We’re on our way to Canberra to meet Glenda and Trevor. To avoid going back to Melbourne we’re following a route given to us by the two old boys in Dunkeld (see earlier post). It takes us through some nice little towns and rolling green hills, reminiscent of Sussex. Except for the nice weather, of course.

It’s a long way from Ballarat to Canberra, too far to drive in one go, so we’re staying overnight at Albury, a medium-size town just over the border in NSW. My book fails to find anything to say about Albury, so I guess it’s of no particular historical interest. It looks a pleasant enough town: there is one long street – Dean St – which runs through the town and has all the shops, restaurants and bars. Saturday night so the young folk are out in force. It’s very hot, well over 30 degrees.

Left Albury early Sunday morning, for Canberra. Most of the route is via the Hume Freeway; Australian freeways have an upper speed limit of 110km/hr, which is almost universally observed. There are bossy signs every few kilometres telling you to slow down (“Slowing Down Won’t Kill You!”) or to have a lie down (“Powernap Now!”) I guess that given the distances and the lack of visual variety it wouldn’t be surprising if drivers tended to nod off. Then again, there are small pleasures - on the way we passed signs for colourfully named towns: Wagga Wagga, Tumbarumba, Rumpi Pumpi*, and such like.

We crossed the Murrumbidgee river and stopped for some tucker, as they say here, at Gundagai (pop: 2,400, elevation: 230m), a pleasant little place with more than a hint of the Old West about it. And so on to the nation’s capital.

When Australia needed a national capital, in the early 1900s, they couldn’t agree between the rival claims of established Melbourne and upstart Sydney, so they decided to purpose-build a capital city in neither place, and gave it its own territory (Australian Capital Territory, or ACT). The American architect Walter Burley Griffin was hired to design the city from scratch, and much of central Canberra is built around Lake Burley Griffin, and is walkable. All the big national buildings are here, Parliament House, the National Gallery, National Library, High Court, etc. It is not a typical big city though in that it lacks skyscrapers and heavy traffic, and has a quiet charm.

In the morning we’re going to take the rental car – we’ve covered 1600 km since picking it up in Melbourne - back to the car hire place downtown, put our luggage on the pavement, and wait for Glenda and Trevor to pick us up.

*I may have imagined the last one.