ACT Retirement Driving Adventure - Day 4 - The Rock to Canberra 1/12/2017

After a dry night the grey clouds had come over and the wind was picking up as we finished our breakfast and packed up.  By the time we made it into the local town (also called The Rock) the roads there were soaking wet, and it was obvious that the rain had come , but had missed us so far.  We caught up with the rain just past Wagga and debated the merits of different routes into Canberra.

Trevor was keen to take a route through the mountains since we had the day up our sleeve, so we headed for Tumut, where we stopped at the local information centre and spoke to the parks officer.
If we went in the next 1/2 hour or so it would be OK to take that route, but otherwise wiser not to due to the road surface and conditions. In the rain the road gets slippery as well as being steep, rutted and windy. It also has logging trucks.

After a quick stop at the local bakery we headed out of town, seeing a shuffling echidna as we wound our way up into the mountains beside the river.

The forests (pine and native) on both sides of the road was interesting, as were the glimpses of gullies far below us and little dirt roads winding off along the flats. This is where "My Brilliant Career " was written.

We stopped a couple of times. The second time we made ourselves some lunch and sat on huge old logs in a clearing to eat, before the rain hurried us along.  As we pulled out of our little lunch spot we realised that the bitumen was only about 200m away!! - great timing as the rain started pelting in.

lunch spot

We made our way past Uriarra Village (the only community title village in Australia) and wound our way down to the base of the Cotter Dam, where we admired the Dam overflow

and took a short walk, unexpectedly meeting some lizards on the rocks.

After the brief break in rain, in it came again as we headed on to Tidbinbilla.  We ran to the visitor centre in rain and an hour or so ran back out again in a drenching downpour.

This satellite dish (DSS46) was the one to first to receive and relay images of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.  

This dish (DSS43) is 70 metres wide and the largest steerable radio antenna in the southern hemisphere and part of the Deep Space Communication network along with 2 others in the world. We watched it move as it tracked the satellites. 

our 

It is always fun to dress up...right???  We learnt lots about space life while we waited for the rain to stop (which it didn't)

After all this excitement, we headed on into Canberra, going directly to Duffy, where we found Kate at home waiting for our company.  Lovely to see her after so long.

Also caught up with Andrew and Vic when they got home.
Eventually found our way to Lyneham and our airbnb for the next week or so - it's a bit noisy (traffic lights outside the widows) but it has fans in both bedrooms, good shower and our own kitchen. (Plus a TV for Trev to keep an eye on the cricket)

It is still pouring with rain, but hot.

our travels today