Sunday, December 24, 2006

Getting into the Christmas spirit


A mixture of the traditional and very very different marked the run up to Christmas. On Friday night we had a quasi-Christmas dinner at home, with me on cooking duty rustling up some pork and roast spuds Mum will be proud of. So it was a pretty traditional dinner, but note I am wearing shorts (it was about 32 degrees or so!)


Saturday found me in the Australian National Botanic Gardens, a beautiful place at the foot of Black Mountain. There’s some real lush Aussie foliage here and some great smells coming from the plants.


























It was a bit of a lizard weekend to be honest, this dragon variety was seen by the cafĂ© in the Botanic Gardens…


Now, it’s been pretty dry recently, but half way round the Botanic Gardens a storm surfaced and the rain came whipping in for a good half hour or so. Thankfully there was a little shelter to hide under…it was so good to see some proper rain and turning the dusty landscape temporarily lush, with the grey barks of gum trees getting a good rinse and turning a rusty red.


The rain seemed to have made little difference on Sunday, during a typically dry and warm walk up Mount Majura. Now, Mount Majura is another one of Canberra’s ‘mountains’ and I think is the highest at 888 metres. One of the great things about Canberra is that you can be getting frazzled with Christmas shopping one minute and ten minutes later feel like you are out miles away from anywhere in the bush. You can see how little the rain had changed the landscape as we look East from Mount Majura.

It was a reasonably demanding walk, but the views at the top were good and again there were glimpses of wildlife along the way…yet more lizards and some roos.




So a pretty different Christmas Eve I’m sure you’ll agree. Christmas Day beckons, the presents are under the tree and it’s gonna be a cooler 20C to make it feel ever so slightly more like home. Not quite cold enough for mulled wine but I’m sure I’ll find appropriate substitutes to keep me watered!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Noice Shayyyyne


So it seems the sensible thing to do right now would be to become a Strayan citizen. Sure I'd have to change my name to Bruce or Shane, wear a wifebeater, speak (almost) like a Kiwi and eat Lamingtons, but at least we would've won the Ashes!

So I'm off to Parliament House.

Advance Australia Fair!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A working Christmas

Golf the Australian way!















The Great Falsonio dazzles me with his conjuring skills!


My support team...




And getting support from the bar...

Monday, December 11, 2006

The Deep South

We seem to be getting a few more cockatoos stopping by the house these days. They are pretty but the noise is probably the sqwawkiest of all the noisy birds out here…not good for the morning unless you need to get up early.

An early morning was a good thing on Saturday however, as it was a good day to escape the heat of Canberra and head to the coast. Once again it was onto the Monaro Highway southbound to Cooma, where a road stop in McDonalds brought about a surreal situation. Sweltering in shorts, armed with a frozen coke and avoiding the flies, the background music felt a bit wrong… “Oh the weather outside is frightful, and the fire is so delightful…” clearly needs to be rearranged for the Australian market… “Oh the weather outside is delightful, but the bush fires are pretty frightful”

After Cooma, the drive took us through barren sunburnt plains and hills before leading to the more easy on the eye environment of South East Forests National Park. This was a blissful stop, with lush succulent smelling forests and overlooks to the hazy fields and hills heading to the coast. Like every road to the coast, this one was no different, zig-zagging down from 2500 feet to near sea level in the space of a few kilometres.

A lunch stop followed in Bega, home of one of the most famous brands of cheese in Australia, where I had a cheese-less bacon and egg roll and iced coffee. Finally after what seemed ages, we hit the coastline of the far south of New South Wales. I'll say now, this has been my favourite place I have been on the South Coast…beautiful beaches, lagoons, lakes, stunning bushland, mountains and rolling pastoral fields.

We were staying at a place called Merimbula, were there was another YHA for a cheap sleep…this one only 150 metres from the surf beach. Just down the road from Merimbula is a small town called Pambula and Pambula Beach, where a walk along the river was beautiful. I think the pictures tell the story.



Just across from Pambula is Ben Boyd National Park, one of the many coastal parks in this part of the world which encompass pristine bushland, secluded beaches, meandering creeks and rocky headlands. Taking a short walk out through some of the bush to a coastal overlook, an echidna was busily rooting around on the side of the path. He got scared a little, but not as much as I did when a wallaby or something leapt out of the bushes, crossed the path and disappeared into the undergrowth. So I was watching an echidna in the bush when a wallaby jumped out … how Australian does that sound?!

Just a hundred yards from where the echidna was curling up were these rocks which are called The Pinnacles.

Ben Boyd National Park surrounds the most southerly NSW coastal town of Eden, which is a haven for whales in the winter and at 6pm on a Saturday night in December a haven for very little else. It was pretty dead, but there was a nice overlook over Twofold Bay and the coastal mountains, which, in the smoky haze and cloud which had bubbled up gave an end-of-the-world type feel.

Back in Merimbula, the good times continued with a fine meal of crispy pork belly and roasted vegetables before a few games of pool and beers…


…fried breakfast was the order of Sunday morning, sat by the sea overlooking the beaches and estuary of Merimbula. It was shaping up into a beautiful day and Merimbula was sparkling. It’s called the Sapphire Coast down here, pretty apt name really.

From Merimbula, the Sapphire Coast Drive takes you to Bournda National Park, which features more bushland and beaches and, after a bit of a drive along a dirt track, a lagoon. This was one of those pure natural places, an oasis surrounding by golden sand, rocky eucalyptus covered hills backed by the roar of the sea over the dunes. It was a wonderful stop for a bit of a dip.

It was tough to leave and a long drive waited up the coast and back across the mountains to Canberra. There were a few stops along the way, including Mimosa Rocks National Park, where I

decided to sit (and nearly fall off) a tree!

Luckily I wasn’t sat on the tree that must have fallen over after we had gone past it, as, on the way back out of the park it was partially blocking the dirt road and we had to squeeze through!

The landscape alternated between hilly bush and national park, golden farmland and windswept beaches and the pretty tourist village of Mogo until reaching Batemans Bay and turning back inland towards Canberra. The drive over Clyde Mountain was as spectacular and ever so slightly hairy as ever and then followed the drag back across the tablelands to the promised land of Queanbeyan and finally the ACT.

Canberra was feeling steamy and decidedly smoky. There are big bushfires in Victoria at the moment and a few other smaller ones closer to home, creating a smoky and hazy atmosphere and a doomsday red sky as the sun goes down. It sure is gonna be a different Christmas!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Where am I...?

Some Christmas decs went up today and it was a more wintry feeling 25 degrees Celsius, brrrrr! England were doing well in the cricket. I came face to face with lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, giraffes…what on earth is going on?!

The cricket I cannot explain but the un-Australian animals are all part of the excellent Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not the biggest zoo but seems to have a good set up and I think the fact that it isn’t huge keeps it interesting. There were a diverse range of animals including a slightly deranged monkey who was good entertainment value. There were a number of these birds which, despite the colour, are not Australian but from South America.

Reassuringly the zoo had a small sample of good ol’ traditional Aussie fare, with emus wandering aimlessly around and this koala who was typically docile.


There was less of the cuddly stuff on the two hour Zooventure tour, which was a great way to be shown around the zoo, see some areas off limits to the ‘common’ public (!) and come face to face with things that could seriously chew your arm off. First up was a European brown bear, the smallest of the brown bears apparently. Didn’t seem that small when she was stood on hind legs licking some gooey cereal off your hand however.

A tiger was next, though after two or three chicken drumsticks being poked through the cage he seemed to get a little bored of chicken. I guess it’s like getting an eight piece bucket from KFC or something. A couple of cougars / pumas / mountain lions / whatever they are called followed and then it was on to stand at head height with a couple of giraffes. The ranger dude seemed particularly fond of this giraffe, getting a couple of snogs from that big tongue!!

Having handled bits of dodgy raw meat it was nice to hand out bits of carrot to a few of the animals. Here I am with an impala.



To end the tour though of course it was necessary to give a few scares and thrills, so first up we fed the lions…
…and then lined up in a row we pretended to be trees for a python to wind its way across our shoulders. I felt I made a really good tree, but not as good as the five year old kid, he kept as solid as an Oak.

...oh yeah, Canberra

What better way to remind myself of where I am than to go up to that big pointy tower thing that seems to get everywhere in my photos? Black Mountain is where it stands, though for some reason my mind keeps making alternative names for these places – Slack Mountain, Dead Hill, Mount Pains me…(yeah, OK, I’m starting to get as deranged as that monkey)

The Telstra Tower looks OK from a distance (say from Mount Pains Me with the sun setting over it and Slack Mountain) but close up it is quite a concrete monstrosity really. The best place to be though is inside where the views are never anything less than panoramic.



This is Canberra man, where are the buildings?!! Well, just left of my right elbow is Parliament House and maybe if I was to raise my arm a bit I would be pointing at about where I live. After nearly four months here I feel like it is my home (for the time-being at least) and I kind of know what’s going on round here. I even managed to negotiate the journey from Slack Mountain back to Barton (no nicknames for that yet…suggestions welcome) without the need for a map!
I knew that this was looking out towards Mounts Ainslie (right) and Majura (left) and that Majura is slightly higher than Ainslie even though it doesn’t always look it.



Green isn’t it? However green some of the bushland looks from above, it is pretty dry on the ground and we are facing stage 3 water restrictions in a couple of weeks, whatever that means.

As you can see, that pointy tower thing still manages to get in the photos! I wonder if they decorate it with Christmas lights?

Monday, November 27, 2006

black hole

The Snowy Mountains are not really that snowy at this time of year and neither are they very much like Mountains in the typical sense. They do occupy quite a chunk of land however, and roads linking the highlights of Kosciuszko National Park are never the most direct. Some two and a half hours from Thredbo lies Yarrangobilly Caves, but it is well worth the effort. They are in a delightful spot down a winding gravel road and lining the steep slopes plunging down to the Yarrangobilly River.


There are several caves here and one of their major draws is the fact that they are cool and free of flies!! They are also pretty spectacular, here are some pictures from inside Jersey Cave…

Glory Hole cave was somewhat different - bigger caverns but still nice and cool. I dunno if this is the ‘Glory Hole’ the caves are named after?!!

From the caves, it was back along to Cooma for a fast food stop and then on the Monaro Highway north to the nations capital. The sugar and caffiene and additive blend of McDonalds frozen cola was a godsend whizzing us back to Canberra in no time! Here’s the Monaro Highway for you, a taste of the real Straya, complete with squished bugs on the windscreen!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Get your Kozzy on


Greetings from the top of Australia! At 2228 metres above sea level this is the Australian sounding Mount Kosciuszko. You’d think climbing the highest mountain in the country would be a challenging three day trek across harsh windswept ridges and vertical escarpments. Four year olds were doing it.

The walk started in the ‘Alpine’ village of Thredbo, which is a ski resort in winter and has one chairlift in operation during summer to transport wannabe mountaineers. Here is Thredbo from the top of the chairlift.

It then rolls up and down along a raised metal path, across a barren landscape of marsh and rocks, reminiscent of Dartmoor. This is Kosciuszko view and the highest point in Australia is that rounded hill with a bit of snow near the top! You can see the pathway crossing the landscape (and going over the source of the Snowy River as it does so).


This little pond is the highest lake in Australia (Lake Cootapatamba) and is home to what seem to be millions of annoying flies.







So after about 5 kilometres of this, the path ascends round the back of Kossy and to the top, which is, on days like these generally full of people having lunch! The views are pretty good, as you can imagine being higher than anywhere else in this country. It’s also a good place to get away from news of the cricket…





After lunching at the top, the route back is along the same way, taking in more of the views, getting attacked by more of the flies and getting sunburnt with the sun on your back!

The chairlift back down to Thredbo was peaceful and scenic, disturbed only by attacking flies and consequently swiping the sunglasses off my face and down into the unrecoverable grassy depths below. The previous pair I lost in the Lake District so it seems me, sunglasses and mountains don’t seem to mix.

A lack of sunnies didn’t affect my bobsled riding ability, shooting down a metal track on a piece of plastic sounds like a good deal of fun and by jove it was!

So, after climbing Australia’s highest peak ice cream and beer was well overdue and despite Thredbo’s best efforts to be quiet and sleepy ice cream and beer was forthcoming!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Down in Tasmania

Did you know that Hobart seems to have a disproportionately high number of female bus drivers? And during December they change all the signs to Ho Ho Hobart? Well, I’ll throw in a few more facts along the way…

So a small taste of the small state of Tassie where it was refreshingly cooler and cloudier than the bushfire weather up north. It’s a cute little place, reminds me very much of Wellington, New Zealand and perhaps it’s more than a coincidence that it is dominated by Mount Wellington. Then there is the quay area which is a bit like the Barbican in Plymouth!


Nearby is Salamanca Place, which is a series of old sandstone warehouses converted into all sorts of gift and craft shops and bars and cafes. Totally out of character with the gentrification of the area I had a meat pie. Just up from Salamanca Place is a pretty neighbourhood called Battery Point – all old cottages and roses and flowers.

Later on I managed to negotiate possibly the most confusing bus network on Earth and somehow got on a bus to Mount Nelson. The journey through the suburbs on zig-zagging roads was scenic, with views down to the bay and across to Mount Wellington. I spent all of five minutes at the summit of Mount Nelson as the bus back down left then or it was another two and a half hour wait. Shame I didn’t get to linger and soak up the views.

The journey back down included an impromptu guided tour by the delightful female bus driver. Apparently Hobart was the first place in Australia to have street lights. Canberra still seems to be missing a few even now. And it has the oldest casino and was the first to run a lotto. So you may lose all your money but at least you can see where you’re going when you can’t afford the cab ride home at night.

With that in mind I headed to the casino, which is just south of the main centre. I didn’t particularly go there to gamble but I was craving a bit of a casino all you can eat buffet! Nearby was this pretty little bay.

The casino wasn’t exactly Las Vegas and neither was the buffet, although the desserts were pretty darn good. Not a bad view from down here though.

So that was Tassie. I saw a little more at 5am the next day travelling to the airport and it struck me how very beautiful the place was. There were river valleys and hills to the North tempting me to tell the taxi driver to take a left turn. I could turn into one of those weird Tasmanians who grows a little shovel beard and wanders the wilderness. But today the Ashes starts and I am needed in Canberra so that people can call me a bloody Pom!