Trip Update Number 3 and Final
Hi All,
What a busy day, well I am finally in Sydney (at the Randwick Army Barracks) and have already had few beers to celebrate the arrival. Its lonely drinking alone.......but I will have to get used to it.
It all started last night, after checking into the Motel in Goulburn, and deciding to have something to eat at the local RSL Club (Goulburn Soldiers Club). I decided to have a few beers to honour our latest VC recipient SAS Trooper Mark Donaldson, who probably was utilising a Land Rover during his heroic efforts.
I had finished dinner, and went to get some more funds from the machine, when the box says to me "insufficient funds". I thought, what - no way, and a quick phone call the the better half, resulted in finding out that she depleted my beer fund account by mistake. After a quick trip back to the Motel to do the Internet fund transfer thing, I was back in the Black....
After a few sherbets, I jumped on the One Armed Bandits, and after I left at 2300, I was $160 up......Yeah - more beer money.
I went to bed a very happy chappy.
Up bright and early, for a check of the vehicle, and was bailed up for a chat from my Motel room next door neighbor. He was an Old Timer, who worked on building the Warragamba Dam. He used to drive Series 1 Land Rovers during early years of the construction of the Dam. He loved to see 'Walstr' and reminisced of the old times.
Back on the road I refueled, and started heading off, for the last few hundred kilometers to Sydney. As the temperature today was deciding cooler, I was forced to add extra layers of clothing and include a beanie in order to keep warm. One problem was every time a truck came storming past, my beanie tried to blow off, but I was quick to work out that if I put my sunglasses on the outside of the beanie it would hold them on. I probably looked like a weirdo.
There is a few things that I had forgotten about Sydney traffic:
- How very few people used indicators
- How narrow the lanes are (not good with my dodgy steering box buses)
- How much a rush everyone is in to get somewhere
- That Peak Hour is every hour (even weekends)
Sorry there is no photos of Sydney traffic, my camera decided to run out of batteries, just as I was trying to take a photo going into the M5 tunnel. Now that is one very noisy tunnel inside.
As I came out of the M5 tunnel, just before the airport, a Land Rover Discovery (or was it a Range Rover - I cant remember, as i was concentrating on the busy traffic) came onto the road, saw me and backed off and became my welcoming committee to Sydney. A couple of waves and with me trying to change lanes we parted. I think he was a member of the Land Rover Owners' Club of Australia, Victorian Branch, as he had that style sticker on the back window, anyway, whoever he was, thank you for the warm welcome into Sydney, even though it was brief.
Then it was on Randwick, and with my dodgey steering buses, trying to drive in a straight line with the uneven camber of Sydney's roads was nearly impossible. It was so much easier on the Highway.
So I know leave you with my experiences of driving a 1951 Series 1 80inch from Melbourne to Sydney, all in all I had a less than eventfull trip, I had packed so many tools (more than than Snap-On Tool Vans) just in case, and allowed an extra day if I got into trouble, but low and behold, I made it as scheduled.
Regards
Wal