Vale Gough

Ok so this is a travel blog not a political one.....but..........we heard about the death of Gough Whitlam via a phone call from Keyne whilst driving past the dog on his tucker box and I had to say something. This immigrant's son would not have a degree, and possibly not even a sense of justice if it weren't for Gough. The free education is obvious and a whole generation flourished because of it. The other was a timing thing. I suppose i developed a political sensibility at the time of Gough and Malcolm striding the political stage like colossuses. Whilst neither one is as angelic nor the other as demonic as they were idealised at the time, the battle between good and evil was a way for a young man to start seeing the political fight between self interest and the broader good. So bye Gough from a grateful spaniard.

The actual travel? Well it was mostly a drive so nothing particularly exciting. We drove out via Yea and Seymour to avoid Melbourne peak hour traffic. I always like the Goulburn valley around Trawool. They are doing a rail trail that looks like it will be excellent. We stopped at Seymour for second breakfast and then drove on to Holbrook. Holbrook is famous for having a submarine as the centrepiece of its main park. Apparently because Holbrook is the name of a famous submariner and they kind of sponsor submarine folk. I particularly liked the torpedo across from the pub.

I had forgotten, and quite enjoyed, the rolling hills in this part of the world. They were quite green and lovely and went on forever. The sheep in NSW are quite odd. They seem to cluster together in a very friendly clumps, unlike the Victorian sheep who just loll about.

Anyway made Canberra and settled into the digs at ANU. It is right on campus and quite nice with a lovely peaceful cloister. However, less hotelly that normal places, so no Canberra maps available at reception. And no wifi......the horror!!!! We wandered about without a map and managed to find the city centre. Hardly worth it. No tourist office and no people. Just some odd sculptures and the odd wandering goth, single mother or homeless person. When people say Canberra is dead this is where they got the idea.

We drove the 3km out of town to get to a tourist centre to get a good map. Google maps wanted Marjan to drive on the wrong side of the road. She resisted! We got our maps and decided to risk some roundabouts without one.....yep ended up going the wrong way. Still; the traffic hardly makes any difficulties when getting back on track. 

Made it back to the digs and ate at the University House restaurant called....Boffins.....what wags. Not bad. By then we were buggered so spent the evening watching TV....well episodes of The Newsroom via our ipad. 

Bye for now.