Ruthie On The Road

This time I have got a van to Melbourne, older than the last one but slightly shorter even though this one sleeps 4.  It is basically a Ute with a caravan on the back but with a double bed over the driving area.  It has all the same things as the last one but is manual drive so gives me a bit more to do.

I wasn’t able to collect it till 3pm so I thought it would be ok to get to Canberra before stopping for the night.  It sis involve some driving in the dark but I was on the lookout for Kangaroos in the road.  I tried 4 campsites before finally getting one that had free space, it seems everybody goes camping and caravaning to Canberra on the weekends.  I settled in and finished my book, not exactly a thrilling Friday night, but I did have wine so all was good.

Saturday morning I got ready and went for a drive round the capital and up Capital Hill before going to Gold Creek a nice village type shopping area someone on the campsite recommended.  First I need to say something about Canberra’s set up.  When I was in Kuala Lumpur, Shukor took me to the government and parliamentary area.  He told me that the design was based around Canberra and it was wierd driving round it because it almost felt as if I had been there before.  Things are slightly different but the basic design is the same, right down to where the Pm’s house is situated in relation to Parliament House.

I arrived at Gold Creek village and had a look round.  There were lots of little boutique type shops in small squares with fountains  and statues in the centre.  I found a great tea shop that does mail order called Adore tea.  It has over 200 different varieties of tea and I found it difficult to pick one to try, I went for chilli in the end.  It was good.  They sell the tea in little 2 cup taster sachets as well as in bigger bags so I came out with tasters of Spiced, Blue mountain, Malaysian and Sticky toffee pudding teas. I can see me getting big quantities of tea shipped back to the UK at regular intervals.  After this it was a case of hitting the road again and clocking up the miles.  I stopped in Albury for groceries and spent the night in Wangaratta talking to the lady on the caravan site about my trip (she was asking me and seemed interested honestly).

On Sunday I drove the last leg down to Melbourne where I had decided to stay in Lynwood for the night so I only had a short drive for the 9am drop off.  This was the best day of the mini adventure.  Turning of the Hume highway to visit Glenrowan and the place of Ned Kelly’s last stand.  I took photographs of the giant Ned Kelly statue and then went on my way to Yea.  In Yea I stopped to wander round and stretch the legs and stumbled across a great coffee shop that was also a gallery and the tourist information.  I started looking at some postcard photographs of a sculpture garden one of the waiteresses told me it was in Marysville.  It meant going back on myself a little way to get to the road but I really wanted to see it.  After coffee and a generous helping of carrot cake I went to Marysville passing the Cathedral ranges.  The girl in the coffee shop had mentioned a fire in Marysville but it wasn’t until you got nearer that you could even comprehend the devastation that had happened here.  It was a year and a month since the fire and the entire village had gone up in flames along with the acres of woodland surrounding it.  When I found the sculpture park it was clear that this  along with everything else in the village was emerging from the ashes to be bigger and better than it had previously been.  I talked to the owner and creator of the sculptures and although you could see the sadness and exhaustion etched into his face you could also see and hear the hope and optimism that they all had for the future and it was clear that their sense of community had pulled them through that had happened.  They still had a long way to go but it was amazing which had been achieved over the past year, totally rebuilding schools, shops and homes.  The sculpture park was great and even though it decided to absolutely chuck it down, I was pleased that I has found Marysville and was able to support the cause.  From here that way out was through the Yarra Valley and the fun twisting, winding roads round the hill sides through the forests.  I realised I have made a habit of opening the windows to let the smell of the wet eucalyptus drift into the van.

Stopping at various galleries, wineries and glassblowers along the way I quickly understood that everybody felt inspired to create something here.  You could try your hand at anything from wine making to glassblowing and I am sure that if I lived here I would be signed up for every class there was going.  I would probably end up drinking the wine before it was fully matured and burning myself with the hot glass or metal but it would be fun having a go.  Arriving in Lynwood and the most expensive caravan park in Australia I set about cleaning the van ready for the drop off.  I went to bed with the thought of the day.  If I chose to only drink wine from the places I have been to I would have gathered quite an extensive list now.  A list that can only be extended further in a few weeks in New Zealand and America.

We started Good Friday by getting up early and going off to the Blue Mountains.  We went up to the furthest point Govette’s Leap.  This was my first real view of the Blue Mountains as you can’t really see much from the road.  It was truly spectacular, you can’t really appreciate the scale of it until see it all.  Thousands of acres of red rock and tall trees set in massive valleys between the mountains and minuscule trails and tracks in and out of it.  We went to two viewing areas at Govette’s Leap and then had a picnic lunch.  From there we stopped at another lookout point before parking the car at Echo Point and the Three Sisters.  There were loads of people here and a lot of people walking the trails. We started at the viewing platform at Echo Point and then walked to the viewing area on the first of the three sisters before heading down the Giant Staircase. That was pretty scary in places and involved over 900 steps, some of which were more like ladder rungs than steps, down to the base of the iconic landmark.  I was really pleased we were walking down these and not up. That didn’t stop every bodies legs turning to jelly on the way down.

The path went up and down and back up again and I was wondering exactly why I had agreed to do this.  We walked the Federal pass round to the Katoomba railway.  We walked past waterfalls, viewing spots and fallen trees before arriving at the steepest railway in the world. It travels up at a 52 degree angle in places and follows a natural tunnel between the cliff faces.  Katherine decided to scream the whole way up because she was scared of falling out and I was sat there in amazement and listening to the Indiana Jones theme that they played on the way up.

Once we were back at the top we got ice creams and watched the cable car going up and down for a while before taking the Cliff Top Walk back to Echo Point and the Three Sisters viewing point.  The Three Sisters have huge significance with the Aboriginal people and are three of the original seven. There was an Aborigine at Echo Point playing the didgeridoo and selling boomerangs to the tourists .  I got a couple of really good photographs of him and then it was back to the car and everybody was pretty exhausted and starting to seize up.  Saturday was a rest day and with aching muscles we decided to go and watch Clash of the Titans at the cinema.  It was really good but didn’t have the same 3D appeal that Avatar had.

Sunday started with an Easter egg hunt for the kids and I got an Easter Bunny and then another trip to the Blue Mountains.  This time the destination was Wentworth Falls.  We went down the Valley of the Waters past a lot of waterfalls following the Wentworth falls pass on the explores route, headed around the cliff side to the actual Wentworth falls before ascending back to the top and the car.  I enjoyed this walk more than Friday’s because there was a lot more to see and the falls were definitely worth the walk, although, plenty of other people decided they weren’t when they saw the steps down to it.  It took a while to get back to the top but when we did we sat with a picnic in the park before journeying back to the house and my favourite, Thai green prawn curry.