Epic Roadtrip Leg 1: Hitting the Highway

7th - 11th January 2015

Finally, after first planning this more than a year ago, it was time to set off on the epic roadtrip. Sydney to Cairns via the coast but the long way around through every state in Australia. Some 20,000km and that's on main roads and highways, not including the trudging through national parks, getting lost or the occasional trip to the supermarket. I'll be interested to know how many kilometres I do in my car and even if it will last the distance. It was made in 1993 so it is a bit of a banger but fingers crossed. Firstly, however, I would need to make it livable and suitable for the long road ahead.

Leg 1

So leaving Sydney on the 7th January, stopping off at number of shops, I headed down the coast to an interestingly named Wollongong. It was so exciting to finally be on my way even if this trip would only be a few days. Leg 1 only takes me as far as Melbourne.

Nice view of north Wollongong

Chaos

I found a free camp spot next to the beach thanks to my new best friend Wikicamps and emptied all my purchases out of the car so that I could turn it into a camping car. It was a long and difficult job and I managed to make quite a deep cut on my finger when I was cutting the foam mattress to be shape of my car.

OW!

Tadaa!

I must admit I was pretty chuffed with myself when it was done. My bed was not only comfortable but I could lie flat along it no problem. I had a eski, a gas cooker, pans, plates and cutlery. It even had a guest bedroom if I could be bothered to put up the tent and blow up mattress that came with the car! There were a few teething problems over the coming days, lack of curtains for instance, but on the whole I was quite pleased.

First night camping

I made myself a sandwich before the sun went down and then laid in my bed reading until it was time to sleep. The next morning was an early start. I took a cold shower at the toilet block on the edge of the carpark I was sleeping in and then took a stroll along the beach.

BEACH!

The first item on my very detailed roadtrip plan was Hill 60 park in Wollongong which had a lookout over the coast which turned out to be a little disappointing. I hoped item two would be a little more interesting.

Hill 60 park in Wollongong

It was. A couple of hours drive inland I came to Fitzroy falls set in a lush Eucalyptus forest. It was quite stunning and similar topography to the Blue Mountains east of Sydney. I walked along one of the ridges of valley stopping off at each lookout along the way with the view getting better at every stop.

Fitzroy Falls

From the top of Twin Falls

The Grotto

Fitzroy Falls from the last lookout

There were about six lookouts and just as I arrived at each one there would be a guy leaving it so I decided at the last lookout to say hello to him. It turned out he was from Sydney and had come down to do a bit of photography. We walked back to the carpark together which was nice after spending two days by myself.

Badgery Lookout

There were still a fair Kms to do before I got to the planned rest stop outside of Canberra. The drive took me past another valley lookout which looked quite spectacular and the small town of Goulburn. Unfortunately it was gone 6 o'clock by this point so everything was closed but it looked like a quite an old settlement. I had a little walk around and took a few pictures of the old buildings and an enormous sheep!
 

Goulburn

Cathedral

Huge bloody sheep!

An hour later I arrived at the free camping spot I had chosen and who is there unpacking their campervan? Its my old friends Wannes and Nele with Nele's sister, Alicia! They had just come from the Blue Mountains and were taking the same route as me down the coast to Melbourne so we teamed up for a few days.

Only two cars in the place

Parliament Building

The next day was a full day in the country's Capital, Canberra. The first stop was the visitor centre for a free hot shower - awesome. Then it was trying to find somewhere to park for the day near the city centre. I found a free spot near the parliament building whereas Wannes and Nele were over by the War Memorial so I didn't see them that day. That's apart from when I was walking from the Parliament Building to the War Memorial when they drove past waving. I did an awful lot of walking that day considering I had a car. There's a triangle that includes parliament, the war memorial and the city centre which is a hell of a lot bigger than it looks on a map so my feet were quite sore by the end of the day but that might have been down to my new trainers which I don't think were quite the size 10 that was written on the label.

Coat of arms

The Parliament Building is quite fancy and worthy of a Capital City. There's a large lawn in front of it that stretches down to the old "temporary" building. It was over 80 years of independence before the current building was completed. I took a tour which was quite interesting considering I know absolutely nothing about politics and the processes it involves.

The tour guide took us along the "timeline" design of the building. The idea is that the red sand out the front was the past with aboriginal culture. The building itself is the present and the future was the Governor-General's office at the far end. I swear this story has been made up! There was red sand out the front but a timeline, I don't think so. 

Magna Carta

He showed us one of the original copies of the Magna Carta. No idea what that is but it sounded important!

House of Representatives

He showed us the wings on each side of the building, the Senate and House of Representatives and explained the circle versus square nature which was the design for each house although they look largely the same just different colours.

Senate

Huge Tapestry

There's a huge tapestry in the main function room which looks pretty good but you wouldn't think much of it until you are told it was all handmade. It took years to make and they dated the completion but putting the image of Haley's Comet into it which passed in 1986.

Haley's Comet

War Memorial

After the tour we were free to go up onto the roof which gave a great view over the other government buildings and along Anzac Parade to the war memorial. The Governor-General can actually sit in his office at the back of the Parliament Building, throw open all the doors through the buildin and see all the way out to the War Memorial. This was a design fluke.

The flag pole looks pretty mighty above your head. The flag alone is the size of a full side of a double decker bus.

Flag pole

I left the Parliament Building heading for the War Memorial and I passed the original stone that was laid in 1913 to mark the location of the new capital city. I was surprised to find it so symmetrically located infront of the Parliament Building which wasn't build until decades later until I saw a smaller plaque underneath commemorating its relocation!

Current Parliament Building

Old Parliament Building

I walked down past the the old parliament building to the protest site of the unofficial Aboriginal Embassy who feel that they are under represented in parliament.

Fancy

Er...

No idea what the building is. It seemed completely useless!

Anzac Parade

Anzac Parade is a big stretch infront of the war memorial lined with smaller memorials to the major wars the Australians have fought in. I wasn't sure I was allowed to walk right up the middle of the Parade but there were no signs so I did. I realised when I got to the top that I had probably ruined everyones photos for a good 10 minutes!

Vietnam war

The picture I'd been wrecking for everyone

War Memorial

The War Memorial is a very grand and beautiful building. The main courtyard and two long panels on each side with the names of every single soldier that had died fighting for Australia and the Commonwealth. The soldiers' family members have placed poppies next to their namest. Anzac Day in Australia is on the 25th April which is the date of Australia's first battle as a country in Gallipoli and this year will mark 100 years since that battle.

the reflection pool

1000s of poppies for 1000s of names

The building at the end is a shrine for one dead soldier. The plaque says that there is no record of who this person is, no history, no knowledge of family, no information at all. The grave reads "He is all of them, and he is one of us." This I think is a very powerful sentiment.

The Fallen Soldier

I had originally thought that this was it to the War Memorial but there is a whole museum there aswel which I spent a couple of hours walking around.

War Planes

The bridge of a decommissioned ship

The War Memorial was the highlight of my trip to Canberra. It was really thought provoking and interesting. I walked to the third corner of the triangle before heading back over the river to the car. I saw a big jet of water which also seemed to have no actual use. I collected my car and rushed around to the Museum before it shut. I only had twenty minutes in there which was more than enough. I think Te Papa in New Zealand has ruined all museums for me!

Pointless

Australia Museum

There was just time for a trip up Mount Ainslie which gives a great view over the entire city before I headed for the nights camping spot.

The city

On the way to the campground epic torrential rain, the likes of which I have rarely seen and never driven in, forced me to pull over on the side of the highway. Honestly, it was biblical. My windscreen completely fogged up and as the car is old so the dashboard heaters could not cope. I was driving completely blind. I could barely even see the side of the road to find a suitable place to pull in. I eventually pulled in behind 6-7 other cars that had also bailed on the driving conditions. It was stop-start for an hour until I met the others at the campground and then, as if out of spite,  the rain stopped!

The next day was a bit of a chilled day with Wannes, Nele and Alicia. I say chilled, after we arrived in Batemans Bay on the coast we all went for a workout on the beach. I needed a bit of shopping to get some missing ingredients for my car and by then it was already mid afternoon. We drove down the coast for a few hours before parking in a field next to a cliff. The rain came back but I was prepared this time!

I was quite proud of my shelter keeping me dry whilst I was cooking. In another inspired moment I realised I could use the same tarpaulin to wrap around the back of the car for make shift curtains!

The Neighbours!

Most of the next day was just driving. The weather wasn't so great. It was quite chilly in the morning so I thought the guys were mental when they jumped in the pool at first thing for a swim! I declined and wrapped myself in my hoodie.

Morning Swim

We drove right around the south east corner of Australia with only a few stops. I stopped off in Merimbula for Subway's bacon and egg roll and free WiFi. I caught up with the others in Eden where I was told it was a nice place and it was but without the sun there wasn't much to do there. There is a whale museum but it was expensive and looked rather small so we moved on.

Cann River

There was a long drive from there across the border into Victoria and through to Cann River where I stayed for an hour eating lunch and waking myself up before a few more hours driving to Lakes Entrance.  The sun had started to break the cloud in the late afternoon so I went down to the beach. For that you had to cross a bridge to the sand barrier that ran what must be about 100km down the Gippsland Coast.

Bridge back to town

Lakes Entrance

After that I met the others in the small town of Metung where we parked up at the side of the road to watch what was a rather beautiful sunset. We had a little fun with the camera during the sunset too.

This is the life!

New Profile Pic

Wannes's monkey impression?

It was really nice sat there with the others with a couple of beers and watching the sun go down. We would be going separate ways the next day with me going straight to Melbourne and the others heading to the most southerly point on mainland Australia.

The highway got wider and wider as I approached Melbourne and I hate city driving. This feeling only increased when I accidentally drove into four lanes of oncoming traffic not realising that it was a duel carriageway! I had managed to complete the first leg of my roadtrip without incident and I nearly failed on the final stretch but I made it safe and sound. It was time to see what Melbourne had to offer this time around.

B E A Utiful!