Eden to Cooma - just beautiful landscape
There's not much action to report about the drive from Eden to about 20 km past Cooma. It was a long, long drive with a lot of changing landscape. From Eden to Bega the road follows the coast line and than turns inland. It starts going uphill soon even though the road winds along the Snowy River. With this constant incline we made it from sea level to 1125m altitude at around Nimmitabel in a couple of hours. From there on we were driving through vast tablelands at +/- 1000m altitude. Just beautiful, a pleasure for the eyes. In Cooma (around 6000 inhabitants and 800m altitude) we stopped for a bit of playtime. Cooma is know for the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme, which is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex, generating peak-load power for the ACT, NSW and Victoria. It has 6 major dams, 7 power stations, a pumping station and around 225 km of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts. It is the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia and was constructed between 1949 and 1974 by immigrants, mostly from Europe. Therefore it is also said to be a defining point in Australia's history to be an independent, multicultural society and resourceful country.
We stayed 20 km away from Cooma on a lovely, quiet free camp, even though it was just off the main road. Not a lot of people and undisturbed views. Just as we like it.
The Capital
The Parliament House (various details), The Mint, The National War Memorial, Sarah on a Merry-go-around in the CBD, The Arboretum
Next day we drove the last 150 km into the Australian Capital Territory and into Canberra. For the fact that it is a constructed city it has a lot of confusing big roads with weird on and off ramps and Martin wasn't particularly happy driving. Even though we had left the caravan on a campground in Queanbeyan, 15 km away. The Parliament House is a must and we were impressed by the building - not so much by the attendance in the green House of Representatives and the red Senate Chamber. The Great Hall is stunning as is the flagpole of 81m hight. Just a couple of boring details for the curious ones: the principle design of the house is based on the shape of 2 boomerangs; construction started in 1981 and was completed in 1988; costs were more than AUD 1.1 billion; Architects: Philadelphia-based firm Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp; the house contains more than 4,700 rooms;
After some light lunch in the Parliament House Cafe we headed off to The Mint, to see how Australia makes it's money. We had an exclusive tour run by a very knowledgeable but taunting long-time employee. It was interesting even though he did a very short version of the tour because of Sarah (who wasn't really interested) and his teasing comments were a bit off-putting. We loved the robot - it was fun watching it. Otherwise we couldn't see much of the process of how the coins are made. But we actually figured out how they make money: they sell $1 coins for $3.
Next day, we went to see the national war memorial. We were a bit early, so we had enough time to have a coup of coffee before it opend. The guards were having some coffee next to us, so Sarah asked some questions about those men and women in uniform and we tried to explain to her what a soldier is, and what they ultimately do. The memorial itself is very nicely done. It's simple with a nice chapel at one end. The sides harbour two long corridors and the walls are covered with brass plaques and the names of all the Australians lost in the many wars we were engaged in. According to Wikipedia, nearly 103,000 Australians have died in those conflicts.
Next we went to the CBD to see the big Christmas tree. Very disappointing and we're still not sure if we actually missed the main tree. Sarah enjoyed a horse-ride on a marry-go-around and than we decided to go to the playground at the Arboretum instead. It was super windy and the Arboretum is very exposed on top of a hill. It's a great playground with banksia- and oaknut-shaped equipment and Sarah had a lot of fun. Due to the wind we only spend 30-45 min there before heading back to the caravan park to go shopping and fill up supplies.
We were actually really happy to head off next morning and get out of the big, loud city again and driving through the countryside again.
Back inland: towards Orange
Our way lead us pretty much straight up north on a small back road towards Crookwell, passing Gundaroo and Gunning. It was a fairly hilly and winding road with amazing views but exhausting and slow to drive. It took much longer to reach our camp for the night, a lovely green grassy spot next to the playground in Binda. We played for a bit, then visited the Church but there's nothing else to do in Binda than have a beer at the local grocery-post-office-bar...
Next day we managed the next long part to Orange, via Tuena, Blayney and Millthorpe. With a visit to the Information Centre in Orange we learned all about the playgrounds and drove to the Botanical Gardens to let Sarah run loose. What a great setting - unfortunately Sarah was too tired to really appreciate it. The long drive has taken a toll. To get a bit of movement we visited the Conobola Reserve and 'hiked' around the lake. About 1km. We underestimated Sarahs tiredness and it was more of a torture than the relaxing walk we had anticipated. After dragging Sarah back to the car we drove straight to the campsite on Mount Conobola to find just a car park instead of a nice green spot to set up. It was also packed with backpackers... not the best night but still great views. (will be uploaded in the next blog)