On the road

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Wed 20 Jan 2016 22:10

Wednesday 20th January 2016

 

The boat was all closed up, the car was all packed up and we were all fired up to hit the road by mid-morning.  We left boat keys at the office – it turned out that Graham had been anchored behind us in his catamaran on New Year’s Eve.  Leaving all thought of boats behind us, we drove out of the marina and ‘set a course’ for Canberra. 

 

As we left the greater Sydney area the roads became much emptier and the surroundings less urban and we began to relax and enjoy the drive in the sunshine, with so much ahead of us to explore.  We stopped for coffee and doughnuts at a 7/11 and bought a sandwich which we ate later at a picnic spot along the way.

 

We arrived in Canberra in the early afternoon, and were somewhat unimpressed.  Wide roads and ugly buildings, lots of traffic but otherwise little sign of life. We drove around trying to get a feel for the place, but couldn’t find a hub, a town centre.  There must be one somewhere, but the roads just all seemed to lead back out of town again...

 

Frustrated, we decided to sort out a place to stay, so pulled into a side street and did some searching on the iPad.  We weren’t too keen to stay in the city, so booked ourselves into a motel in Queanbeyan, a suburb about 10 kms southeast, and headed out there to check in.  The reviews said that it was an old motel that was a little tired, but we found our room bright, clean and with plenty of space and everything we needed.  With a continental breakfast thrown in at $95 a night, we were happy. 

 

Later we went for a stroll down the hill into the little town, which had far more character and life than we’d seen so far in the city.  We popped into Woollies to pick up a few groceries, and then had dinner at a little Chinese restaurant, before heading back to the motel to plan tomorrow’s visit to the nation’s capital.

 

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The motel was in need of some maintenance work in places, but this was the view from our balcony and the upstairs al fresco area.

 

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The room was perfectly adequate.