Boy Scouts and Kangaroos at Burrinjuck to Canberra in the Rain

Burrinjuck State Park is beautiful and our campsite at Carrolls Creek, overlooking the lake near Burrinjuck Dam, was perfect. With only one other lot of campers there, who left the next morning, we were again in splendid isolation - except for the kangaroos and parrots. I still can’t figure out how the Joey, at least half the size of the mother, can fit into the pouch. However our isolation was not to last for long. This park and the lake are used by the boating fraternity and during the next day our idyllic spot gradually started to fill up with tents and boats. Water skiing and general power-boating activities, along with the usual fishing, were the order of the day and a build-up of high octane motors made the place increasingly less attractive.

As evening fell however things took a turn for the worse as twenty-two boy scouts plus scout leaders and assorted parents rolled onto the scene. With a roar of engines, unloading of boats, the hammering of tent pegs as their camp was established plus the bellowing of orders from all quarters it sounded like a re-enactment of the D-Day Landings. Our peace was shattered and we thought it might be time to move on. The final clincher came the next morning when Sandra was told by one of the scout leaders that this was merely an advance party and a further group of thirty cub scouts along with Akelas and parents was expected later in the day – time to exit!

We were within easy striking distance of Canberra so, after a brief stop in Yass, we headed into the city to look for a camp ground. The first one at the Exhibition Centre was just a windswept field made even less attractive, in the olfactory sense, by the horse show which was taking place at the Centre – so we ended up at the Canberra Motor Park. Things started badly when I took a dislike to the very officious and rather stroppy young lady at reception. However it was not just me as later on I had to kick Sandra as she was about to unleash one of her verbal torpedoes on the subject of customer relations – relations were bad enough already without adding more fuel.

The Motor Park was a soul-less array of carbon copy cabins crammed together in serried ranks with a small, unattractive area for tent camping – we know now why we prefer bush or National Park camping. As we were about to pitch the tent Sandra noticed a small drainage ditch and suggested we move the tent away from it by a couple of feet. As we have not had any rain for almost two weeks and the weather was beautiful I thought this was probably unnecessary but, to humour her, did as she suggested. Sandra must have a sixth sense about these things as, at three in the morning, the rain started – and it didn’t stop.

At 8.30 am we packed up in a downpour and left.

Readers of this blog will know that rain has followed us round Australia and that any complaints from us have branded us as “whinging poms”. The stock answer from the natives to our whinging has been “The farmers need the rain” therefore it gives me some pleasure to note on the front page of The Canberra Times” that the whinging is now on the other foot with the headline “Too much rain threatens harvests”. Even the farmers are getting fed up of the rain.

We are in Canberra for Sandra to visit a craft fair in the Old Bus Depot and I have left her to it and I am writing this in the car as I shelter from the rain. Our impressions of Canberra are, perhaps not surprisingly, less than positive. The centre piece of the city is a lake which I am looking out over and I’m sure if I could see through the rain and could catch a glimpse of the other side it might actually appear attractive. I have been on the internet for a weather forecast to see where we could go to avoid the rain – but there is nowhere. I think we could end up back in Sydney a few days earlier than expected – at least it might be dry in a house.