Day 4 – Canberra Trip, All Wrapped Up.

This morning leaves us with a bitter sweet feeling as we’re packing all our stuff and heading home, but not before squeezing in one more cool thing to see! We’re heading to the National Museum of Australia to check out their Discovering Ancient Egypt exhibition for a rushed walk through experience, as we are making the drive home today in time to head back to reality tomorrow!

I have always had a fascination with Egypt, so walking through all of these artefacts was making my inner child very happy. It is mind blowing thinking about just how old everything is, and how the objects I’m seeing have stood the test of time for thousands of years – incredible! I was in awe the entire time. They had a section at the back of the exhibit covered by floor to ceiling black curtains where they held 5 mummies. I had some mixed feelings about this part. I was incredibly curious about it all, and found it interesting learning about the individuals who were wrapped before me, but there was a part of me that was heartbroken that they have been shipped around the world and taken from their place of rest, even if it is to perform a role in education and preservation of their history. One of the mummies was an unknown woman who had been scanned so they could see how she was mummified without damaging the wrappings. The museum had a monitor set up next to her so you could look through the different layers, and really understand the care that was taken as they prepared her for the afterlife. You could see the trinkets throughout, each one representing a different god who would guide and protect her on her journey to the afterlife in different ways.

The whole experience was humbling and made me feel that life is meaningful, important, and you will be remembered.

We needed to get back on the road, so pulled ourselves away from the gift shop (which was perfectly themed and set up like a bizarre), and got back in the car to start our journey home. The drive today was always going to be a long one going from the ACT, through NSW and down to the coast of VIC, so we planned to break it into smaller chunks and stop at a few pit stops, the first of which was the Dog on the Tucker Box. We didn’t stop for very long, only stopping to check out the gift shop, pick up some honey and jam, use the restroom and get back on the road.

We stopped next at a pit stop I won’t name to grab a snack, took some pictures with the “Big Koala” out the front, and continued our journey. I tried to get to work on the blog on the way since we had about 7 hours of driving, but the country roads out here are bumpy! So instead we just chatted and had singalongs to our updated playlist until we hit Glenrowan, where we decided to stretch our legs and have a look at the small town in the light of day.

We were having a look around the gift shop attached to the Ned Kelly museum, observing and enjoying the enthusiasm of the group of young men at the counter. It was hard to keep a straight face when they were all buying matching singlets covered in art of the Bushranger himself, and bags full of memorabilia, and then leaving saying “best grand I’ve ever spent”. Once they left, we got talking to the shop owners, having a laugh about the jovial men, when he told us that the group came to be here in Glenrowan because they were having a chat about Ned Kelly while in the pool escaping the heat, and decided to look him up, only to find that the museum existed, then all piling into a tiny car to make the 3 hour drive from a suburb no more than 5 minutes down the road from where Drew and I live. Such a weird experience.

Our next stop was to return our travel buddies home, have a quick stretch and make the final push for home. We left Canberra at about 11am, to walk through our front door just before 9pm. This trip was a whirlwind, but a lot of fun with some of our closest friends. Thank you to @asapadventures for planning this getaway, and agreeing to drive through 3 states all so I could meet a cow. I will forever appreciate these adventures with you.