Journeying North: Part of an Australian Journey (July 2007)

Despite dragging myself out of bed at around 3am and having everything bar the kitchen sink packed the night before, we don't nudge out of the driveway until just before 6am. All I had to do was shower, eat breakfast and pack, so I am a little bewildered where the three hours went. In fairness, there are six of us squeezed into a Ford Falcon station wagon with a third row seat. We are going to be away for just over two weeks and trying to save a little by taking our own basics. Unfortunately, the Falcon is not like Doctor Who's Tardis. There is only a little bit of space in which to pack everything and it is the same size inside that it appears from without. Perhaps even a bit of a reverse Tardis, as there is only so much available space in which to pack things. Odd shapes take up more space than they deserve. Perhaps I should have taken on my wife's suggestion and packed the night before.

Even though we are already more than an hour behind schedule, going on holidays in the low season is mid-winter and it is still as dark as the inside of a cow when we head off. The crisp Canberra pre-dawn means that we barely make it to the Barton Highway before the windscreen fogs up. The demister soon gives us a clear view, however the Falcon only does the job when the air-conditioner is running on super chill and the fan is on its maximum setting. Now I know how Mawson and the other explorers to the Antarctic must have felt when the katabatic winds kicked in. Our teeth are soon chattering and I feel my feet start to numb with the cold, which creeps to my driving hands. Not a good idea driving when you can't feel the steering wheel, the upside though is that I can no longer feel the cold.

The first hour or so whizzes by in a blur of changing odometer numbers. It's customary for Canberrans migrating northwards to stop off at Sutton Forest. Yes, there is a McDonalds restaurant there (when did take-aways get this culinary upgrade?) and, after you navigate your way around the moon-like craters in their driveway, which have their own traffic hazard warning signs and barricades, the main attraction is the toilets. On a long weekend, you will find queues here, but thankfully not in mid-winter. We don't have the place completely to ourselves, after all it is still a Saturday morning and the usual weekend exodus is in progress, but it is not busy and the toilets are still relatively clean. Bonus!

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