I had been looking forward to visiting Wagga for sometime, having been disappointed not to get there on our last visit to Australia in 2008. But I was surprised by all it had to offer and enjoyed getting a few real insights into Australian life.
Driving the Holden had been luxurious and it was really generous of Dianne to leave me her equally luxurious car when she went to work. Both she and John made lots of time so that we could do things together and it was great to visit John’s brothers and to see life on an Australian farm. That was when I learnt that the lovely purple flower I liked was not the farmer’s friend but a wretched weed!!
We went to a Christmas Fair at the racecourse: I still find it hard to deal with Christmas decorations in 95deg. heat! And we went down to Wagga beach and viewed the area which had been so severely flooded just a couple of weeks earlier. As I write that same area is flooded again and after ten years of drought the farmers are battling raging floods and losing out on their best harvest for years. Apparently, there’s more to come and this morning’s news was all about the dangers of extreme flooding in New South Wales. The second item was the Ashes and England’s amazing showing in the first innings.
That evening, they had invited friends around for dinner and we were using the lovely new kitchen for the first time. It’s gorgeous and I hope I can find one like it when I’m looking for a house in the UK next year! Clean lines, functional and classy all in one. I was able to use the oven to make a tarte au citron and have never had such good results: lemons fresh from the tree in the garden and pastry rolled on the new granite surface with my huon pine rolling pin from Tasmania: the result declare ‘delicious’ by everyone is as much, probably more!, than could be expected after twelve years without a real kitchen and certainly without reliable heat. Maybe I will be able to invite visitors when I return to the UK. I hope so!
Kyeamba, John’s family farm, is a large ( in my book at least, though it has been much larger) property just off the Sturt Highway. It has wonderful views and his sister-in-law has developed a beautiful, English-style, garden with panoramic views over the paddocks.
We were able to use a ute and drive up into higher paddocks, too and that was even more stunning. Takes me back to the Lakes or even the Presceli Mountains when I was doing D of E all those years ago.
This was the first time I had stopped since Melbourne and I was glad of an opportunity to catch up. Although Dianne left me the car, I was happy spending time at home and doing day-to-day things like cooking dinner (thank goodness I haven’t forgotten how!). I haven’t yet got used to Woolworth’s as the place for food shopping, but I love being able to go to a proper butcher shop with their own kebabs, beef and pork already chopped and their very own spicy sausages which Joe would love. One really interesting thing I did was to go to the Glass Gallery and the Art Museum: they are developing a National Collection of Glass from 1970 onwards and have some lovely pieces and, lovely for me, the Art Gallery had an exhibition of prize-winning portraits which I also enjoyed.
Although I set out to do some work I didn’t really get going, but have learnt so much along the way that I’m not bothered: it’ll be done before April, that’s the important thing.
We were able to met Naomi’s brother and sister-in-law on Thursday evening and on Friday set off for Canberra. Although the route was along a major highway ( a real one!), we found a couple of interesting stops. The one I found fascinating was the studio of Peter Crisp – a glassworker who has produced for the Royal Family and for Tina Turner, to name but a few. He was a great name-dropper mentioning the Bushes as well as various stars and celebrities from other walks of life. his work is very varied, which I find quite unusual in this kind of artist and I was interested to see the roughness of some alongside the delicacy of others.
Canberra is only a little over two hours by car from Wagga so we arrived in the early afternoon and got the business John had come to do out of the way before beginning to enjoy ourselves. As a result we were at the National War Memorial just before it closed on the day after Armistice Day. It is a beautiful tribute to all of the armed forces, including the nurses and I thought the way they had poppies along the walls was a lovely touch. It was almost a privilege to be there for the sounding of The Last Post as they closed the doors that day – and even more poignant because of the nearness to the anniversary of the end of a war. I was touched, too, by the recognition of the newest fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although many people find Canberra false and empty of character, I actually enjoyed it and felt there was a lot going on both culturally and historically. The Art Gallery is fantastic and we spent a very happy Saturday morning looking through it: the story of Ned Kelly, a new Aboriginal Art Gallery, the sculptures in the park outside and some very modern stuff like ‘zines’ and graffiti – very clever and colourful.
True, there are wide avenues reminiscent of New Delhi, but that’s actually very practical in a city made for formality and pomp. I love the view from Mount Ainslie overlooking the War Memorial and the avenue down to Parliament House, where you can see clearly the whole city and the different suburbs.
One of the most frustrating things at this stage of my journey was organising transport from Wagga to Adelaide. I had decided to drive as I was far less fearful than I had expected on the roads, even when there was little other traffic. Then I checked prices and they were horrendous – unless I picked up a car in Canberra. For once, Hertz was the cheapest and I was able to drive from Canberra to Adelaide and see a whole section of the country I hadn’t expected to visit.
Both in the Canberra city office and in Adelaide when I returned the car, the staff I dealt with were extremely helpful and pleasant, understanding the issues that needed to be addressed.
After a visit to the Arts and Crafts Market and the Canberra Glassworks, we set off for Wagga in convoy to get me out of the city. This was to be my last night in Wagga – I could happily have stayed longer, but was looking forward to visiting Mildura and Broken Hill on the way ( slightly out of the way, way) to Adelaide.
But I can’t leave Wagga without a passing mention of the animals – especially the Galah who so enjoys human company that when she’s let out of the cage, she makes straight for the living room.
Being in an ordinary (very busy) home again with friends, meeting up with old friends and making new ones was a privilege – one to be greatly valued. Maybe one day I’ll be able to return their hospitality. I hope they will fell as comfortable in my home as I did in theirs.
Living the Journey 