Canberra a Capital City???????

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It was finally time to leave Sydney and to see what the rest of Australia has to offer. The first stop was Canberra which surprised alot of Aussies as to why we were going there considering most Australians haven't been. We went by coach as it was only a 3hr journey from Sydney & got a good deal on the Greyhound although the driver did confirm all our suspicions about bus drivers. We got to see some of the countryside South of Sydney.

We arrived into Canberra late on Friday afternoon, we never actually realised to begin with we had arrived. Having gone from Sydney, Canberra seemed a very quiet, small place. We checked in to the hostel & discovered it was the weekend of Summernats, the hostel was full of petrolheads & I started to think I was the only girl staying, which does have the advantages of not having to wait for the shower.

The next day Ros had orrganised for her friends to show us around Canberra which was very kind of them to give up there day, we definetly got to see alot more than we would have on our bikes! Firstly we went to Black Mountain which gave us spectacular views accross the city & the opportunity to see the very precise layout of Canberra. Probably the only city in the world with such a layout, okay if you dont mind roundabouts not something you get many off out here. It was then off to the Houses of Parliament for a look round, we were surprised as to how much we could get to see, as long as the government are not sitting you are bascially allowed to sit in there seats.

We then went for a drive outside of Canberra which was nice to see some of the area outside of the city, we also dropped into the Canberra Deep Space Station which is a strange sight having not seen anything but fields & trees for miles to suddenly see these gigantic satellities sticking out the ground. We had dinner with Mike & Jan back at their house complete with Kangaroos jumping around in the back yard & stories of Brown snakes in the bushes!!

Due to public transport being pretty no existent in Canberra the best way to get around is by bike so we hired bikes from the hostel, the bikes seemed as though they were from the 1960's, so very simple to use with no gears, except for the brakes being on the peddles - very confusing. Due to there not being that much to do in Canberra & us having 4 days to see it all we weren't in much of a hurry. We visited an Aboriginal Art exhibition then hired a paddleboat & went on Lake Burley Griffin. Which in 30 + degrees we perhaps didnt choose the best time of day to do this! We then had our first run in with the Australian Police. Despite our bikes being 50+ years old James thought they would still be able to do tricks & jumps, he quickly found out otherwise. As we sat by the side of the lake trying to work out exactly how we would ever get the bike to work again along came 2 friendly policeman to our rescue. Being men they weren't going to be beaten by a bike & finally the bike was going again, I didn't think I ought to take a photo of them struggling although I was tempted to.

On our last day in Canberra we visited the War memorial, the roll of honour really makes you stop in your tracks & think, the names just seem to not stop.

Canberra was very worth the visit, I am glad that we stopped off on our way to Melbourne. You don't need long to see everything in the city, it is so unlike any other place we have been to before. When we cycled on the main roads through the city we passed only a handful of cars. The city was built all to plans, when the first Parliament House was built sheep used the graze the gardens of Parliament House. It seems the main employment within the city is either with the university or government, it does not seem to be a very industrial city. Having spent time in Sydney, Canberra was definetly not what either of us expected the capital city of Australia to be like.

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Photos

From the Roof of Parliament House
Looking towards the Old Parliament House & in the far distance the war memorial

Our Bikes
from the 1950's

Looking towards Parliament House
It seemed a good idea to cycle to Parliament House at the time