Out of my point of view: Spaceship Journey 2012

We are back in Dee Why after almost a week of travelling more or less aimlessly around New South Wales and Victoria. A week is nowhere near enough if you ask me. At the end of a week I was just getting into it - I really, really, really didn't want to go home!

Anyway, someone has decided you need money to live and a job to generate the money, so unfortunately I had to get back to work. Here's a re-cap of the journey.

Day 1 - Canberra and beyond
We actually started out straight after work on Wednesday afternoon to get a bit of a head start. The purpose of the first leg of the journey was to go to the Swedish Embassy in Canberra to apply for a new passport. We picked up our Spaceship camper named Cosmic Clown on Wednesday evening, drove for a few hours and slept the first night at a rest stop just north of Canberra. We then headed into Canberra in the morning to meet my appointment at 9am. Canberra is a very odd place. There is no traffic, even at rush hour on a Thursday morning. It has a soulless, empty feeling about it and it almost feels like a fake town. Kind of like a front for something else. They make it look like a real town, but...

Anyway, to get to the Swedish Embassy we had to drive past the American one. They are a bit twitchy, the Americans. They had a huge hostile looking fence and guards everywhere, guards with binoculars scanning the empty town for... well, I don't quite know what for. Kangaroos perhaps.

The Swedish Embassy had a much more inviting air about it. The gates were open and there were no guards, but instead a friendly terrier patrolled the lawn (or at least sat on it, lazily wagging his tail). They had some flowers and a nice patio with a BBQ at the back.The old, creaky wooden front door looked and felt very Swedish. I rather liked it.

After we finished our Swedish business we headed south, and randomly aimed for a small town called Cooma. (Here I might add that we had never heard of Cooma and really didn't have a plan for this trip, none at all in fact. Every move was spur of the moment, just the way I like it).

Instead of following the Monaro Highway we opted for a smaller road that runs almost parallel to it. The rental agreement for our vehicle stated that we were not under any circumstances to drive on dirt roads, but this one looked ok judging from Google maps so we went for it. It was nice and sealed for a good while, but then it wasn't any more. Too late to turn back, and for a dirt road it was really quite good.

The area around Cooma is magnificent, never ending rolling hills, no people, no traffic, no nothing. Just some cows and sheep and the occasional farm in the distance. I love it, I want to live there.

In Cooma we stocked up on food and supplies, and then in the choice between mountain or coast decided to head for Mount Kosciuszko national park. As we approached the pay station for the park the weather took a turn and it started raining, and up there in the mountains rain often turns to snow. The road signs said no entry without snow chains, so we turned around and headed south via Jindabyne and Bombala towards Victoria.

We had not seen a single kangaroo so far on this journey, which was disappointing. Well, not a single live one anyway. There are fantastic numbers of dead animals on the road side in this country, mostly kangaroos and wallabies but also the occasional wombat or fox. Anyway, somewhere on the Jindabyne-Bombala stretch as I was driving the car, a kangaroo decided to appear. It hopped next to the car for a moment and then proceeded to cross the road right in front of us. Luckily I had already slowed down having spotted the creature on the side of the road for a split second, but I still didn't have time to stop so with a breathless "F*CK F*CK F*CK!" I hit the stupid thing and it went rolling over the road as the car screeched to a halt. Great. Once we finally see a live animal, we manage to kill it. But no! The kangaroo got up and hopped away, looking completely ok! After damage check and a couple of deep breaths, Dwayne and I each exclaimed our relief:
Me: Oh my god I can't believe the Kangaroo is ok!
Dwayne: Oh my god I can't believe the car is ok!

We then took aim for Cape Conran on the Victoria south coast and arrived just as it was getting dark. It was a beautiful spot right on the beach and we fell asleep as wind and rain rattled our cosy camper.