caught in the A.C.T.

There was a little more Easter fare for Monday breakfast, using up a hot cross bun followed by a little more chocolate! Today was spent within the borders of the Australian Capital Territory, first taking in the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain and the Botanic Gardens in the morning. It was then due south through Tuggeranong and across a winding road to Corin Dam. The dam is set in Namadgi National Park, which makes up the northern extremity of the Australian Alps…it would look quite Alpine with a full dam but I guess it’s about 40% capacity due to the prolonged dry spells. Anyway, it was a nice spot but some of the concrete buildings looked slightly sinister like it might be hiding some secret missile base a la James Bond!

With an active imagination and some James Bond theme music playing in the car, we stopped off a few more miles back down the road at Gibraltar Falls. I wasn’t expecting to see anything to tell the truth, so the fact that there was some water plunging down 40 metres or so was a bonus. You could just picture the Bond girl, who would be Kylie in this special Australian edition, rinsing her smalls in the pools by the waterfall…wishful thinking!

The last stop on this action packed weekend was in nearby Tidbinbilla Nature Park, where we spotted a koala. Well, some American spotted a koala and went stomping through the undergrowth, but that was enough to spark the koala into life and open its eyes. We also saw some roos whilst eating an ice cream by the visitors centre, but you can tell I’ve been in Australia too long when I’ve become a bit complacent about seeing them!

And then the holiday weekend was over. Some pizza in the evening prolonged it a little but that really marked the end of a mini-holiday which took in everything ranging from big concrete farm animals to eating ice creams from servos. A true blue Australian adventure!