Call me the Fall guy

The weather continues to cool and autumn is gathering as crunchy brown leaves on the ground. I know I posted some autumnal pictures a few weeks ago but once again it was a colourful Sunday afternoon walk which began in fine style with coffee and cake in Manuka and ended in the darkening gloom of Red Hill reserve.

At Red Hill, I had yet another pleasureable walk, this time taking in the southern end of the ridge. The kangaroos were watching me warily and the cloud was closing in over the national capital…we had our first rain in about a month recently, but I managed to get back home in time before the worst of it.

Anzac Day 2007, Canberra

The Big Smoke

For some reason I have been craving some big city action lately – things like traffic, smog, the sound of sirens, crazy people muttering on park benches, having to walk down streets and watch where you are going to avoid bumping into people, that kinda thing. I guess it’s that buzz and that edge which is missing in Canberra, the richness and diversity of humankind living on top of one another. And so conveniently I was off to Australia’s largest city for the weekend.

Saturday was a fine day and I got my fill of several crazy people muttering as I walked through Hyde Park, tried to avoid bumping into people at the Pitt Street Mall, eventually crossing the traffic lined siren filled streets and reaching the mecca of diversity, Circular Quay. I had a nice coffee watching the world and two people dressed up as potatoes go by, then suitably milled around myself, taking a stroll along the western side of the quay, passing a wedding ceremony and standing under the thunderous rumbling of the Harbour Bridge.

Whilst I have been down under for a while now and have been to Sydney several times, there is still something rather exciting about visiting Circular Quay and taking in two of Australia’s most famous sights.

As the day progressed I met up with Georgina who was in town for a christening. Seeing as it was such a nice day there is still nothing finer to do in Sydney than to hit the water, yet again on that splendid Manly Ferry. Sit on the port side on the lower deck, feet dangling over the railings and look back at the city as the ferry turns past Bradleys Head, the sun warming the glow already in your face.

Manly was winding down as the sun lowered but it was still really pleasant for a stroll along the beach. I seem to be having a few nautical mini-disasters lately though, this time leaving my shoes seemingly safe as I went for a wade, only for the incoming tide to soak them through and make the next few hours uncomfortable walking!

After an ice cream and a beer (as you do), we headed back to the sparkling city lights for piles of pasta at a restaurant on the Rocks, complete with cheesey Italians singing in the courtyard…it was just like being in Florence! Things then went culturally downhill I guess, checking out the considerable diversity of a few bars in and around Oxford Street before finally calling it a night.

Sunday morning arrived bleary eyed, sunnies and powerade equipped as I took the train to Bondi Junction. Here I met up with Caroline and we had some brunch down in Bondi Beach. I thought I would take the photo of myself at Bondi Beach…surely an Englishman has truly made it in life when he has reached this spot! (Please note Mum, I am wearing a T-shirt you gave me for Xmas, aren’t I a good boy?!)

We then walked the semi-famous Bondi to Coogee coastal walk which is in truth really darn nice, taking in more bays and cliffs and neatly trimmed parks. I thought in parts the sand and the water and the greenery was just like St Ives in Cornwall. The English Bondi, St Ives, yeah, I like it!

At Coogee I managed to force down some more ice cream before catching a bus back to the city where I checked out some markets and generally just killed some time before the bus back to Canberra was due to leave. Feeling drained I was ready to leave the hustle and bustle and enjoyed snoozing my way along the Hume Highway and back in sight of the beacon that is the Telstra Tower, objectives fulfilled.

A load of hot air

Dawn is a beautiful time of the day, the only problem is it’s so goddam early on a weekend! The sacrifice of any sort of a lie in was for Canberra’s annual balloon fiesta, taking place all along the lake with activities concentrated around Old Parliament House. 6:15am and there were an unfeasibly large number of people milling about armed with tripods and all sorts of other contraptions, but no signs of any big inflatable things. So I headed down to the lakeside to see the sun come up and add a bit of warmth to proceedings.

Leaving the glare of the lake shores I turned back to Old Parliament House where now things were really happening. It seems the Canburnians (I’ve made that word up) love for fold up camping chairs continues into autumn, I’m just surprised there were hardly any eskies (coolboxes, chillybins, whatever…) littering the place. Anyway, the balloons began to fill with hot air and sedately drifted over the national landmarks.

As one by one they drifted into the air I frantically pedalled across the bridge to the other side of the lake to see colourful round things rising from all over the place…there must have been 50 or so balloons in the sky at one point. Now don’t let anyone tell you Canberra is boring…I mean 50 balloons, wow! Seriously, watching them drift along is strangely mesmerising and seems the perfectly normal thing to do on an autumnal Saturday morning.

April Fall

Now if you actually read all this gibberish I type you may have got the hint that things are a bit more autumnal here, yeah sunny 25C days, I know sounds horrific, especially when there is a “heatwave” in the UK and the Sun is no doubt printing pictures of a couple of students frolicking in the water in Bournemouth. However, there are some clearly visible signs of autumn, as I discovered through a walk of the inner south suburbs.

I guess the colours are not really what you expect to see in Australia, more akin to New England, but I can assure you we are still in Australia and can prove it with hard evidence of a cockatoo in one of the blazing trees.

I crunched my way through empty streets coated with leaves and dodging any acorn storms…the other day one of the trees near work seemed to drop all its acorns in one go (yeah, it is Australia…sedate autumnal tree turns potential killer). I also narrowly missed a horse chestnut which landed a few inches in front of me one morning.

As I walked along Golden Drive in Red Hill, surely named for this time of year, kids were sweeping up the leaves in their large gardens, dogs were being walked and families were cycling the streets in that oh-so-wholesome way. The leafy suburbs eventually gave way to Red Hill Reserve, more the traditional bushland but with views back over the autumnal idyll.

I spent a good hour here, viewing and listening to the wildlife and watching the city change colour as the sun drifted lower in the sky. It was, after quite a busy day and week, the perfect antidote to the stresses of life in the 21st century…leaving me truly engrossed in the environment and not thinking of anything else.


Walking back home, the sky quickly blackened and more Canburnians were queuing outside Manuka Oval for balloons at night. I’m sure this would’ve been a bit of a spectacle but then when you have such spectacle from Mother Nature, who needs balloons?!

A good friday...saturday, sunday and monday

The luxury of a car meant I was up early taking in the stillness of Molonglo Gorge, a pretty spot near the town of Queanbeyan, 10 minutes down the road. The fresh air brought on an appetite so it was a case of finding one of the few shops open and picking up some grub for breakfast. It took me a little by surprise how a lot of things close here on Good Friday. Later in the afternoon I popped into the city, which was more of a ghost town than ever, and picked up Caroline, a Brit from Sydney who was visiting. Well, Canberra was at its most underwhelming and lived up to its Sydneysider reputation for being dead, however, the national attractions were open so we visited the War Memorial for a bit, where it seemed, with nothing much else to do, the rest of Canberra were hanging around.




It was a chilly day but the sun poked through towards the end of the day and made for a beautiful scene upon Mount Ainslie.

Mount Ainslie also gave us a few nice sticks which we collected as part of a secret mission to enhance a flower display Lauren was constructing at home. In fact, one of those sticks came from a tree planted by old Liz Windsor, our beloved leader and John Howard’s sugar mummy. Talking about olde England, in the evening, we had a traditional Friday night English meal of curry, which was nice but not as good as back home. And with a nicely full tummy, it was an early night in preparation for a busy few days…

Hot Cross Bungonia

The morning started with cheesy vegemite on toast with fried eggs in Kingston before heading up the Federal Highway towards Goulburn. The road is pretty unexciting but it does pass the distinct landscape of Lake George, a flat basin where a huge body of water sometimes appears if it is feeling in the mood.

I was hardly enthralled at passing through Goulburn once again but it was only to take a turn off for Bungonia State Conservation Area. This was an area of hills and escarpments cut by the Shoalhaven River, carving deep valleys which culminated in Bungonia Gorge. It is a landscape covering much of the coastal fringe of southern New South Wales but one I always love seeing and seems to offer a distinctly Australian panorama. You can’t beat those trusty old overlooks!

Of course, it provides the perfect place for a classic Aussie bushwalk which, unlike when they go bush in Neighbours, is a perfectly fine and enjoyable experience!

Now, the drive back meant passing through glamorous Goulburn once again, but I achieved my ultimate aim (though nearly missed out until a strategically placed roundabout assisted) and found the Big Merino! Was it worth the wait and anticipation? Well, hardly, but you don’t often get the chance to stand beside a giant concrete sheep do you?! Could do with a lick of paint mind.

Back in Canberra we found a reliable collective of real life non concrete kangaroos at the foot of Red Hill before joining in a BBQ at home.