian War Museum.

Monday 6th November 2006

Cockington Green - The Real entrance building

Cockington Green - The model of the building

A model castle in the International Section

These clouds are following us wherever we go as this morning the sky was overcast again and the thermometer told us it was ten degrees at about 7:10a.m. We didn't rush our morning preparations and it was around 8:45 when we drove out of the caravan park to investigate a few of the many attractions in and around Canberra.

Last time we were in Canberra we were going to visit Cockington Green, which is a display of scale size models of buildings in Britain, and now also has an international section where scale models of well known buildings from around the world have been created and are on display. We were a little short on time last visit and saw the entry fee as $34 for adults so we didn't go in. (Now, under strict instructions not to mention it, I will avoid saying that when we visited it today, we realised the $34 dollar entry fee included three other venues if a combined ticket was purchased, the entry to Cockington Green alone was really only $14 per adult.)

With tickets in hand this time we did enter the venue and were quite amazed at the number and apparent accuracy of the scale model buildings being displayed. A typical comparison is the first two images on display on todays journal entry, one is the real building we entered the venue through, the second is a scale model that is situated in the display gardens.

There were literally hundreds of scale model buildings depicting so many of buildings and places we have all heard about in the British Isles. We followed a path that took us through a fairy garden, a general building display, around a football stadium and a lake with a train running around it, and a golf course with many golfers in positions bad golfers would well recall (I know!). Stonehenge then came into view just before we passed bye a large maze and a Water Tower House, and all this in about 1:20 scale or smaller.

From the British section we moved into the International section where there was another model train set traveling around many famous landmarks ranging from Australia to Peru, from Asia to Russia and many other places in between. The technical scale of the displays was excellent and they were often set in a complementary surrounding. Traveling around the International section was a scale model steam powered train that was towing carriages and providing rides for children and any adults that cared to join them.

It was then time to find our way out via the rose walk but unfortunately most of the roses had come and gone before we arrived. The only disappointing part of the visit as far as Pammy was concerned, they didn't have any teddy bears there that she liked, so there were no more additions to the family, although there were a few small token souvenirs purchased for later memories.

Once we left Cockington Green we made our way back to the Dickson Road Shopping Centre where we found a medical centre which we needed to obtain a new script for one lot of tablets that the 'Other One' was going to run out of before arriving home. When we entered the doctors surgery we were amazed to find we didn't have to make an appointment and in fact after the receptionist took our details, the Doctor read the old prescription and wrote another one out on the spot and not only there was no waiting, there was no charge to us either.

Next we found a little cafe to have lunch at whilst out prescriptions were being filled at the chemist shop next door and once all that was done, we drove a little further into Canberra and called in at the Information Centre. We loaded up with as much additional information that we thought may be useful to us and received a little advice from one of the very helpful staff there before getting back into the patrol once more. Pammy had seen a pamphlet that mentioned a small old community village called Bungendore, about thirty kilometres to the east of Canberra (and it mentioned teddy bears as well), so that was where we set off for, however we did go via the road that passes Parliament House before heading out toward Bungendore via Queanbeyan.

On arrival out at Bungendore, we found the pamphlet had more in it that the town did. We parked in the main street and had a walk around the town but didn't find anything really exciting, A lot of the tourist shops were closed, possibly because it was Monday and not even the teddy bears met Pammys standard so she didn't add any of them to her family either. After our walk around the town we returned to the Patrol and decided it was a bit late to make our way to any other activities today so we returned to the caravan arriving there sometime after 2:30p.m.

With the web site completed and TV viewing over by 5:p.m. we were able to sit back and enjoy Happy Hour without some of the usual rush, then enjoy our Pork Chops for dinner at a reasonable time for a change. Tomorrow we will visit the War Memorial and Avenue before a bit of shopping and the rest will depend on how much time we have to spare after that.