To Canberra

Well I headed out to Canberra using the most indirect of routes. The plan is to stay with the sister of a friend (who has a daughter at school in Canberra). While it will be the last bit of recognisable company I will have for a while, I still feel a little apprehensive about being the unknown house guest. Hey what's the worst that can go wrong? They hate me and kick me out. I can deal with that.

Headed for Crookwell after an excellent breakfast courtesy of the Corner Cafe in Goulburn. I checked out the Goulburn War Memorial before I left which has stunning views over the town. Canberra is only 90 kilometres from Goulburn so I could knock that over in an hour. A more circuitous route was to be the order of the day.

Goulburn War Memorial

I can't ever remember being in Crookwell before. As a town name it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Its a bit like calling a place "Leftright" or "Updown". On the way I encountered a small wind farm which proudly boasted that "Crookwell is the windiest place in Australia". Considering I was heading to Canberra I thought they should locate a wind farm near Parliament House. All those pollies that we vote in every three years would give an inexhaustible supply of hot, base load, air and Canberra (along with the whole country) could be powered by pollie waffle in a 100% sustainable and renewable way. 

Crookwell Winfarm

Now I have been a bit "off road" in the old Vectra and it has performed admirably. You wouldn't know I'd had it washed before I left Maitland though.

I discovered in Crookwell a monument to the founder of Howard's Tractors and the inventor of the rotary hoe (a former son of the town). I learnt to drive a manual vehicle on one of these babies (slightly larger than the one pictured). It might be why whenever I'm using the car that I always encourage people to drive on the footpaths, because its safer for everyone than being on the roads.

From Crookwell, it was off to Gunning, where I was going to stop for lunch but it was pouring down with rain. So I pushed on to Yass and had lunch there. A fairly ordinary Tandoori Chicken Salad. Then on to Canberra to make some new friends. As I pulled into Canberra I clocked up 1,000 kilometres for the journey so far, without even leaving the state (Canberra's not really a state). The odometer showed 111111, which looked a bit weird.