Blogs from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 9

Sunday morning (the 28th) we got to the train station bright and early and settled in for our 4 1/2 hour train ride from Sydney to Canberra (pronounced "CAN-brah", not "Can-BEAR-ah"). It was pretty uneventful...I got breakfast from the dining car and Matt had gotten pretzels and juice from the vending machine before we left the station. I read most of the way and Matt stared out of the window trying to spot kangaroos. We got into Canberra Station around 11:30am and saw Dan, Ali, and Jackson right away waiting for us. Matt told me to go ahead and he'd get the bags so I ran right out and gave Ali the biggest hug I could...without squishing her 8 1/2 month old pregnant belly :) It's been almost 4 years since we've seen each other and ... read more

Well, we decided to do the three towns covered by the Dinosaur Trail. Until recently Australia was not well known for dinosaur fossils but it is now known that most of Australia supported dinosaurs and their fossils can be found where-ever the rock has eroded back to the relevant period rock. The first two towns, Richmond and Hughenden, are known for their marine fossils. The great inland sea which covered a lot of inland Australia retreated about 100 million years ago when sea levels fell the last time, so all fossils in this area are at least 100 million years old. We arrived in Richmond (our first stop on the trail) just as the museum opened and spent quite a while exploring the wonders of Australia's dinosaur discoveries. At Richmond is Kronosaurus Korner, a museum and ... read more

As mentioned in the previous post, Katherine Gorge was spectacular and again the photos just don't capture the perspective. I would love to have flown over the Gorge in order to see it all but maybe that is for another trip. We stopped at Mataranka for a couple of hours and had a swim in the Thermal Pool which was a very warm 34deg and crystal clear, great for relaxing the body. We checked out the Replica of Elsey Station (as featured in the movie "We of the Never Never") and then continued south to Three Ways where we turned East for the long trip across the Barkly to Mount Isa. We didn't do the touristy thing at Mount Isa (looked just like another mining town, similar to Broken Hill), only stopping to get a new ... read more

Oops again. (A senior moment) I will include the croc pic this time (John and Dennis were trolling on the electric motor in Corroboree Billabong about ten feet from the bank, a bit close to this one). Since the last post we have managed to catch up with Adam who was in Darwin for a kart meeting, and John spent some time at the kart track with him. We then had Monday lunch with Adam and Sarah at Stokes Wharf, a bit of sightseeing then to the airport. Before we left Darwin we went to Charles Darwin Park to see a couple of wartime bunkers and then went to the Fanny Bay Museum to see Sweetheart, who is a very large croc that was captured and preserved and now resides at the museum. We were reluctant ... read more

From Saigon we headed across to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I had thought that one of the night buses in Vietnam was the bumpiest journey of my life (imagine being woken up as your whole body has left the bed you are laying on) but i was wrong. It was impossible to read as my body jolted relentlessly from side to side, with my arms also moving all over the place but in different directions to the rest of my body. A strange experience. We arrived in Phnom Penh expecting the worst as we had heard from other people that it wasn't the nicest of cities. Maybe because of this review we were pleasantly surprised. The Cambodian people were all very friendly and we spent the afternoon at the national museum and then walked down the ... read more