1.
Kings of the Mountain
So after some relaxation time at Durras point, we decide
it’s time to say goodbye to our kangaroo friends and head to Canberra, home of
the slimy creature known as “The Politian.” We had heard from some friends that
the Kings Highway can be an interesting drive, but we had no idea what was in
store for us. “Don’t bother if it’s wet” was a sentence that was thrown around
a bit at the christening and luckily for us it wasn’t raining… yet. So cruising
along the Kings Highway I was starting to think that it wasn’t anywhere near as
bad as people said, and even after it started pouring down it still wasn’t too
bad, until we hit the start of the mountain climb…
It looked
something like this…
Now a simple mountain climb doesn’t sound too bad unless of
course you’re me, towing Chernobyl van which I swear puts the inertia brakes on
just to piss me off, in a car that has about as much grunt as a guinea pig.
Dear reader, if you think about visiting Canberra and are towing a van may I
suggest you take the long way around and go through Cooma? Because we crawled
up the mountain which is an incline of about 40 degrees with minimal overtaking
lanes. By the way, when I say crawl, I’m talking about 20 kph, and in some
parts I swear we were going backwards. My wheels were sliding and slipping so
much I had to put 4WD mode on and what’s worse, was the sporadic stopping on
the slope for lane closures. Once we got to the top I felt like I had conquered
Mount Doom, only that probably would have been easier…
Aside from the perilous mountain drive the landscape all
along the Kings Highway is something to behold. Wide open meadows surrounded by
rolling hills accompany most of the drive, with the occasional gum tree popping
up every now and then. At one part of the journey we had to drive through a
small town named Braidwood. It’s the classic small country town that most people
would love to settle down in. On the corner of the main street heading into
town was a service station and after the mountain climb I needed to empty my
bladder. The curious thing about service stations is the toilets sometimes have
a sign saying “For customers only” but being the rebel I am, I managed to waltz
right in without detection. My conscience however, got the best of me so after
using their bathrooms I went into the shop and bought a packet of chips. I’m
glad I did because shortly I read up on the history of the town which turns out
to be a heritage listed town. Turns out Braidwood was like the wild west with
stories of bushrangers and lawmen having shootouts that would put Clint
Eastwood to shame.
It stopped
raining after the mountain climb…
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