Never mind that header, the pond has as more of a connection to New Jersey these days than to mispronouncing New Yorkers of the arrogant kind ...
The pond recently experienced freedumb while blogging and every so often might break loose ... and hence the shout out to Jersey Mike, who for some bizarre reason expressed an interest in the pond's travels ...
Well in that spirit, here's a trip from Melbourne to Sydney just this last weekend...
First stop is Euroea, where you can actually find a good coffee if you look hard and luck in, though you'd never guess it from the sleepy look ...
Next, the pond usually stops at Holbrook, though the town has suffered a decline since the bypass went through...
Oh dear. The pond has a soft spot for the town, not because of the submarine, though that has been tremendously handy when the RAN has needed spare parts ...
It's more the antique vibe and the open spaces ...
Next the pond always stops in Gundagai.
In terms of Sydney and Melbourne, the old town is in the middle of nowhere, and has fallen on hard times, but not as severe as Goldfield in Nevada, and without that real whiff of the past you get when checking out Bodie in California ... but still. what a town ... though you'll have to click on this image to see how that statue ended up in town ...
And then there's the enthusiastic crowds swarming for bible lessons ...
Meanwhile, back in town, crowds swarm in the street ...
Sadly the Niagara Cafe, famous for having PMs as patrons, has been long closed, and nobody has shown any interest in buying what was once a country town tradition ...
Never mind, just soak up the vibe ...
The pond sometimes stops at Yass, which is Tamworth in spirit, and where you can see loons getting ready to turn off the Hume and head to Canberra.
That's around where the pond spotted this already mentioned and celebrated loon on the weekend ...
But the pond ignored the temptation of a swag of Q lovers and didn't really think Trump had won, at least in a universe given to certain rules and regulations and reality checks, and so it pressed on to Goulburn ...
This is the pond's favourite town, and always a good reason to leave the deadly dull Hume highway ... it's as close to Tamworth as Tamworth ... just look at the post office ...
But the pond prefers the side streets and the big park off the main drag, which contains a hothouse so pitiful that the pond prefers not to show it ...
In country towns, the churches always scored the best real estate and hill views ... and as for that park, the pond hid the water feature, because every country town park must have a water feature, preferably not working or GUR...
Sadly Goulburn has lost some of its novelty. It still has the giant merino ram, too well known to mention here, but it lost the pond's favourite sight at the Soldiers' Club, a wall of demonic rams with bonus lighting effect ...
That was actual wall art, long lost ...
And the pond hasn't mentioned the joys of doing little towns, like veering off to a little place called Collector where once you could see this sort of art ...
And then you're in Sydney, at the end of the photo essay, and ready to look at an infallible Pope or three, celebrating the country's glorious leaders ...
The Bungendore Woodworks Gallery is worth a visit.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Bungendore is another good off road place to detour
DeleteOh my, DP; memories. Back when I worked in Canberra (1974 to mid 1977) I would drive to Melbourne (in my blue Beetle 1500) 2 or 3 times a year. Always along the Hume Highway of course which was a little different back then (the "road" out of Albury onto the old Hume was basically just a country lane and I couldn't believe it was part of the main Melbourne-Sydney highway the first time I travelled it).
ReplyDeleteSo I drove through many of those busy, thriving country towns often. Now they look more like ghost towns ... which I guess they kinda are now with the Hume almost totally "bypassed". Si triste, but thanks for the memories.
There was a great mess going down in the main drag at Goulburn, which is why the pond had to drag in a shot of the PO, so at least they're Making Goulburn Great Again, but yes, the bypasses have been the ruination of many a small town, though oddly enough, some are thriving ... the pub and caravan park at Jugiong seem to be doing a good business ...
DeleteI hardly ever got to Goulburn - turned off at Yass to get to Canberra. Did go through Jugiong, of course, but by that stage of the 'drive home' I wasn't taking much notice.
DeleteMike - some musical accompaniment, from a greatly underrated composer -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwpO7JpO3co
Just about every Aussie kid, at least of the generations of myself, GB and Dorothy know the tune, and probably a couple of sets of 'lyrics' - not all of them for what used to be called 'decent company'.
Chadwick,
DeleteThanks for that link. Gundagai seems to have a hold on your
national imagination beyond song and the dog on the tuckerbox.
Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your travels with pithy remarks.
When years ago one of my 13 uncles broke out the holiday slides
my brothers/cousins would sneak out as soon as the lights were
off but I soaked it all up, wondering where else these roads
led to and what the locals were like.
I imagine DP in her Holden - I understand each of you is
issued one at birth - cruising thru these bergs and riffing off
the sites, such as the sub being a RAN parts store, that cracked
me up.
The Yass P.O. would have enticed me to stop and take a photo
as well, beautiful.
I could definitely see myself cruising these roadways 1 day
on a putative Oz Run.
Listening to Jersey's national anthem, Springsteen's
"Jersey Girl" as I passed The Big Guitar.
Would definitely hang a Big Guitar replica on the rear view mirror,
next to the Gundagai souvenir doggie and fuzzy dice.
Hope to see more of your travel photos if the muse hits you DP.
Thanks again buddy, I appreciate it.
The pond started off in life with an FX, JM, but the last Holden was an HK, long ago ...and as for those holiday slides, the pond can remember being invited to the pater's boss's actual family home for a grand evening of slides, only to be completely bemused that adults would spend their time this way ... and yet here we are, and pleased it amused you, and yes, they really did head to the sub for spare parts ...
DeleteWhen HMAS Otway was decommissioned in 1994, the people of Holbrook, armed with a $100,000 gift from Mrs Holbrook, rushed to get their hands on the craft (they eventually had to buy most of it from a scrap metal company).
But as they prepared to mount their prize as the centrepiece of a town park, one of the two Oberon-class subs still operating, HMAS Otamo, managed to crash into a concrete pylon in Botany Bay.
Otamo’s rudder post was bent beyond repair, rendering its rudder useless.
The sub seemed doomed: rudder posts for such old subs were no longer manufactured.
Suddenly, someone in the navy remembered the Otamo’s sister sub, the Otway, was sitting beside the Hume Highway. Harried officials were dispatched to Holbrook to beg to re-claim the tail of the Otway (known to old salts as “the duck’s arse”).
And so, a large truck carried the submarine’s rear-end up the highway to Sydney, the rudder post was eased out and dropped into HMAS Otamo, and the Navy returned the duck’s arse to Holbrook’s sub, where it sits to this day.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/caution-submarines-approach-with-great-care-20210923-p58u41.html
Take care now, have a good day, and come on back now, ya hear?