Canberra–Instagram and the Colorado Fuel Economy figures

 

Hi All, As i did at the end of the Perth Trip i thought i would add a copy of all the instagram photos i took whilst on this trip. In addition to that, now that i have my own tow vehicle i thought i would document its fuel economy on trips.

Instagram

 

Fuel Economy Figures

These figures were collected using GasCuby for the Iphone. I have been using this for all of the cars i have had since getting the iphone and will be able to continue posting this data on future trips.

At the moment i am attributing the high figures on the first day of the trip to incorrect Tyre air pressure and driving style. On the trip home i adjusted the air pressures away from dealer recommendation and more in line with the car placard. I also modified my driving style. Future trips will show is this helps

L/100km	Date	Vehicle	Odometer	Filled Up	Cost/Liter	Liters	Total Cost	Octane
9.3	25/12/2011	Colorado	3,176.00	Full	$1.44	32.77	$47.16	Diesel
13.7	30/12/2011	Colorado	3,317.00	Full	$1.44	13.07	$18.81	Diesel
12.6	1/01/2012	Colorado	3,579.00	Full	$1.52	35.78	$54.35	Diesel
12.4	2/01/2012	Colorado	3,760.00	Full	$1.53	22.89	$35.00	Diesel
12.2	5/01/2012	Colorado	4,166.00	Full	$1.46	50.39	$73.52	Diesel
11	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,307.00	Full	$1.56	17.26	$26.91	Diesel
12.4	7/01/2012	Colorado	4,692.00	Full	$1.51	42.51	$64.15	Diesel
	8/01/2012	Colorado	4,958.00	Full	$1.42	32.95	$46.75	Diesel

Canberra - Old Parliament House

 

Last night as the sun was setting we decided to go for a drive up to the Telstra (Telecom) Tower on Black Mountain, we also took a drive up to Mount Ainsle. In both cases however the view was far from perfect as a light cloud had moved in making the view misty.

 

 

 

 

Today was the last day in Canberra for us on this holiday. The kids went with their grandparents whilst Sara and I went to the Old Parliament House.

 

Before we went there we dropped by the National Library as I thought I might be able to locate a medical journal containing an article on me from when I was born. Unfortunately I was not armed with enough information and the search was futile. I will have to try again some day.

Arriving at the front steps of Parliament house we found they had a parking spot for us right at the front :)

As I had never been here it was very interesting. To see the warren of rooms and to find that each room had, sometimes more that three people working in each, it's no wonder they needed to build the new one. Many of the rooms and chambers are setup exactly as they were when the staff and politicians moved house.  They had many duplicate art works on display and many historical artefacts. Of course they also had the Senate and Representative chambers.

In the afternoon we returned to camp to unwind and begin packing for the trip home tomorrow. It was a quick trip but the kids loved Canberra and i think they learned a lot.

 

Canberra - Canberra Motor Village

I though I should post some photos of the caravan park we are staying at. As you can see it is quite dense in the caravan section and the site we have is far from level. Many of the other sites are no better. In the background of one of the photos you can see Sara's mum and dads van as well.

Canberra - The Mint and The Parliament House

Today was another big day, just like the rest. We only have a few days here so we need to fit in as much as possible.

First up on the list was a visit to the Mint. We visited the Perth Mint when we were ore there so thought a visit to the Canberra Mint would be good too. Like many of Canberra's attractions this is free and guided tours are provided. We therefore promptly attached ourselves to a tour. We we're taken through the history of currency in Australia right through to current proof coins and medals. On display was a great range of various coins as well as many miss-stamped coins. The was also an excellent viewing area showing many of the work areas of the mint, the machines, robots and people. We enjoyed the tour so much we went around for a second go :)

Next on the list was a visit to the Parliament House. Again we were fortunate to attach ourselves to a free guided tour, which was an unscheduled tour due to the number of visitors present. The tour to us through the great hall and both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Caitlyn particularly liked this tour and stayed close to the guide through out. 

After the main attractions for the day we also paid a visit to the Canberra glassworks, which was not fully working when we arrived. It seems the weekends is the best time to visit. We also caught up with Paul and Robert and went out to ADFA where Robert is studying to have a tour of the grounds.

Our last stop for the day was a visit to the Mount Ainslie Lookout before heading back to camp for dinner.

Canberra - The Australian War Memorial

We spent the whole day at the Australian War Memorial today. It actually managed to bring back memories of when I was taken there as a child with many of the same diarama's still there as I remembered them. The Memorial has definatly changed and kept up with the times however. 

We managed to spend around 6 hours there today, first on a great guided tour of all the main exhibits and areas, and then by ourselves, mostly with Caitlyn leading the way. The "G for George" exhibit, and the air war movie were both great, with the movie actually being quite moving as it brought home the sacrifice the pilots were making every time they went up.

Caitlyn managed to find the dress up exhibit and was able to participate with many of the other children. Another of the new and powerful exhibits was the Vietnam war exhibit with a full Iroquois helicopter on display, and a movie describing one of the battles fought their.

All in all it was a great day and it's a place you could easily spend longer at if you had the time.

In the evening the kids returned to the pool as Canberra is still very hot, then a great meal was had at a local football club.

Eldorado and Canberra

I can't believe it's 2012. Last year just seemed to of went so fast.

Well, January 1st found us crawling out of bed, after a long night of seeing in the new year and watching all the fireworks our various neighbors felt the need to let off.  With a single stop for fuel and food we arrived at the Gemstone caravan park in Eldorado. The park was deserted, hitch I found strange for the Christmas period, but the owner informed me that the park had only just emptied that morning. For us this meant the choice of sites and drive through to boot. 

I have been to this park twice now and it really is a great little, quiet park, just off the highway near Wangaratta. Behind the park is a creek that contains both gemstones, including Smokey and Citrine Quartz, and Gold. As we were only passing through we used the creek as a swimming hole this time and only did some specking for any gems lying on the surface. LasT time, when we came up with the Essendon Lapidary club, we brought the sieves and gold pans allowing us to find both gems and some small specks of gold.

The kids loved playing in the creek and we found ourselves a shady spot to sit in the water and cool off. We we glad we only stopped here for one nit though as the temperature for 2 days later was predicted to be 45degC.

The next day saw us up and gone by 7 am due to Caitlyn getting quite a bad blood nose during her sleep and us all all finding ourselves awake at 6am. With a promise of a McDonalds breakfast, that did not actually eventuate, everyone agreed to hook up the van and get going. 

We eventually stopped at Holbrook, which seems to be a common theme when we travel this way, but with a new bypass being built, not for much longer.

After Holbrook we caught up with Sara's parents in Gundagai before making our way on to Canberra. We arrived at the Canberra motor village around 1pm to about 35 degrees, so shot welcome. After setting up the van we went out in search of a shopping center for some cool air and supplies. We found both ;)

The Colorado is handling the caravan and trips great with an average of about 13.5l per 100km so far. That included a lot of hills and the car has only just gone over 4000km. I expect this va.ue to improve over time.

Our next day will see us visiting the Australian War Memorial, which will be very interesting and a first for the kids.

Potential Darwin Trip

Another quick update, In the new year, April to be exact, i may have the opportunity to revisit Katherine. My parents are planning a road trip from Melbourne to Katherine and at this stage i am planning on traveling with them. Unfortunately due to timing and the impact some of these trips are having on the kids schooling, Sara and the girls wont be traveling with us.

What this means is that we will be traveling lighter than normal in that we will only have one car, a Holden Colorado and more than likely our Jayco Expanda. This will prove to be a very different experience to 2009 when we did this in the camper trailer. Mum and Dad did the last trip in their Toyota Kluger, sleeping in the back, so it should also be a more comfortable trip for them :)

Many of the planned stops will be familiar however we will be planning on doing some of the things we missed the first time around. We are also going to attempt some free stay stops to help reduce costs and experience something different.



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More to come on this however as always, if you have any suggestions, especially for free stay camp spots, please leave a comment.

Upcoming Trip to look forward to

Hi All,

Well, Christmas is nearly upon us and this year we have planned a Christmas Getaway. We are planning to spend a week in Canberra. As a family we are actually looking forward to this as the kids have never really been to Canberra beyond a simple stop over on our way to Sydney.

We are planning on visiting many of the major sites including the War Memorial, The Parliment House, both new and old, as well as the Mint. As we only have 5 days there this should be easy to fill up. During our stay in Canberra we are staying at the Canberra Motor Village so feedback to follow.


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If you have any suggestions on things to see and do, as always, please leave a comment.

Trip Planning

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a bit quiet on the Holiday front for us lately but we are planning a getaway over Christmas to Canberra so more to come.

 I read an article today I thought I would share regarding Trip Planning, and in particular, a web app called OnTheWay. OnTheWay is a website that links in with foursquare to help identify potential stops along your route. Stops such as fuel, accommodation and food are indicated, along with tips from foursquare when available. It’s very simple to use with you indicating a start and end location for your route and it then shows you the route in stages with a list of available stops in each stage you can select and add to an Itinerary.

Foursquare, for those of you that may not know, is a social tool that allows you to "check in" to various locations when you are out an about. You can then get access to reviews, or leave your own, on businesses and places for others to reference. Foursquare is available for all of the current Smartphone variants. Foursquare also allows you to follow friends and family and see where they have been in respect to locations they check in to.

As always, feel free to leave any comments on, or suggestions of other great planning tools. Also feel free to look me up on foursquare.

OnTheWay
http://www.onthewayapp.com/

Foursquare
https://foursquare.com/

Stevenson Falls–Otway Ranges

Hi All, Another update in quick succession to the last, and we are not even on holidays

 

We took the opportunity of Melbourne Cup day to take a drive in the Sara’s new truck. We need to have the kilometres up so we can tow the van in a couple of weeks, and we also needed to run the engine in a bit so i thought a nice drive along the Great Ocean Road would meet our needs. The engine would not sit at any single RMP level and the car would not get over 90KPH. All good.

Also, after watching a camping DVD over the weekend we saw a segment on Stevenson’s Falls which looked nice and would be on our route so off we went.

The drive to the falls turn off was uneventful. It was once we made the turn off that the fun began with a couple of kilometres of winding dirt road we took the car bush and its not even a week old. The road was actually in great condition and wound through some nice forest. I am glad we had the new car as i could never of taken the commodore down this road. At the end of the road we found the Stevenson falls camping area, which actually had quite a few family's making use of it for the long week end. It seemed a great spot if you have a tent or camper trailer. From here it was another short drive to the falls walking trail.

The walking trail is only 500m and is an easy walk. The surroundings are great and there was a lot of water coming over the falls which made for a very misty environment and a nice clean running river. I also managed to pick up a leech which was not discovered for about 30mins so it was well fed.

After the falls we drove to Kennet River for lunch before we took the winding great ocean road home via Lorne and Anglesea.