mike & rhonda's latest adventure: Mke's Rant for the Month

Most of you know me as a reasonable person, easy to get along with.......isn't that right Pocahontas?

Well, at the half way point of our Down Under trip, I am becoming a little irritable about internet accessibility, my travel lifeblood. Most of the campgrounds and caravan parks that we have stayed in do not have WiFi availability and those that do seem to charge excessively for using it ($6 per hour). This seems quite odd to me given that almost every hostel in both South America and SE Asia provided this service for free, and we were in much more remote parts of the world. My better half (two thirds is probably more accurate) keeps reminding me that my reluctance to convert over to a mobile fully-featured phone......where everyone seems to be consumed with using their thumbs to communicate instead of actually talking to a person.....might mean that my laptop is now one time zone removed from the rest of the world.

While I am on a roll, the other item that concerns me is the design of automobiles over here, putting the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle. Presumably, this is because they have chosen to drive on the wrong side of the road. In doing so they have forced my navigator to sit on my left, and since I don't hear nearly as well from that side (post radiation), it has resulted in numerous U-turns, wrong turns and missed turns due to communication problems between the pilot and the navigator (not to mention the additional rocket fuel for our spaceship). I briefly considered letting the navigator take control of the steering wheel but her penchant for power naps while we are on the road makes this option a risky one. We will try to make the best of this nuisance factor.

After departing the Barossa Valley wine region we followed the Murray River upstream to its' source in the Snowy Mountains. Along the way we enjoyed fruits and vegetables from the Murray Valley as we stopped in many small towns and farmers markets. Mildura and Echuca were lovely towns with some of the locals living on houseboats which were also for rent along the wide and lengthy Murray River.In Echuca we stumbled upon a Celtic Festival and spent one evening listening to several Irish bands at three different pubs within walking distance of our campervan. It was a nice way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Approaching the Australian Alps, we spent a full day hiking in Mt. Buffalo National Park. The Horn (360 degree views for 50 km's in every direction from the peak) and The Old Galleries (interesting rock formations with a slot canyon feel) were our two favourites of the four hikes that we completed. We then drove through the Snowy Mountains where the spaceship had to dodge a few kangaroos and wallabys along the quiet roads. Threadbo was a nice looking ski town inside the NP and one of Australia's largest ski resorts (but still about half the size of Lake Louise). Snow chains are mandatory in the winter and they were available for rent at all the entry points into the NP so that drivers could drop them off on the other side of the Park if they were driving through. I haven't seen this idea come to fruition in Western Canada yet but it seems like a good opportunity in the regions where chains are mandated.

Our final stop on our swing back east was at the nation's capitol, Canberra. Another beautifully designed place with a lake in the centre of the city, and numerous parks around there housing their many museums, galleries and government buildings. The business district was a few kilometres away from the lake, minimizing traffic and making our walkabout quite pleasant. The War Memorial, the Glassworks ('live' workshop) and the walk along the lake with the National Carillon bells chiming were highlights. We left Canberra this morning and are now heading north on an inland path to check out some more small towns, national parks and allow us to bypass the busy Sydney area which we will explore at the end of our trip.