Advertisement
Published: April 17th 2007
Edit Blog Post
uummm!! Anyone here??
Empty streets at in australia's capital!! Well guys, i'm back, except this time i'm not so sure that this entry will be so interesting!! We headed down to Canberra (the capital of Australia), for what we thought might be an exciting visit. We stopped at a campsite called eaglehawk. Just of the federal highway, and about a 20 min drive into Canberra city centre, this was a quiet little caravan park, with nice amenities, a tennis court, a big field within which to pitch our tent, and a caged emu!! Yup, we were actually the only ones to pitch camp on this field, which, as the lonely planet says, has an after-thought for those travellers with tents!! And we had rain.............yet again!!
Well, we got our tent up, said hello to Elmo the emu, who just kept biting the lock, but looked huge, with dinosaur looking feet and an evil look in its eye, and headed into Canberra, with thoughts of a vibrant and bustling capital city.
Hummmm!!! Not so vibrant, and as for bustling...................yeah we can put that one to bed too, BED being the operative word. this is actually the most boring capital i have ever been to!!! Everything closes at 5pm,
and that means that there's even less than the 10 people we saw during the day time. The Lonely planet (which has been our bible during this trip), describes Canberra as a place..............................where canabis can legally be grown in your back yard (as long as you don't sell it!), and is also the porn capital of Australia!! So by this reconing, there was no one in the street because they were either having a jump with a prostitute or completely stoned out on their home-grown marajuana!!!
We actually spent about 2 hours looking for our car!! NO, its not because we were stoned too (i can hear you thinking it.....all of you!!). Its because everything looks pretty similar, and after we had visited parliment, where you actually go inside and see the senate and house of representatives, and read some amazing history about how the whole thing was set up, and how it functions today ( you wouldn't get a chance to to this in London!!), we got back to the car park where we thought we had parked, only to find................this was not the place. It actually became one of the highlights of this trip, as it made
the time pass away somewhat easier.
That night, we had the had the good fortune to have the camp kitchen all to ourselves. So after engrossing ourselves in "the biggest looser" programme, we also indulged in a bit of a bollywood movie!!
The next day was spent at the war memorial, getting a history of the various wars which Australians took part in, and are immortalised within this museum. Australians are fiercely patriotic, and it is easy to see why stories of past wars stokes up the fire in the biannual Ashes cricket series (or any Australia Vs England sports match). Hearing the story about John Simpson (who famously died trying to save several wounded soldiers on his donkey during WW1/2), the battle at Gallipolli, and the other courageous men and women who died for their country, somehow stoked a fire in our bellies too. The respect that these men and women hold in the Australian folklore is somehow higher that those that have died for Great Britain, and it is obvious (and disappointing), atleast to me, of this fact.
Well, the rain returned, and soured our day, somewhat. However, we had a laugh listening to some
uuhhm!! Anyone know where the old parliment is?
caught on camera mapping our journey through lonely Canberra god-seekers singing like a pack of wild Aussie dogs!! I am fast becoming partial to the iced coffee, and I fear that i will be the next contestant on the biggest looser programme.
Lake Burley Griffin is the great lake that passes through Canberra city centre, and it is here that we feel really bad. In the evening, for about 2 hours or so, we see the most amount of people in Canberra city centre that we will ever see, for at about 5pm, all the people come out for their evening exercise. Scores of people are seen running or cycling around the lake, much to the attention of us lazy anglo-spanish people. One attraction that confounds our simple thoughts is a small jetty in the middle of the Lake. This, apparantly, is to comemorate Captain cook, and is named captain cook memorial water jet. No one actually knows why it is there, atleast the people that we asked, and so we have our first mystery of the tour. Can anyone tell me why this strange object pollutes the lake???
We decided to go on a trip up to the mountains, to partake in a guided walk through
what do ya say? Its behind me is it??
yup!! it really was that sort of day for us!!! nature. We got up early in the morning, and headed up the mountain by car, to the designated meeting spot. Ears popping, we continued on a unsealed track, and bang into fog. Not just any fog.......this was blanket fog. We could only just see in fromt of us, and the road was too narrow to do a u turn, with a sheer drop down one end. Think gorillas in the mist, and you have a scene set. Nothing up here, cold as hell, and any second now, you expected a huge ugly monster to come jumping out of the corner, scaring the living @#** out of you, and leaving you to have another shower. We get to the top, and ofcourse, we are the only ones there. So we head back down, passing an elderly couple on the morning walk (mad aussies!!), and just for entertainment sake, i start believing that i am jenson button, with handbrake turns and the stuff. I stern look and a couple of choice words from the boss, and game over. Well there was a kind of big drop down the hill if it all went pete tong!!!
Well, there you have Canberra in
view from across
old and new parliment face each other. I guess this is incase they get lost on the way up??! a nut shell. Nothing more really to talk about. I did want to go to the National institute for sports, but to be quite honest, the rest of Canberra (bar the war memorial) was so boring, i could not bear to be in the city much longer.
So we head towards Melbourne, with the distinct notion that Canberra has to be the worlds most boring capital city...........ever!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0272s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
kijana
non-member comment
seems like you are enjoying every bit of it
hi rob and carmen thanks for sharing you lovely holiday with us i must admit you writing is fantastic , this one is for you rob everton is really an average side do they ever try to improve their football they are always in mid table ,man-utd won the premership and going to get the FA cup on saturday well done boys