Batemans Bay

The coast is about 150km from Canberra, and Batemans Bay is the closest coastal town. Since arriving in Canberra, trips to the beach were infrequent because of the distance.

It’s a great drive to the coast, but the seaside is rather more than just a short trip across town as would be the case for most people living in Australian capital cities. There are rewards though. The extra time it takes to get to the coast is compensated by the fabulous drive in getting there. There is some beautiful scenery along the way. The journey is broken by the two small towns of Bungendore and Braidwood, and there are enough curves and hills to turn the trip into fun. Actually, these small towns make good rest spots or destinations in their own right. There's plenty of interest in Bungendore and the Bakery at Braidwood must attract hundreds of customers; I'm one of their regulars.

The Kings Highway is the route to the coast, which turns out to be about a two-hour trip for me. This is a section of the road a few kms east of Braidwood. Despite the wintery weather these trees are not dead and will transform this section of the highway into a beautiful avenue when spring arrives.This highway is sometimes reported in the press in relation to the number of motor vehicle collisions many of which are fatal. There are a few passing lanes on the highway, but obviously too few to make the road as safe as it could be. I wonder that the poor reputation of the Kings Highway may be due to the few reckless drivers who use the road as a race track. Some motorists can’t resist passing on blind corners or where visibility is poor, rather than waiting for a passing lane. These idiots put everyone’s lives at risk.

As a young man I recall a road safety campaign which promoted the slogan “speed kills” which caused me and my friends some amusement. We had the view that speed doesn’t kill, but it is speed without skill that kills. If you have good driving skills then driving at speed is perfectly safe. We were interested in motor sport as casual observers, and drove faster than we should have, but we could handle a car on various road conditions and speeds. You get to know your limitations, the capability of your car, and you get to know the road. If you keep within your limits you will likely be fine. But on this highway I still see some darn stupid behaviour.

If you must exceed the speed limit please have a care for other people on the road. If you have to overtake everyone and anyone ahead of you give a thought to road safety. Not everyone thinks like you. Not everyone has the same reaction times or the same driving skills or experiences as you.

Anyway, having settled in our Canberra property we inevitably had a look around regions beyond the ACT. Our explorations led us to the coast. From time to time we had a look at a few properties. The allhomes website is fabulous for checking out what’s available and where. There always seem to be a lot of property open houses at the coast. One thing led to the other and we purchased our second property there.

I guess the attraction of the coast just crept up on me. We had spent some pleasant times at Depot Beach, which is a little to the north of Batemans Bay. I’d never heard of Depot Beach. With a name like that it conjured up industry, pollution, or some sort of dump. Wrong! Depot Beach is a beautiful location. The quiet beach side drive has a wonderful outlook across a bay to a tree covered promontory of a national park.

I was introduced to Depot Beach when I spent some time helping a work colleague do some maintenance work on her beach side property. I did a spot of painting in return for a free stay at the beach house. A nice cheap holiday.

This is the view from the house. You could forget the problems of life in a place like this. Just let your mind drift. The beach was only a short walk from here, and with Depot Beach being a bit out of the way there were never too many people on the beach, which was nice. This house had a fabulous view of the ocean. At times was good just to listen to the thunder of the waves breaking on the shore. I think this experience may have enhanced the appeal of the coast for me, because at that time buying a coastal property was the last thing on my mind. I was just happy to be there. Here's a nice little web site that might persuade you as to the merits of Depot Beach. And I must give the house a plug too.

The following photo is also of Depot Beach. You can often expect this amount of people on the beach. Isn't it great? It was also at this beach that I lost my specs. I was wearing them in the water when a larger than expected wave caught me off guard. I know it was not a wise move to wear spectacles when swimming, but it can be useful to actually be able to see where you are going, even at the beach. Normally, I've been careful enough not to let them come to any harm. Perhaps it was a freak wave. I looked away and a wave wiped them from my face. I immediately dived for the bottom to see if I could locate them, but with the seaweed and the turmoil of the swell they were gone. I scanned the beach the next day walking up and down, but they were nowhere to be seen. I wonder where they'll end up.

The following will tell of my experience in buying a second property, the finances, the hassles, and of becoming a land lord.

The house we purchased was very basic. It has a set up which allows half the house to be rented whilst leaving the other half completely separate as a home away from home seaside retreat. The property is a comfortable walk to the beach, which is a treat I would never have believed possible.

Settlement took place about a year ago. If my experiences can help others avoid problems then that would be great. I’ll try and keep things mostly in chronological order, but if I get a few things out of sequence you’ll probably still get the gist of it, and hopefully make some use of my experiences.

Cruise control

The lack of sophistication in technology
My new ute has cruise control fitted. I found cruse control takes a bit of getting used to if you’ve never experienced it. I had it set during the recent trip to Melbourne, and then forgot to switch it off when approaching a service station where I wanted to stop. I approached the entrance rather quicker than expected. As I said, it takes a bit of getting used to. While I find the device great to use, they feel weird. It’s like relinquishing control. Well, I guess this is true to an extent, but the thing is that the controller doesn’t control the car’s speed in the same way that I would.

It’s strange as they try to accelerate up hill as well as down hill. That’s truly bizarre. As you near the crest of a hill, I would be inclined to ease off on the throttle and let the car coast, but not cruise control. With it switched on the car keeps gunning it up and over the top. They can also be very nasty when you find yourself accelerating into blind corners. Some of the bends on the highway can be tight, and leaving the cruise control set at 100 kph on a bend can put the wind up you. Sure you can put your foot on the brake, or disable the device, but I wonder if manufacturers could improve upon the technology. Here are a few ideas.

Manufacturers might link cruise control devices to the steering. That wouldn’t be difficult with a few micro switches. Perhaps they should also have an inclinator built into the device to monitor whether the vehicle is travelling up or down hill.

There is little point in accelerating down hill; it’s a waist of fuel, but that’s what they do. As soon as the car gets over the top of the hill, the throttle doesn’t ease off to allow gravity to speed the car, but no, its full speed ahead. Similarly, if an uphill grade immediately follows a downhill grade the device should detect the change and maintain the higher speed (within reason) in anticipation of the load of the hill on the engine, rather than waiting until a reduction in speed to be detected before throttling up.

It wouldn’t be too hard. The current speed is known. An inbuilt timer could come into play with this. The logic might operate like the following: If the device has detected a down hill grade by the angle of the vehicle against horizontal, it should register that it’s going down hill. If it then registers an up hill grade it should maintain the current throttle opening. And if the designers were really on the ball they could design the device to note the rate of deceleration and open the throttle an amount to anticipate loss of speed. Of course, if at the bottom of the hill there is no subsequent up hill run, the device would detect this by registering horizontal for a prolonged period of time. It would be up to manufacturers (or users) to program the device as to what point the road surface is considered level. If the vehicle has been driving horizontally continually for maybe 10 seconds or so without a change in the inclination it could resume normal operation at your predetermined speed. It could also operate in a kind of inverse way at the top of hills. As the top of the hill is approaching, rather than the vehicle continuing to accelerate over the crest and accelerate down hill as they do, the device should detect the change, maintain current throttle opening or back off on the throttle, allowing gravity to accelerate the vehicle, and similarly if the road remains level for 10 seconds or so the device should return to normal operation.

Similarly, an intelligence should be built into cruise control devices such that when driving on level ground if the steering wheel is turned more than a certain amount from centre, the current speed is maintained or reduced until the steering has returned to the straight ahead position before the device returns to normal operation. It wouldn’t be too difficult for manufacturers to determine the maximum amount that the steering wheel can be turned, at different speeds, to determine whether it’s safe or not. Depending upon how tight the corner is, the device could maintain whatever speed you were travelling, decrease the speed or disable cruise control until the steering was straight again. And if manufacturers were really clever the could program to adjust for cornering on sloping road surfaces.

I know I’ve gone on about this, but these devices do seem to be lacking.


Cruise control is on, but the brain is off
I expect modern commercial vehicles have cruise control devices fitted in addition to automobiles. On the highway more and more I noticed trucks as well as cars drifting past each other at what seems like half a mile per hour faster than the other. Can’t these people step on the accelerator for a few seconds?

Do you want me to exceed the speed limit? Sure I do, if you are so anxious to overtake. If you are unhappy to drive 1 mph slower than me and stay behind me, than 1 mph faster and be in front then you should darn well step on the accelerator and get on with it. You are annoying me, and making everyone else behind you angry by holding them up with you antics.

I was watching S in the ute as we were driving down the Hume Highway, no doubt with the cruise control set. I was also watching the behaviour of the truck drivers we encountered. She was driving ahead of me and we were both aiming to sit on 100 kph. Many times while on the freeway I’d see a semi coming up behind me, creeping slowly closer by the minute. Eventually the semi would pull out and overtake, which is okay. But on more than one occasion they would do this on the approach to an uphill grade. They would pull out and overtake, and as the hill made its presence felt on the truck it would loose speed. But the cruise control of the ute would keep the car’s speed at a steady 100. Eventually, the semi would slow and pull into the lane behind the ute, and in front of me.

Eventually, the top of the hill would be reached and the semi would gradually gain speed and catch up to the ute again and pull out into the other lane and overtake it, and that’s okay. But just as often by the time it had caught up, changed lanes to overtake, it was on another uphill grade and quickly lost ground again and have to pull back behind the ute and wait for the cycle to begin again. This is annoying, and I found it to be stupid, stupid behaviour.

After a while I would watch the type of semi that passed me and if I noticed the truck looked like some sleek, new, high powered, monster I would stay behind it even if it did slow a little, because generally they just kept on going and faded into the distance. But so often the drivers of older, slower, trucks attempted the same kind of thing. I quickly learned that if these twits wanted to play silly buggers by passing a quicker vehicle (in this case, me in my brand new, empty truck) then when that hill came along I’m going to pass them without hesitation.

Here are two things to consider when driving:

1. Know the limitations of your vehicle, and drive accordingly
2. If it seems apparent that another vehicle is travelling faster than you, don’t overtake it, because they are only going to overtake you further down the highway.

Melbourne to Canberra

We managed to get everything into the campervan (with a few things in the car) on Sunday morning, and headed back to Canberra. This was our last trip!

Of all those trips I’d spent on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Canberra over a period of almost a year, this one was now the last. I’d grown fond of the drive, listening to all those audio books, and I became familiar with a lot of the landmarks along the way. There are some wonderful landscapes on that trip, if you take the time to look around.

It’s good to see some road works going on in NSW, and hopefully there will soon be more freeway sections of the road coming into the Hume Highway. In fact, it doesn’t seem so long ago that going through Albury was a 60 kph slow zone through the Albury city streets. Now the new bypass speeds you through Albury. Wodonga has been bypassed for so long I can’t remember. Albury was such a nuisance with so many left and right turns as you twisted through the centre of town hitting traffic light after light. One disappointment for me with the Albury bypass was the discovery of a roadhouse on the northern end just outside Albury that sold great fish and chips. Of course, it was a truck stop, which is often a sign of good food on the highway. Well, the freeway has bypassed that service centre. But the smooth-as-glass road surface of the Albury bypass is brilliant.

Of course, the more freeway sections that are added the more small towns will be bypassed, which may affect the viability of some of them. Of all of the small towns, Holbrook is one that caught my eye despite my never having stopped there for long, except once for some chips late one night. Holbrook is submarine town. I don’t know how far Holbrook is from the sea, but to have a full size submarine in the town centre is no mean feat. And I don’t think the river system in Australia stretches as far as Holbrook. Alas, the old subs must have arrived in sections by truck, unless there is an artesian basin running under Holbrook. Perhaps, I’ll get back that way for a weekend drive sometime and check out the sub. What a bizarre thing for the city council to do.

Another fabulous section of the Hume Highway, as far as engineering achievements is concerned, is on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, just south of Craigieburn. I used to get badly lost before the freeway section was completed if I missed a road sign or detour sign on the way into Melbourne. It seemed such a hodgepodge of roads through an industrial area of town. Not only has this section of the road been made top class, but there are a number of wonderful roadside sculptures that are worth more than a glance, and they look stunning at night the way they have been lit up, and look here for more. Look out for the speed traps that are in this new section, and also in the final run up to Melbourne; there are no warning signs. You just get caught.

Melbourne to Canberra

We had another very slow trip back to Canberra, with lots of breaks. I was particularly aware of how things were packed in the truck and was very tentative in driving over rough sections of the road. Parts of the Hume Highway are not as pleasant to drive on as you’d expect for a major highway. So, I slowed at those sections, and I didn’t care how much I held up the traffic. This highway badly needs an overhaul. Even parts of the Victorian side of the highway, which is freeway for the whole length of it, is beginning to break up with the heavy traffic; probably truck usage more than anything.

A fog began to develop when we were somewhere near Glenrowan and it didn’t let up until we reached Gundagai. I wonder if it was from the Murray River system. It was quite eerie. The headlights seemed to shine in the wrong directions, with low beam being the best. It got so thick at times that we had to drive slowly.

I recall listening to a news broadcast many years ago. A couple of motorists driving in Germany had succumbed to an accident on a highway. They were driving on the same road but in opposite directions in a very heavy fog. It was so foggy that both drivers were having trouble seeing the road ahead. To alleviate the problem it seems that both drivers had preferred to lean out the window and drive by keeping the painted line on the road surface in sight. They encountered each other suddenly, not in a vehicle collision, but when their heads impacted as they drove past each other. They should have stopped if the conditions were so bad. It sounds like a tall story, but it was reported on ABC Radio news.

Fortunately, the fog was not so heavy on the Hume, but it was a lovely experience to see it. This trip must have taken around 12 hours, including breaks. S was desperate for sleep. Every time I had to stop for a nap, she could only rest in a sitting position in the ute. There was more room to stretch out in the truck so we swapped and she got a good rest for a few hours. I noticed while in the ute, that as comfortable as the car is to drive, you just can’t get into a decent position for sleeping.

Home at last. A short rest, and then realising our time was short in which to return the truck to the rental company, we almost threw everything out (and it still took about 2-3 hours to unpack). We rushed to fill the tank, and get the truck back to Fyshwick by 5.00pm. Actually, filling the tank was an interesting experience that I shared with my credit card.

With fuel prices seeming to be in an upward spiral it becomes annoying to watch the dollar indicator spinning around ever faster as you fill the petrol tank at the end of the week. When I stopped the truck to fill the fuel tank, and saw the size of the tank you quickly understand that paying for fuel in a truck takes on a whole new meaning that motorists never experience. Actually, it was an experience in more ways than one. With a truck, the nozzle goes straight into the tank. There are no bends in the filler as cars have, and refuelling stations have diesel bowsers specially made for filling truck tanks. High speed bowsers. Now if you want to see the dollar indicator spin, fill a truck tank at one of these bowsers.

Actually, filling the tank was the single worst experience of driving the truck. The bowser nozzles were generally messy; soaked in diesel spillages. And it stinks, and stays on your hands and clothes. I suspect some people with diesel engines in their cars go there to avoid lining up in the queues at the regular bowsers, and of course the high speed bowser pumps mega volumes of fuel out like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, it blows back, spills, and before you know it these people are stuffing things up for everyone else.

It felt really peculiar getting back into the EXA, after driving the truck for so long. The car was so low to the ground that it felt weird, and it was a bit rough being an older vehicle that it felt like I was driving a truck; compared to the rental truck which felt like driving a car. Home again. An Indian takeaway, and then bed.

North vs South

I had an interesting conversation at work. I was talking about some of my experiences on my property search. I was speaking, in a favourable light, about the properties in the south of Canberra, and there was an overwhelming exclamation, “you don’t want to live down there.” As you might gather, I work in a northern suburb and most of the people who work there also live in the northern Canberra suburbs. There is an actual north-south divide between the people here. It reminded me of the Sydney – Melbourne rivalry. Certainly, with my job in the north of Canberra there is an incentive to live locally, for ease of travel.

Though, from my experience of Canberra so far I couldn’t really spot much difference between the north or south. There are posh districts as well as run-down trashy streets distributed all over Canberra. In my observations, the roads, streets, shops, and general appearance of the north seems much like the south. Canberra is pretty much the same where ever you go, but that’s only me.

The only mildly negative aspect I had noticed in the south of Canberra was that there appeared to be more young men hooning around in their hotted up cars; more than I have noticed in the northern suburbs, but that could be coincidence. I also noticed more burn out tyre mark circles in the middle of street intersections in the south, but you get them everywhere, and that too could have been coincidence. I definitely noticed a lot of bent street signs down there, that I haven’t spotted in the northern suburbs. This of course could be a phase. Perhaps the age group of youngsters prone to that kind of behaviour have predominance in the south, that they may have grown out of in the north.

Anyway, despite the pressure of their attempts at persuading me against the south, I won’t let up and will consider everywhere in my real estate hunt.

On the road again

I have always had the habit of glancing at the number plates of the cars that come my way. If they are in your home town you should be a bit more patient with them; they may be having a hard time getting around, and any courtesy you can offer will probably be appreciated. I also check out the number plates when driving interstate. Anyway, on the trip from Canberra to Melbourne, before Christmas, I couldn’t help but notice the number of cars that were overtaking me that had ACT registration numbers. At times, that’s all there was. It seemed as though every car on the road had ACT registration. There seemed to be a mass exodus from Canberra. Maybe Canberra shuts down during the holiday period. I’ve never seen the likes of it.

I’m becoming relatively accustomed to the Hume Highway. I’m also getting to know the sections of the highway where the pot holes are located and able to avoid them by changing lanes beforehand. The Hume carries a lot of traffic, and at times seems over crowded by trucks, which in itself can be a bit daunting, and may well be the main reason for the poor condition of this road.

It is generally always the left lane that is in poor condition. It’s generally the left lane that trucks use. That’s not a coincidence.

Despite the occasional road sign advising drivers to use the left lane, there is no way I’m going to drive in the left lane over ruts and pot holes that are potentially damaging and dangerous on a highway that should be properly maintained. The Hume Highway must be an embarrassment to the NSW government.

I’ve been driving for a few years having had a wide variety of driving experiences. In these few months I have been spending a lot of time on the road. The quality of truck drivers has declined, I’m sorry to say. There will always be idiots on the road. Though, with the following exceptions, most idiots are car drivers rather than truckies. In my experience of maybe 20 or 30 years ago truck drivers were generally good reliable drivers, who were courteous, and friendly on the road. They were something to aspire to. This is not quite the case anymore.

I was on a quiet country road late one evening, and I was shocked and amazed at the antics of two courier truck drivers. I was cruising on the speed limit on a relatively narrow country road, and a truck passed me like I was still in second gear. People speed and that’s okay if the road is up to it, but this particular road didn’t seem suitable for high speed driving; particularly not in a truck. Anyway I didn’t give it much of a thought at that moment, but the experience sticks in my memory because of what happened next.

In under a minute a second truck zoomed past me at much the same speed. It must have been going faster than the first because I could see that it was beginning to gain on the first truck. I was very curious so sped up to see what they were about. These two truck drivers were racing each other. The terrain was gently undulating and I could see the gap between the two trucks narrow as they twisted and turned on the road. Despite the lack of clear visibility the second truck pulled out to pass the first. For some reason it couldn’t overtake and pulled back behind the first; it pulled in so quickly that it wobbled on the road a few times. After a short time it pulled out again and started to overtake. So, here they were, two trucks with about the same engine power, and both drivers pushing them flat out, driving side by side. It took ages for that second truck to get past the first. With so much time on the wrong side of the road I was certain there was going to be a collision. They faded into the distance and I slowed to a reasonable pace. I kept my eyes open for the rest of my trip fully expecting to see the result of this pair’s stupidity. I was expecting to see blood and guts over the road, or hear the sound of an ambulance siren, as one of these two trucks had a head on collision with another vehicle. Fortunately, I saw nothing. Perhaps the collision occurred on some other road they may have turned off on to.

Then of course, you have those sections of the Hume Highway where the two lanes converge into one. And then you’ve got one semi trying to pass the other semi before the road runs out. Of course, every other motorist does this too. But when you see truck drivers behaving badly it seems so wrong. At times it is absolute madness on this road.

And so here I am, driving my little car on a one-lane section of the Hume, determined to keep within the speed limit, and I notice a semi in the distance coming up behind me. Over the next quarter hour or so I notice it getting closer, until all I can see from the rear vision mirror is the radiator grille of this monster. What did this truck driver expect? What goes through the minds of these people? I don’t doubt if the road had been less busy this truck would have overtaken me; I made it wait until the dual carriageway came our way and it shot past. It could have been that some inexperienced motorist might have succumbed to this pressure and driven faster; perhaps faster than they were capable of, which could have been dangerous, or cost them a speeding ticket. Be warned: some trucks have road handling capabilities far superior than some cars, can go a lot faster, and generally, a truck driver will know the road a lot better than you. Don't try and complete.

It’s not hard to work out exactly what’s on the mind of these people. A truck following by half a car-length will certainly put the wind up the motorist. It’s intended to do so. But that won’t be a legitimate excuse if you get caught by police radar for speeding. They want you to speed up. No one want’s 20 tons of truck looming behind you, and they know that. If a roo comes out of the blue and hops across the road in front of you, and you stand on the brake pedal there is no way a truck will stop as quickly as a car. That’s it, you’re gone.

I wouldn’t play the games of speeding up and slowing down, as I’ve done if a car has been following me too closely on multilane roads in the suburbs. Just keep to your guns and the speed limit and drive steadily and reliably, but if it’s all getting too stressful for you pull over when it’s safe to do so and let them through. Don’t make them angry as they may behave worse to the next poor sucker. Put you indicator on to indicate that you are going to shift off the road, but get your revenge by slowing down gradually. Truck drivers hate slowing down; it takes too long for them to speed up again. Perhaps if they realise the only way they can get past motorists is for them to slow significantly while you pull off the road they might be more reasonable in the future by allowing a reasonable distance between vehicles.

Anyway, back in Canberra. What will the new year bring?

Canberra drivers

This is a generalisation.

I’m not sure whether Canberra motorists are generally very polite or inexperienced or just happy to operate at a slower pace than I’ve experienced outside Canberra. It’s quaint, though a touch annoying. Let me provide a few experiences.

I doubt there would be too many instances in other cities, when approaching a set of traffic lights if there happen to be two or more lanes and more than one car waiting at a red light, that you’d find a free lane. I find it quite amazing, sort of quaint, when approaching a red traffic light here in Canberra to see three or more cars stopped and waiting for the light to change to green, to see every car queued in the left lane. In most cities I’ve been in, if one of the lanes is free that’s where the second car positions itself. Depending upon how pressed I am for time, when approaching traffic lights I try to assess who’s parked where, trying to spot the slow vehicles from the faster ones and pull up in the lane that is likely to get away quickest. Perhaps it’s a Canberra thing, with fewer people in a rush, and I must say I’ve slowed down mostly, and I too keep to the left leaving the right lane free for anyone who wants to speed away. You could just call it a level of courtesy that you don’t see much nowadays. Of course, you can get around Canberra so quickly; there just aren’t the traffic snarls of the bigger cities.

Though, this sheepishness gets annoying at times. I have been spending some time driving slowly around the Canberra suburbs, looking at the properties as I go. This is on the side streets that are off the main roads, of course. I’ve been driving at perhaps no more than 15 or 20 km/hr at times. You can’t drive much faster than that if you want to have a look at properties as you go. So, when I do this, if I spot a car coming up behind me I move over and drive well to the left, as close to the kerb as possible to allow other road users who might come up behind me get by without trouble. And some do overtake me. Isn’t that what you’d expect? Very few drivers overtake without hesitation. But my experience is that the majority of Canberra motorists slow down and drive behind me. This is crazy. Why don’t the shoot past me too. I have to admit that a few of the roads in the Canberra suburbs are narrow, being little more than a car width, and in those circumstances I pull over and stop. But some streets are so wide they could have lanes painted on the road, and still the cars line up behind me as I dawdle along the road despite me being close enough to the kerb that I could almost be parked. Do they forget that they can overtake me on the opposite side of the road?