Snowy Mountains, Australia

January 27th 2012

Today's journey was a little bit of a disaster because while choosing a route from Cooma to Melbourne I chose an unsealed road which the campervan isn't permitted to go down but I didn't think it would be too bad, I was very wrong! We struggled down the bumpy, rocky, gravely roads for quite a few miles before having to turn back and find an alternative route because we were too afraid of the damage that might be caused to the van which we would have to pay for when we returned it in a few days time. Whilst driving down the road I managed to get some great landscape photographs which made the journey worthwhile even though at the time we felt a bit rubbish as we felt that time and petrol had been wasted.

We decided on another route through Kosciuszko National Park. We got our ticket at the barrier as you have to pay if you want to stop anywhere in the park, to save money we decided not to stop and drive straight through taking pictures from the campervan as we went. We drove through some more beautiful scenery though it was completely different to the scenery that we had driven through this morning. The roads twisted and turned, up and down. Once through the park we started to drive on level ground and went past some lakes, we passed two wild kangaroos before turning in to a rest stop for the evening. It had been a long day of driving with stresses but the photos are some of my favourite of Australia.

Canberra, Australia

January 24th - January 26th 2012

Once we got our campervan going we drove to the Blue Mountains. It was really miserable and drizzly so once we finally got to the viewpoints we couldn't actually see anything but white fog. We drove around and got some shopping from Katoomba before driving down some very windy country lanes which eventually took us to a free campsite in the middle of the forest. It was cold and damp but once we pitched up on a spot and started cooking our dinner it felt really cosy. There were plenty of other campers about so although it was an isolated place we were surrounded by other people so the dark forest didn't seem scary.



Misty roads

The next day we packed up and drove back up the twisting roads to Govetts Leap where we hoped that the fog had cleared so that we could get a good view...it hadn't.  Again we were faced with thick white fog. It was a bit of a shame, I've seen the Blue Mountains before on a previous trip and it was a highlight but Craig hasn't and he missed out. After driving to Echo Point Lookout to the same view of white nothingness we gave up and started to make the journey to our next city, Australia's capital, Canberra.

The views on the journey were beautiful and the weather started to clear as we got to lower ground. We found a basic camp site for the night and watched a beautiful sun set from our camper.

Sunset over treetops

We left our caravan park and drove in to Canberra's city centre. On the way we noticed that the city was full of spirit as today January 26th is Australia Day. We parked up and went to the National Gallery of Australia and spent a good few hours in there admiring art from all different era's and countries. We could have spent longer in the museum but started to feel hunger pangs and so left to make ourselves some lunch. Afterwards we went to the National Portrait Gallery and looked at a huge collection of traditional and modern portrait paintings. Both museums were free so it was a cheap day sightseeing.

Aboriginal Embassy

After the galleries we walked along Lake Burley Griffen to the sound of Men At Work's Land Down Under which was playing to locals who were setting up celebratory picnics and barnecues. We then walked inwards to the Old Parliament House and gardens. We walked past the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a sight for protest among Aboriginal people and into some pretty rose gardens. We then waked by the new modern Parliament House and then back to the camper where we drove south through some beautiful country landscapes to a free rest stop just outside Cooma which had fantastic views over fields and a river.

Outside Cooma