We were invited to my cousins wedding in Canberra and were faced with two options, option one take a short flight into Canberra or Sydney and stay for a couple of days to attend the wedding and then fly home, or option two one massive 2800km round road trip catching up with as many people as possible and fitting in as many sights and experiences as we thought we could handle. Naturally being the people we are and as tempting and boring as option one sounded we decided option two was a far better concept and so we struck out from Brisbane at around 4am on Thursday for one cracking adventure that took us from coast to country and back again.

Apart from a bit of fuel our first major stop was with +Cam and his family for lunch, Cam had been out for  spin in his plane earlier that morning and filled us in on all the details of his latest project of obtaining his pilots license. We stayed and chatted for a good couple of hours before making the treacherous journey through the mighty city of Sydney arriving at Mum and Dad’s place in Nowra just in time for dinner.

The morning saw a 5km jog to make sure the cliff lines that surround my parents place are still looking pretty much the same way they have since before humans were even thought of, a quick trip into Nowra for some breakfast and to collect a couple of supplies before we were on our way again driving across the mighty Nerriga road bound for the Capital city.

The Australian Capital City is best described as a patch of reclaimed desert that was set up to house politicians and public servants because Sydney and Melbourne didn’t want them lurking around with the humans and causing trouble. It was Australia’s best and truthfully only planned city and was designed as a set of concentric circles in a further attempt to confuse and keep in said public servants and politicians.

We arrived at Alice’s place late in the afternoon, Alice is one of our friends who came down with public servantitis  a couple of years back and was moved to the ACT pending recovery, we chilled out at Alice’s place over a couple of quiet ales before making our way down to the Hellenic club to meet up with the rest of the crew for dinner.

After dinner we again met up with Alice who had re domiciled to a funky little bar called Hop Scotch, that was pumping and full of young ASIO agents and other public servants who hadn’t managed to escape the city for the long weekends. We had a bit of a yarn with the people there before retiring for the night.

The wedding was a beautiful affair with glorious conditions on the banks of the mighty lake Burley Griffin so named after one unfortunate individual who hurled himself into the lake to escape a particularly unruly pack of politicians. The wedding went off without a hitch and my Cousin and her Husband looked amazing as did the whole bridal party.

On the banks of Lake Burley Griffin with a science center in the background.

The reception was held a short distance away with much food, drink and entertainment, everyone had a great time catching up and celebrating the happy union and the festivities stretched late into the afternoon. After everything came to a bit of a close Tiff and I decided to have a quick wander around the city while we were waiting to catch up with Alice who said she was working, I had the urge to remind her that she was a public servant and that work is not in the job description but then remembered what happened to Burley Griffin and held my tong.

The city is actually pretty cool and is packed full of funky little restaurants, bars and random pieces of art work as well as the usual shops and shopping centers that populate many cities.

The following day we met up with everyone for the customary morning after breakfast which is usually late and packed full of people nursing massive hangovers and this was no exception. Breakfast was great and we got to catch up on all the stories and festivities from the various after parties. We stopped at Floriade on the way out of Canberra for a quick look at all the tulips that are artfully arranged into various works of art, unfortunately the fields are so large that you would need cam’s plane to be able to see the pieces of art as they were meant to be, it was still good to see the flower arrangements and all the people that were there to enjoy them.

What was left of the Groom and his massive hangover.

That is a world map made out of tulips, well it would be for any low flying jumbos.

We again drove across the Nerriga road back to my parents place, it is worth mentioning that the Nerriga road held the title of worst road in Australia for the majority of my life, but that has all changed, they have now tarred over the top of it and put up 80 and 100km/h signs, just watch out for the bits of subsidence that have occurred, there were a couple of times the mighty Ford found itself sitting down on it haunches thought the journey.

Tiffany at Floriade in Canberra

We had celebratory tacos at Mum and Dad’s palace for dinner that night, lucky too because a road trip just isn’t a road trip without tacos, and then crashed out in preparation for the long journey home.

The Journey home was a smooth one consisting of breakfast just outside of Sydney, morning tea with my school mate Stu who works at the Koala Park in Port Macquarie, lunch burgers on the jetty at Coffs harbor and finally watching the sun set with a beer overlooking the water from the deck of the kurrawa surf club in Burleigh. We then returned to the mighty Fit Shed to finish the whole journey with a solid workout and a good night sleep. What a great way to spend five days and 2800Km.