A V-a-a-a-n Named Bryan!
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2007
1
84
97
Trip End
Aug 24, 2008
Canberra,
Australian Capital Territory,
Australia
Saturday, April 12, 2008
We stopped for the night in a layby near the delightfully named Goulburn. Sounds like something you'd get from energetic dancing in leather trousers. On the topic of names, we had decided to christen the van 'Bryan'. Not sure that any of us could tell you why.
We cooked up a feast. We had bought steaks and a bag of oven chips, so whilst the oven did its thing with the chips, we tried to fry the steaks. This was when we realised that we hadn't bought any oil. We tried to use some of the fat trimmed from the edge of the steak. This dubious technique, combined with a frying pan that somehow seemed to fill with water as soon as it was warm, resulted in a kind of boiled beef and chip supper. Tasty.
The following morning, we drove into Canberra.
Canberra is a very disappointing place. After years of heated debate, nobody could make a decision as to whether Melbourne or Sydney would be the better place for the capital. The solution? They decided to 'compromise' and build a capital city from scratch. The site of Canberra was selected in 1908 and building of the city began in 1913. Although now within its own little state-ette (the snappily named 'Australian Capital Territory'), it was originally part of New South Wales. Sydney's in New South Wales too, so the site of Canberra had to be more than 100 miles away - Melbourne didn't want Sydney thinking they had, in any sense, won the battle. During the construction, Parliament was temporarily sited in Melbourne, moving to its new home in May 1927.
The problem is, Canberra has nothing going for it. Sydney and Melbourne are both interesting, vibrant cities which have developed gradually over the course of many years to become the great metropolises that they are today. Canberra is a strange, soulless, purpose built sort of place, seemingly designed around a crop circle theme, or maybe the architect was just clumsy with where he put his coffee. The resulting city is a bit like Milton Keynes but with less charisma.
We parked Bryan and tried to find something of interest. There was a domed metal memorial thingy near the car park which produced fantastic echoing resonance when we stood inside it, making silly noises. This was, it turned out, The Most Interesting Thing In Canberra. We wandered over to the Parliament Buildings. There were very few people about, which added to the strangeness of the place. Charlotte and Kirsty did handstands on the grass between the Old and New Parliament Buildings and debated how a town which didn't open until 1927 realistically had any need for an Old and a New Parliament Building.
We drove into the city centre, past the rather disappointingly non-functional fountain thingummy in the middle of the man made Lake Burley Griffin. The 'Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet' squirts to a height of 147 metres in the air, apparently. It didn't while we were there. In the centre of town there was, well, nothing to write home about. Again. The main shopping area was very quiet, which seemed odd as it was Saturday morning in a national capital. We decided that we had seen enough. Canberra was, all in all, a bit rubbish.
We drove on through the attractive Snowy Mountains area, passing through the district of Numbugga and the town of Nimmitabel, which amused us. For a brief while, we were In Nimmitabel. Har har har. We stopped at a place called Pambula where Charlotte and Kirsty had a swim. Jacob, deciding that the water looked unwelcomingly chilly, sat on the beach and read for a while. He was right, but the girls insisted it was 'refreshing'.
That evening we found a rest stop near a place called Orbost and made bacon butties for tea. The following day, we headed for Melbourne. We had to return the van with the water reservoir full, so we visited a surprising number of rest stops to try and find one with a water source. Eventually we found one which, with some careful manoeuvring of the van, was just close enough for the hose to reach.
With the van fully replenished, we decided to go and visit Phillip Island and see if we could find a beach to swim at.
We drove to the island, but found that the scenery and beaches were a little uninspiring. None of us fancied getting into the water, so we filled our time with a brief visit to a chocolate factory, which had a disappointingly low free sample allowance. We wandered around the small town of Newhaven, ate 'Bubble O Bill' ice creams and had bubble blowing competitions with the bubblegum that had previously been our Bubble O Bills' noses.
We found that the closest layby to Melbourne was the one that we had used earlier to fill the van's water supply. During the day, it had seemed an OK place - sufficiently off the main road and with a reasonable looking toilet block. By night, it became clear that it was much seedier. We were the only vehicle that stayed the whole night, but many stayed longer than would be needed for a toilet stop. A lot of furtive looking blokes were hanging about the toilets. Basically, we were at a cottaging site.
Wonderful.
We drew the curtains and tried not to think about it. We made the nutritionally dubious but useful for using up left-overs meal of chip butties, then to bed.
The following morning, we gave the van a good sweep round, then dropped it at the depot just outside Melbourne.
