5/13/22 The Big Smoke: Goulburn to Sydney

 Our motel room was up the back of a pub in Goulburn.

I'm not sure what possessed us to stay up the back of a pub in Goulburn on a Saturday night.

I've stayed in worse places, but I was younger then and could sleep through all sorts of noise and shenanigans. I'm older now and I like the doof doof music to stop by 9:30pm and everyone drink up their Milo and be tucked in bed by 10pm please. 

"Do you know what's just up the road?" asked Roger as we did our best to sleep.

"No," said I, who should have known better.

"The Goulburn Gaol," he said.  "And inside that is the supermax security unit.  That's where all the baddest of the bad guys go.  So if someone knocks on the door during the night, don't answer it." 

"Ok," I said.  "You can answer it instead."  And I went to sleep and if anyone knocked on the door I didn't hear it, so they went away and were  Bad Men somewhere else.

Bleary eyed from the second-hand carousing if not the Knocks in the Night, I went for a morning walk in Goulburn.  Goulburn is a lot higher than I thought (702m) and is therefore a lot colder than I expected.  I had a short, brisk walk.

All very quiet at 0700. Pick the car that doesn't have reliable reverse and had to be driven round the block a couple of times in order to be able to park in such a manner that leaving on time would be a certainty.

One of Goulburn's beautiful old buildings.

On the way out of town we swung by the giant ram to say hello.

Hello.

We met your little cousin a couple of days ago.  He was a bit rambunctious.

Sheep-related jokes aside, the day was pretty straight forward: a 4-lane highway all the way to Sydney.

We stopped in Bowral for lunch.  

 

It was very cold.  Roger was not impressed.

 

He is very jealous of one of our children, cavorting in the sunshine and warmth in Yamba.

The M7 delivered us directly to the front gate of the Lane Cove Caravan Park, where we set up our tent for the night in an unexpectedly empty camping area.

Where is everybody?

 

There are no kangaroos either.  How will we know how far apart we can be?

It wasn't completely empty:  we were entertained by a small boy who is camping with his Mum and Grandad, sleeping in a new sleeping bag in a new tent.  He is very excited about this.  He is also very excited about the whistle his Mum bought him with strict instructions to blow it loudly if he gets lost in the bush.  He has taken this advice to heart and is practicing diligently, becoming regularly lost in the wild 30m between his tent and the camp kitchen.  Unlike the pub revellers last night, he has a mother who has already enforced the Milo and has tucked him firmly into his new sleeping bag, so we should sleep undisturbed by wild whistling tonight.

Home for the night: Lane Cove Caravan Park.

And here is your unidentified flower for the day: on a trellis in the park at Bowral.