Day 7: Bega > Cooma > Canberra > Yass

I think I have a problem. Actually, I think I have two problems.

Firstly, I’m sure that many of you are avidly following the Johnny Depp defamation case against Amber Heard. Yesterday’s headlines were ”Fecal matter and vulgar videos”.

How can I possibly compete against that with ”MBW in the Central Tilba Cheese Factory”? Or my investigative analysis of the upper toilet block versus the lower toilet block at the Bulli Beach Tourist Park? I’m going to have to come up with something really saucy to keep you with me!

My second problem relates to the Spotify playlist that I choose each day. Yesterday we were headed to Bega, so I chose a ”Cheesy Hits” playlist containing all your favourites: ”Wake me up before you go go”, “Livin’ la Vida Loca”, ”Dancing Queen”, plus many more.

That got a bit … cheesy … after a while so we moved to Billy Joel, then Elton John, and finally Daryl Braithwaite.

For today’s playlist I have been searching frantically for something like ”Popular songs that politicians have stolen to use for their election campaign”, but I couldn’t find one. I know that there are lots of songs that fit this category, but sadly nobody has ever collected them together into a single playlist.

Bummer.

So instead I settled on the ”Songs for Australian Election Season” playlist. Had some good stuff in it and I think that it was probably just a collection of songs that politicians have stolen. Had some weird stuff too: ”Catch my disease”, ”Just a song about ping pong”, ”Cigarettes will kill you”, and ”Bang bang (my baby shot me down)”. All good party favourites. We didn’t stick with that playlist for long.

Another funny thing happened yesterday that I forgot to tell you about. Not long after we left the Bulli Beach Tourist Park, we were stopped at a traffic light and the guy in the car beside me honked, and then made a hand gesture at me.

No, not that hand gesture.

He made a ”wind down your window” gesture. You know exactly what I mean when I say a “wind down your window” gesture, don’t you? But any child under 5 years of age that has never seen a car WITHOUT electric windows would have absolutely no idea what the guy in the next car was doing 🙂

Anyway, he wanted to tell me that a couple of cables from Percy had become unplugged from Elsie. Cables that do important things like make the Electronic Stability Control work. And keep the fridge cold. Things that could save your life, or your cheese, or possibly your marriage.

Fortunately we caught it early and there was only minor damage to the plugs, and everything plugged back in together again with no dramas. So we continued on our way.

Last night we stayed at the Bega Showgrounds. Ronnie is the funny old stick that looks after the showgrounds. He gets around in his mobility scooter, has a quick and dry wit, and – as far as I could see – has only one tooth in his whole mouth.

Even our oldest grandson – Elias at 8 months old – has more teeth than that!

The park was a lovely quiet location with powered sites available for the extraordinary price of $25/night, but because we have seniors cards, that comes down to $20/night.

Despite Ronnie’s assurance that the site was ”perfectly flat”, it wasn’t quite so, and we needed to put some ramps under one side and extra blocks of timber under the jockey wheel to make everything level out nicely.

It is not coincidental that Elise is parked so close to the front of the van in case you are wondering … it is because I had this uneasy feeling like we were hanging over the front of a cliff and I left Elsie there just in case the van rolled away down the hill and we died a horrible death on the main oval.

I had a terrible sleep last night, and I think that there were a few reasons for waking up probably a hundred times from 1.00am until 7.00am.

Firstly there was snoring (not me). I won’t say any more because I have no evidence..

Secondly I couldn’t shake the feeling like I was about to suffer the same fate as Stuart Diver – something that still scares me to this day – and that Percy was going to roll down the hill.

Thirdly … well, let’s just agree that there were a whole bunch of irrational fears buzzing around in my head. My ”soothing and relaxing” cup of tea must have been faulty last night.

Plus – despite it being about 13 or 14 degrees overnight, I was sweating like a fat kid in a marathon, so I was very uncomfortable.

Finally there is the terrible thing that I did last when I was falling asleep. I accidentally struck MBW. Just as I was slipping into sleep I thought that I was falling off a cliff (… I’m telling you, I am seriously messed up …) and as I was ”falling” I started flailing my arms around and struck MBW.

And she was clearly unimpressed, despite the imaginary danger that I believed that I was in.

So I guess you could say that there was some unresolved guilt. Needless to say, I was feeling less than chipper this morning when I woke.

One thing did cheer me up this morning though – I won the toilet light game again! Yay for me!

Up, showered, dressed, fed, caffeinated, everything hooked up and connected and we were off to do a drive through the centre of Bega …

… and onwards to the Bega Heritage Centre – the thing that we primarily came to Bega to see.

And it was temporarily closed.

Bummer.

I decided to show my displeasure by parking illegally and going to have a look anyway.

That done, we headed out of Bega and onwards to our first stop for the day – Cooma.

The roads continue to be quite poor quality, but it was made up for by the amazing countryside and beautiful views.

Everything was going swimmingly until two things happened in quick succession.

Firstly, we came across a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. A full blown, “turn off your engine and get out of the car” traffic jam. In the middle of nowhere. Specifically at a place called Bemboka NSW.

And then we discovered why. A wide load was coming through. Three wide loads to be exact, with about half a dozen pilot vehicles, and another half-dozen police escorts.

This wasn’t just a wide load, this was a WIDE LOAD. Police in the middle of the (albeit narrow) road gesturing you to get your vehicle off the road. The trucks needed to stop and do some jiggery pokery so that they wouldn’t take out a road sign.

I think that Bemboka only had a couple of road signs in the whole town, so they could barely afford to lose one.

The second thing that happened was that we started to climb over the Great Dividing Range. Remember my comment the other day on the road up to Bowral and how I was glad that Percy wasn’t on the back?

Percy was on the back today, and we had a ”steep climb for the next 10km”. And everyone kept getting stuck behind some silly old fool with a caravan on the back.

Oh, hang on …

Once at the top, the landscape changed yet again from rainforest to dry and brown.

The roads continued to be bumpy, corrugated and full of potholes, to the point where I felt like my internal organs had been rearranged.

We rolled into Cooma at about 11.30am and we were keen to stop at the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Discovery Centre to learn more about the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme.

Built in 1949 with 145 kilometres of hand-dug tunnels, that sadly resulted in the death of 130 people. It is an amazing feat of engineering and provides back-up power at peak loads to NSW, Victoria, SA and Queensland.

Free entry to the centre and 10 minute informational video – very well worth the visit. And they make great coffee and banana bread!!

This area of NSW is obviously wombat territory. We have often seen signs that say ”Wombats next 5km”

And in fact we have seen lots and lots of wombats … but unfortunately they have all looked like this …

Some of them were barely unrecognisable as wombats, because they had clearly lost a fight with a road train, but some of them just looked like they were having a little rest on the side of the road. Well, that’s what we told ourselves, anyway 🙁

According to the internet, wombats are at risk of extinction. I know why too …

The weather turned bad again as we drove from Cooma to Canberra. I would like to say that we stopped to pause and show respect at our nation’s capital, but the weather was cold, it was pouring rain and we both needed to find a comfort stop.

We needed to get to Yass – home for tonight – and the roads were busy. And wet.

Brandon expertly guided us around Canberra, and he certainly knows his way around the country. I’m so glad that we have Brandon instead of Karen.

MBW told me a fun fact: there are no advertising billboards in Canberra … and she was right, too. We didn’t see one anywhere!

The only thing that we did see – and which I provide as proof that we did in fact transit through Canberra – is the Telstra Tower.

I know that NSW has a thing for reclaimed effluent, and I really just had to wonder if ACT shared that passion for effluent also. I might write to the Prime Minister and ask. Maybe there is a ”Reclaimed Effluent Party”? I’d certainly consider voting for them.

In fact, I even wondered if I could pay my taxes in effluent. I would happily win the toilet game every time if I was allowed to deposit the contents of the cassette at Parliament House as payment in lieu of taxes.

We rolled into Yass at about 2.45pm and had decided that we would try our chances at the Yass Soldiers Club for the night. They offer free RV parking out the back for the first three to arrive, and we were number #3, so we got the last spot. As it happens, another two cars and caravans arrived and set up after we did, so that makes 5, but there is plenty of space.

You need to be fully self contained, with all on-board power and water and toilet facilities, plus the ability to store your own grey water (ie you can’t drop grey water on the ground).

Fortunately we can do all of those things!

We dropped anchor, set up Percy, and went for a toddle around town. I needed to get some prescriptions filled at the local chemist and paid extortionate rates for medications. $102 for four prescriptions that would probably cost about $35 at home, so that was a bit of a shock to the system.

Yass has a number of Op Shops, so we did the rounds. Yass also has both a Woollies and an Aldi, so we went to both because … because we could. We also ducked into the K Hub (K-Mart) and bought some things that we really didn’t need and will now drag around the rest of NSW with us.

Back to the van to get ready for dinner at the Yass Soldier’s Club, because it was the right thing to do considering we have free accommodation for the night.

WARNING: If you are vegetarian, look away now!

The meals were enormous and cheap. ENORMOUS and CHEAP! I had the pork ribs with loaded fries and salad for $24, and MBW had the mega, epic Shepherds Pie with mash, chips and salad for $18.

It was epic!

Waddle back to the van, showers, blog, coffee, tea and some of those very expensive tablets before I go to bed.

Only 373km today and

Tomorrow we are planning to get up to Bathurst for a couple of nights, with a side trip to the Blue Mountains. It feels like we are on our way back home, but I’m not willing to acknowledge that possibility just yet.

Today was only 373km and it was a nice comfortable distance, with time for a couple of stops and we still got into Yass nice and early for a walk around town.

MBW finally learned that she needs to be back in Brisbane for training for the elections on Sunday, and I can tell you that the chances of that happening are somewhere between ”not very likely” and zero. So I don’t really know what that means just yet. Maybe we will stay on holidays for a bit longer. Maybe we will never come back.

MBW is waiting for her coffee, so I need to wrap this up. See y’all tomorrow.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2022