Shoalhaven - Canberra - Jindabyne

Another week and another 1000km or so.

Monday we woke to a fairly horrible day, so neither of us were in any rush to get out of bed and that had nothing to do with my hangover! Finally we got up, and set out for a drive down to Batemans Bay. We bypassed Jervis bay(which we later found out is part of the ACT, all capital cities need a port and Jervis Bay is ACT's. Little fact that was given to us by ACT's finest!) Drove on down to Sussex Inlet, Swan Haven, Cudmirrah, and Berrara. Backtracked out to Mollymook and Ulludulla. Weather had not cleared at all and was still a horrible wet and windy day, so we had a cafe lunch and called it quits. Never made it any further south. Bought blue plastic skid strips for the boat on the top of my roof, makes it so much easier to get the boat off and on now.

Tuesday, woke to have a cruisy morning of washing and packing up for tomorrows move. Headed out for lunch to shell Harbour to meet up with Toni, Amelie and Ben Smith. Great few hours of catching up and quite a few beers. Headed back to camp to pull down the tarp and pack the boat for easy pack up. Went for a walk down to the beach, and watched some guy beach worming.

Wednesday, New day new place. packed up and left Shoalhaven by 10. Travelled west and hit Berry for breakfast. Berry is an awesome place with a small country town feel. Bought a few things in a little Cuckoo clock shop that had most its items imported from either Germany or other countries around that region. Really cool, but the service was not something to brag about! We left there headed for Canberra. the GPS took us on the most direct route out through Goulburn, but took us on some hairy small windy roads that had us crawling in first gear pushing the cars towing capabilities to their limits. Made it through and got to a few small towns like Kangaroo valley that were very nice. Drove on for a few hours and stopped for a quick pic of the big Marrino in Goulburn, man it has big Nuts! Continued to Canberra and found the park we had booked into in the suburb of O'conner. The site they had booked us on was a drive thru site which was all cement, we tried to get another, but they had nothing that suited us, so we told them to bash it and asked for our money back! NOPE to that as they said there is no refund, so we lost the first nights, accomodation. Went to the south side of town to Fyshwick and stayed in the South Canberra Motor Inn which was a large park, we had a large unpowered area to set up in. Headed down to Tuggeranong to go shopping for the next few days after we finished setting up.


 Thursday, i had my car booked into Nissan in Tuggeranong for the 40000km service. Drove down early and then caught a bus into the city for some sight seeing. Got off in the city and walked about 10 blocks up to the war memorial. Walked around looking at stuff for a few hours and finished off by putting 2 poppies in the names list up top. We scanned through the names, and found 2(although not our real pops) but on a A Barnes, and a W Everett. caught a bus back to the city and decided to head back to Tuggeranong and wait for the car. Did a bit of shopping at the westfield and then caught a movie at the cinema(The Dilemma)which was quite good. Car was complete, $860 later, we headed out and through the city to Black mountain and paid to go up the Telecom Tower. Headed back into the city to have a beer and quick punt at the Casino. Headed back to Fyshwick for dinner and bed.

Following pics from the Australian War Memorial

  Friday, Late start. Did some washing then headed out to have a look at Cockington Greens. This awesome little place makes model houses and scenes from around the world in miniature forms. Amongst it all is awesome gardens and lawns, my dad would be very proud! Headed to Belconnen to do some shopping and look at the local farmers markets.  Had some lunch and headed back for a chill out arvo. 
 Headed down to the suburb of Conder to meet up with friends, Ben,Tamara and little Dominic. Headed back to the city for dinner at the Uni Bar with them and then on for a few cocktails at another bar just around the corner. Headed home at about 10.

Saturday, Woke around 8, packed and set off for a new place to call home. Headed south down to Cooma, then on to Jindabyne. Just on the outskirts of town we pulled in for a look at the Big 4 Holiday park. Looked at the sites before booking in. picked a good site, under a tree, close to amenities, looking down over the lake. We rushed the set up, as it looked like storming any second. A few rain drops was all we got during the set up, but in the arvo, a storm came through with heavy rain and small hail! No damage to anything luckily. Chilled out to dinner and watched tennis, washed down with a few rums! Bed to watch a movie (Brooklyn's Finest)which was rubbish, I don't recommend it!

 Sunday i woke to a beautiful morning, clear skies, no wind, so i got out of bed, made a coffee and headed down to the lake to chill out and soak up the serenity! Life is tough being a nomad on days like this i can tell you! Woke sharna when banging around with breakfast so got ready and headed to Thredbo. The wind had picked up a lot and we headed up the mountain on the chairlift. Temperature felt like it dropped 20 degrees with the wind chill, but after we put on our rainjackets to stop the wind, the walk was quite pleasant and warm. Walked 2km's to Kosciuszko Lookout, where I considered to turn back because the weather looked like it would bucket down any second. We continued on and were extremely happy we did. We walked the full 6.5km walk uphill to the very top of Kosciuszko.
It obviously took a few hours with absolutely no whingeing from Sharna!!!!We got to the top, 2228metres above see level, to be the very highest people standing on land in Australia at that very moment! So now we have ticked off the most easterly point of Oz, and the Highest point, next will be the most Southerly as we head towards Tassie. The return journey was much easier but by the time we got to the top of the chairlift, a much deserved beer was beckoning. Headed back down the chairlift watching mountain bikers riding down the steep decent underneath. We headed back to chill out, and snooze through the 3rd ODI cricket game. Had a nice dinner and chatted to Grant and Lou, who are camping at Port Macquarie with the 3 kidlets.

Monday, Well finally brings us up to date again. Today is another chill out day. Slept in till after 9 and glad that we did the walk yesterday. Today is windy as hell! so we have done the washing and tidied up, and this afternoon I'm going to take the boat out for some trout fishing. There have been quite a few trout being caught very early morning, with a lot of people getting their bag limit by 7am. How I'm even supposed to be up by 7 is another matter. I am really keen to catch some, so bought some lures and heading out for some trolling this arvo, and a real good go tomorrow morning. I'll keep you posted! but you may have to wait another week to find out if i caught any! As Tez said, His money is on the fish, and to be honest, think mine is too!