Kites, cars and apples

Time to head back home to Sydney. Just a few jumps of the trampoline first, the along the other side of the Alpine Way to Jindabyne. The autumn lake scenery was beautiful, the gright yellow poplar leaves a different shade of gold to the grasslands around them.

We stop at the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre and learn about the massive hydroelectric and irrigation scheme, pedal our way to 2200W on the bikes and admire the displays. Then off again and up towards Canberra through the rolling Monaro Plains.

The creperie at Bredbo is closed and with it our lunch plans. Anyway, Alex is eager to return to Canberra's National Arboretum to fly his kite.

Canberra has many places to eat but you must leave the highways and parkways to find them. Unwilling to search them out along with the parking that must accompany it I divert us at the airport junction. There is a last minute choice: Pialligo, because where there are nurseries there are often cafes, or the developments near the airport where fast food chains await.

We try Pialligo and are rewarded with an easy parking spot and a cafe of reasonable quality (the white chocolate and peach cheesecake is divine). Plus there are apple farms with direct sales. Bonus!

Sated, we continue on to the arboretum, where Alex spends an hour flying his kite. We purchased it from the shop on our visit there last year. Above us contrails streak the sky between the clouds, while the grey smoke of backburning rises above the ranges.

Hang-gliders soar overhead as we pass dry Lake George on our way out of Canberra. I've never seen them there before.

The clouds darken as we approach Sydney, spattering us with the first rain in weeks, or so it feels. Along the way we stop at Goulburn for fuel, pulled aside for a random breath test before we can enter the petrol station. Fortunately the ginger beer was of the non-alcoholic type.

It's dark by the time we reach home, the heavy traffic on the M5 an unfriendly reminder for me that we weren't in the lonely countryside any more. Still, it is good to be home.

Comments

Springs, castles and the end of the line

I am never happy to stop before the end of the line. It irritates me to know that there is still somewhere unexplored lying ahead. So when I only got as far as Gujo Hachiman on the Nagaragawa Railway last year I knew I needed to return for more. Especially as this private third sector railway is, by its very nature, always at threat of closure due to low patronage. But did Gujo Hachiman deserve another visit? Sure it's a nice enough town, but had we missed out on enough last time to return? Mum's trip provided the excuse. I originally planned the Oito line, which wI'll be partly closed when the Shinkansen line is extended to Kanazawa. However, when I thought of special places in Japan that deserved to be shared Gujo Hachiman was at the top of the list. Before we could go anywhere Mum needed her coffee. There was a Tully's Coffee opposite the hotel entrance, so I parked her there while I booked our seat reservations. Mum got her fast train ride on a ...

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site . I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch. The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t...

travelling allrite

Search This Blog