Canberra to Sydney

At times there is not much to report which may of interest to general readers, however things may have passed that have been very important to me. The main reason I undertook this trip was to see my daughter and family who I had not seen for about 14 months, this includes my lovely granddaughter Brooklyn who I only had seen as a baby.

I spent 4 days and a bit in Queanbeyan with daughter Nathalie, husband Shane, grandsons Lucas and Cohen; (for non English speakers, you pronounce Cohen as Ko-Wen) and Brooklyn is a little princes- no other words for it- she is just lovely. I watched the boys playing Australian football and doing Karate together with their dad. We spent time at the park and went to a multicultural festival or sat around and watched TV. I had a great time and consider this the highlight of my trip.

Larger towns and all cities often have an annual multicultural festival. I think that there is no other country in the world which has a broader variety of nationalities than Australia. If you are not an Aborigine then you or your parent/grandparents have come from somewhere else. Some groups are small and some are very large. Some noticeable, others just blend in. The largest group are the English; however during these festivals they are hardly ever present. In Queanbeyan (about 12 km from Canberra) there were performances from a variety of countries. I have included some pictures showing some of these nationalities participating

Lucas and Cohen want to play Australian Rules Football; on Sunday it was a "Give a try and sign up day". After the trial they joined and will perhaps sooner or later be national icons I bet.

I loved watching the Karate- a bit new for me as I associate this sport with a lot of yelling, brick smashing and wood splitting, however what I saw had to with defensive movements and body control and that is was this sport is all about.

On Monday no one was home which left me time to have a look around Canberra.As decribed in my previous blog page) On Tuesday my visit came to an end-I have had a great time.

Before leaving town I visited the Royal Mint. I knew it would be a quick visit as there is not all that much to see. This time there was even less than expected. All the coin making machines are busy but as things happen internally there is not much to see. I left after 20 minutes and set off for the City of Goulburn. This is “Sheep country” and the town won't let you forget it as along the main road there is a Giant Merino Sheep for you to have a look at and to purchase wool products from inside its belly.

The previous day I had mailed a friend in Sydney telling that I may meet him “somewhere” if he contacted me before reaching Goulburn, otherwise I would take the long way around the north through the mountains. We made contact just before I was to leave Goulburn and we quickly decided to meet 2 ½ hours later near the city of Wollongong.

The last 40 km riding into Wollongong were surprising. I was at 800 meters riding in low clouds; meanwhile the temperature had dropped to 15 degrees. Te road dipped down through the little town of Sutton Forest which could as well could have been called “Sudden Forest” as I had just left the open plains and reached an area of dense forest with the road going down hugging the rocky mountain side along steep curves, hairpin bends and chicanes. At 90 meters I had reached the valley below; suddenly the forest opened up and via rolling hills I freewheeled towards Wollongong. Meanwhile I had noticed the temperate had risen with every km I had covered. At arrival in Wollongong the temperature was back again at 28 degrees.

A quick text and rendezvous location brought us together near a shopping complex where we both arrived at exactly the same time

I had met Pedro in November when I learned he rode his Honda from Holland through the old southern Russian states, now known as “The Stan's “(Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and any other “Stan” in the area).

Pedro rode all the way to the very end of Russia (Vladivostok) and shipped his bike to Japan and later on to Brisbane. I assisted him with the clearance of his bike while he enjoyed our hospitality for a week. So we met again and discussed his further plans while sipping our cappuccinos at the local Mc-D