Skip to main content

Lightning and locusts

The last trip of the year.

After spending the year flying around the Asia it's time for a holiday closer to home, time to show Alex my old home. Time to give the car a nice long drive as well. But how would our increasingly active toddler cope?

Very well, as it turned out.

One of the biggest challenges turned out to be booking Kita into a boarding kennel. After a day of ringing around all over the state we finally found a boarding vet in Bexley. But a 10:30am drop of time meant that our departure from Sydney was delayed.



Eventually we made it on to the M5 and began our journey out of Sydney. It's a very familiar journey, one we have done many, many times. I used to live in Canberra, B in Albury for a year. At least every fortnight we would drive up or down to visit each other. And there have been countless drives between Sydney and Canberra over the years.

I find the drive along the Hume Highway between Sydney until the turnoff to the Federal Highway visually boring, though outside of Sydney we saw parachutists descend towards the road before swinging away to the open fields.

As it was already past Alex's early lunchtime we searched for rest areas to stop and eat lunch, but then he fell asleep, so we kept going. He woke up as we turned off towards Yass rather than Canberra. The landscape turned now to rolling yellow hills poked through with granite boulders. There were signs of recent heavy rains, flooded dams and fields of water.

Giant windmills atop one hill formed a huge kinetic sculpture. I can't understand the complaints about these power generating windmills. They are amazing to look at.



We pulled into a rest stop and hauled out our big Esky of Christmas leftovers. Alex was highly amused by the huge numbers of flies buzzing around us. "Shoo! Shoo!"



Almost as soon as we drove out the skies turned dark grey and the car was hit by very heavy showers. Outside we saw flashes of lightning. The dramatic grey skies contrasted beautifully with the golden hills still bathed by light.



Soon the skies were blue again. There have been changes to the Hume since our last trip. More and more towns have been bypassed. This time it was Coolac and Albury. It might lead to a faster journey, but it makes the journey less interesting.



It's funny though how some things don't change. The drive out of Sydney, and the last 100km to Albury. Hurry up, are we there yet? It's not Alex asking, it's always me.

As we approached the Victorian border we were suddenly hit by swarms of locusts. Then when we turned off the highway towards our destination of Beechworth the swarm got worse. Splat, splat, splat!



Finally we pulled into our motel in quiet, historic Beechworth, looking much as we remembered it, though a surprising number of buildings, even a church, were up for sale.



Back to the motel in time to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special and another meal of Christmas leftovers.

Alex was fantastic on the trip. Much of it he spent asleep or singing along. He only complained when he was hungry, and that's fair enough.

The worst part of the trip? A few years ago we drove down to Melbourne one Boxing Day, stopping by the rest areas in the heat and while B slept I listened to the Ashes cricket. This time I switched on the radio to find Australia 6/77 then all out for 98. No way I wanted to listen to that!

Going down to Melbourne today.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IKEA Museum

We have a packed itinerary today. Flat packed and assembled with an Allen key. There are patches of snow on the ground that weren't there the previous evening. We are a bit sad to leave the Duxiana after the comfy beds and the breakfast of cold cuts, fruits and hot waffles. I tried the Swedish caviar on my boiled egg. It was... Interesting. I was very disappointed to realise that, after talking it up for months, I had forgotten the Disgusting Foods Museum in Malmö yesterday. Too late now. We catch another Oresundstag train, for a bit over an hour. Past yesterday's Lund, past increasingly white fields and towns to Älmhult, home of IKEA. The conductor warns us that the train will split in two so we have to move carriages forward. Unfortunately, there we no spare sets of chairs for all of us. The IKEA Museum showcases the history of the furniture company, along with temporary exhibitions. One of these was "Hacking IKEA," about using IKEA ob...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...