Skip to main content

Gunning for Albury

As we approached central Albury I switched stations on the car radio and was greeted by some Bryan Adams. It could have been 21 years ago, when B was studying in Albury and I was a too frequent visitor. Next up was Belinda Carlisle's Summer Rain, a song that has accompanied so many important moments in my life.

With closing time fast approaching, we pulled into a carpark outside  of a shopping centre. As we wandered through Albury's Myer department store Summer Rain again played over their sound system. I was difficult not to read something more into the coincidence.


I don't know exactly why I wanted to go into Myer, some vague fantasy about rural department stores that I've had all these years, of buying a computer system from one. I didn't, of course, just wandered mainly around the small toy section while Alex indulged in his own fantasies of ownership and play.

With most of Albury shut we wandered the main street reminiscing while Alex demanded to check into the motel. To placate him we promised an ice cream. As we walked back to the car we spotted Monumental Ice Cream across the road and, while he ate your standard (not that I would call the fine quality such) chocolate and mint, B and I indulged in nectarine and watermelon flavours. Perhaps it is fortunate that the shop did not exist all those years ago!


Having decided on a driving holiday to Victoria as a way to end the summer break, we departed later than expected and had to drop Kita off at the kennel before hitting the Hume Highway. It is important that we teach the new car the route, as we have done for all previous vehicles. A pity that the car can't drive itself, for the route is so familiar.


But from the junction of the Hume and the Federal Highways the road is more of a trip down a wide memory lane and less of  a frequent commute to Canberra. Granite boulders replace the coastal sandstone of the East, old and massive trees stand guard over the straw yellow and bright green irrigated fields.


The Hume now bypasses all the towns to Melbourne, a pity as they break up the journey, offering variation and history. We diverted off the highway to Gunning for a very nice meal of hamburgers and milkshake at the Old Gunning Cafe. Then onwards we drove, past windmills and the irrigation around the Murrumbidgee, the abandoned railway line into Gundagai until, after a few arewethereyets, we arrived at the outskirts of Albury.


Our last family hotel may have been a five star Hilton, but there is something special about your standard Aussie motel when you are on a road trip. The owners of the Winsor Park are friendly and there are no luggage restrictions or airport belts. And no turbulence. Just happy memories.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD  and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease  - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

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...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but  my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...