Saturday, December 4, 2010

Australia's Capital!

Driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
We have both decided that we can’t ever complain about the traffic in Perth after driving in Sydney traffic – it’s soooo busy! We read a report in the paper that peak hour starts about 5:00am and doesn’t finish until around 10:00am. But we still decided to farewell Sydney by driving the car and camper over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (on a Saturday thankfully!). Bit silly really, but why not! As it turned out, we had to have two attempts, as the traffic saw us forced under the harbour through the tunnel the first time, only to have to turn around in the Sydney CBD – so we lugged the camper through inner Sydney Saturday morning traffic to find our way back onto the bridge! It was worth it though!

We drove straight to Canberra from Sydney enjoying the ever decreasing traffic and ever expanding countryside. The drive was nice and sunny, as we munched our way through some fresh cherries we bought from the roadside. But the sunny weather was the last we encountered, followed with fivestraight days of rain with only the odd hour of respite and some really heavy downpours. Luckily – Canberra is full of ‘inside’ attractions.

Our first day was spent visiting the Old Bus Depot Markets, spoiling ourselves with a variety of local artisan foods whilst exploring the endless stalls of handmade goods and antiques. We didn’t see one stall selling the typical imported market clothes! My favourite stall was a guy selling cups of freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice, as well as sangria, warm mulled wine and apple cider! We also purchased stone baked sourdough bread, a tray of Lebanese sweets, olives, blue cheese, four types of flavoured roasted nuts, salty caramel chocolate truffles and had mouth watering Spanish Empanadas for lunch!!! Stuart also bought a massive antique brass nutcracker which is really cool, whilst I managed to finish off my Christmas shopping! These markets are a must when visiting Canberra!

Later that day we went to the Glassworks. It’s housed in an old coal fired power station that has been converted into an art gallery, shop, glass school and artist workshop with a public viewing gallery. We sat and watched a group of three artists who had hired out the workshop and were making a large red and orange vase. It was impressive to see the technique and patience that goes into making hand blown glass! We didn’t purchase any glass pieces due to the expensive price tags, but after watching how much work goes into one piece we can appreciate the cost!

Australian War Memorial

The next day was spent at the National War Memorial. This is truly a world class museum. We wandered lost in our own thoughts amongst the photographs, original letters and telegraphs, detailed dioramas, artefacts including vehicles, tanks, boats and planes, movie presentations, sensory simulations of bomber planes and trench shelters, war artist paintings as well as reading all the information panels. We spent about 5 hours in the museum and didn’t get past World War 2, so we decided to come back the next day as I was really keen to learn more about the Korean War. On our second visit we also went to the research room to find our family records on their digital archives. I was able to read copies of the daily handwritten war diary of my Grandad’s army regiment in the Korean War, whilst Stuart found the personnel files of his Grandfather who was a signalman in WW2 and his Great Grandfather who was in the West Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment in Palestine during WW1! We finished our visit with a walk through the actual war memorial, seeing all the thousands of names of Australians who have lost their lives in the various conflicts around the world, and culminating with a quiet moment in the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb left us both a little awed and stunned. The tomb is housed in a beautiful domed tower, with the walls completely covered in mosaics representing the various services and lit through stained glass windows.

We also paid a visit to the Royal Australian Mint, where Stuart minted his own $1 coin... at a cost of $3! Did you know that in the early days of settlement, Australia’s currency was pretty much anything they could find – the Australian holey dollar was actually made out of Spanish currency imported into Australia to ease the new settlement’s currency shortage! Pretty smart move really – import some large coins, punch the middle out of them, and both sections become legal tender!

And of course we visited Parliament House – very impressive and luxuriant. Did you know that the colour scheme in the House of Representatives is based on the green/grey foliage of the eucalypts, whilst the Senate had to have special permission to have the exit signs in red (Australian Standard states they must be green) so they match the red decor!!! God forbid they clash! We also learnt a bit more about the operations of Parliament. Previous to our visit, we didn’t know that Australia actually has one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta in existence in the world. It was written in the 1200’s and forms the basis from which our government developed.

There was so much more to see in Canberra we really could have spent weeks exploring it all. I think this is another place I would like to return to as we missed the National Art Gallery and I’d love to do a behind the scenes tour of the National Library (yeah well, I am a qualified Library Technician!). It seems that there is always a number of touring exhibitions, music festivals and markets going on. Who knew our capital was so exciting! That being said, Canberra’s location just seems a little remote, although we found out the site was selected as a bit of a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne who were both vying for the capital title. But it’s safe, people are walking around everywhere at night (when it’s not raining!) and it has clean air and plenty of open space.

If you’re wondering why we didn’t stay longer – the answer is we got rained out! The wind changed directions on us and started blowing so hard straight into our camp that we couldn’t use the gas stove to even have a cuppa. This is when we packed away the kitchen, eating leftovers from the fridge, buying dinner and using our hiking stove to make hot chocolates whilst we huddled inside the camper. As the rain continued, the ground around our camper turned to slush which made walking around the car and trips to the amenities rather slippery. By day four we really were starting to get a little down due to the absolutely crappy weather conditions. It was also looking like we’ll have to miss the Snowy Mountains and Mount Kosciusko as they were in the clouds!

Thankfully Stuart’s mum came to the rescue with an offer of a holiday unit in the nearby coastal town of Merimbula owned by her relatives. It was an easy decision to gratefully accept the offer when we looked at the weather forecast and discovered flood warnings in just about every direction!

We needed 4WD in the caravan park! So slippery!

So here we are! The camper is packed away and we are taking a break under a solid roof again. We really have been spoilt with the use of Stuart’s family’s unit. It has glass frontage and a wide veranda with views to the beach across the road and is walking distance from the centre of town. If we get a break in the weather we will try and make a day trip to the Snowy Mountains, but it’s not looking too good at the moment. As it turns out, our decision to leave Canberra was the right one, as we heard that they received 90mm of rain overnight! As it was, when we left, the ground was so muddy that Stuart had to engage 4WD just to move the car in the morning! The back tyres of the car had sunk into the mud and were just spinning on the spot!

According to weather forecasts and satellite images, there looks to be no near end to this crazy year of La Nina rain on the east coast. So we will just have to do the best we can to explore the National Parks and wilderness areas when we can. We are well set up and can make a pretty comfortable camp by now, but returning to a damp camper each night challenges your enthusiasm a bit!

Stuart was really looking forward to exploring the Stromlo Forest mountain bike trails now that his hand was out of the cast, but given the foul weather and really slippery conditions, it wasn’t worth the risk. He decided not to even go and have a look, let alone ride any of the trails, as it would be too frustrating! Hopefully we’ll be able to get back on the bikes down in Tasmania, along with Victoria and South Australia as we head home!

Until our next adventure, a huge thanks to Stuart’s relatives for the use of this lovely, cosy, dry retreat!

Love Mish and Stu


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