Canberra - Day Two . . .

Becky here: Tuesday morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast in the hotel and then headed out to see Australia's lovely and unique Parliament House. It's a relatively new structure, completed in 1988 and built into a hill with striking modern architecture. We spent a couple of hours looking at the beautiful wood and marble entry and grand hall, exhibits (including one of the rare copies of the Magna Carta), and chambers of the House and Senate.

Leaving the Parliament House, we drove up to the top of Black Mt. and rode the lift to the top of the Telstra Tower. Telstra is an Australian telecommunications company which included a rotating restaurant and indoor and outdoor observation decks about 18 stories up on the tower rising up from the hill on which it sits. We enjoyed the 360 degree view of the city and bowl in which it's situated. Dave walked all the way around the viewing platform taking pictures that he plans to make into a continuous view of the city and surrounding countryside... kind of a poor man's IMAX.

Our final stop of the day was at the National Museum of Australia. This beautiful museum holds permanent and special exhibits and enough interesting information to engage one's senses mind for many hours. Since we only had a couple of hours before we needed to head back to Sydney, Dave and I had to choose just two of the galleries. The first, titled the Old New Land Gallery, examined Australia's diverse and unique species and environments in exhibits highlighting how people have responded and adapted to the land over time.

The second, titled Landmarks, included more than 1500 objects exploring Australian history since European settlement through places across the continent. The stories of these communities and the individuals and their families were fascinating and we were sorry we didn't have more time to read and learn.

It's now Wednesday night and after a day of doing laundry and taking a trip into the Westmead area of Sydney to see Cheryl's clinic, checking out Nathan's high-rise Sydney apartment with it's spectacular view of the Harbor Bridge and eating a delicious Italian dinner in the city, we're winding down and getting ready for our final trip-within-this-trip. We leave tomorrow morning for a couple of nights in and around the Blue Mts. at Mudgee and Blackheath. It's hard to believe that our time here is drawing to a close. We've got a few more sites to see before we hop on the plane next Monday, however.

The fourth floor view of the hotel lobby with its several informal meeting spaces for business people (to the right) and the stairs leading down to the restaurant (to the left and underneath the visible structure) which served a sumptuous buffet breakfast which we enjoyed on our last morning here.  There was a chef who cooks your eggs to order, even our omelettes!

One of the two large lawns leading up to the roof viewing area of the central spaces of the Parliament House. 
Note the massive flagpole rising above it all.

The entrance to the lobby and main public spaces of the Parliament House.  For perspective, can you see the woman in red?

The Australian crest at the top of the building façade, also located in each of the two houses of Parliament.

These massive grey marble columns in the lobby evoke the massive grey gum trees so prevalent throughout the land.
There are a great many such visual symbols, some obvious and some subtle throughout the building.

The beautiful grand room where formal balls and events are held. 
Again, the massive tapestry evokes many aspects of the land and it's people.
For perspective, see the smaller people-doors along the sides.

The bicycle of Ernie Old, my newest hero, who rode across the Australian continent to each of the state capitols in his 70's.  He was still riding long distances up to age 86!  That was in 1960!  Read the panel below for the amazing story.

Look at the map of his "capitol" rides and imagine that rugged and barren landscape in the 1940's and 50's!

Becky and Dave at windows of the Telstra Tower overlooking the core of the city of Canberra.

A few more images on the road southward

I'm adding a few more just to give you a bit more of the flavour of the town of Kangaroo Valley.

Yes, they also have a sense of humor.

"Southern," as in Australia, and "Pies" as in meat pies.  Yum!

Nothing like a good cup of coffee on a sunny café deck to get the morning started!

I could really get used to this retirement thing.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Going South . . .

. . . to the Kangaroo Valley and on to Canberra.

Saturday, July 27, we drove through Sydney and down more of the beautiful coastline, stopping to admire the many mountainous headlands and the surf crashing on large shelves of sandstone from which fishermen cast their baits into the sea. For all its beauty, that is a very dangerous place to fish! As we proceeded down the coast we passed through several beach towns stopping at one to eat our picnic lunch and watch the surfers catch a few waves. It was another beautiful sunny day gradually changing to broken clouds as we traveled southward. Along the way we also drove up to a very high escarpment to have coffee, tea and cake at a lovely little place called Cliffhangers. That name is descriptive of the location as the deck of the restaurant literally hangs over the cliff's edge with a dizzying view downward... if one cares to look.

Not long after, we took the fork in the road that began shifting us a bit more inland, terminating our day's travel with a winding road down into a beautiful green valley rimmed with sandstone cliffs that led us to the town with the valley name: Kangaroo Valley. It is a small but popular town for the travelers with a picturesque one-lane bridge and some very nice little shops and cafes including a woodcraft shop where the young wood-worker was selling hand-crafted toys and doll houses, bowls, clocks, housewares and the most beautifully carved rocking horses I've ever seen.

The next morning we drove out into the valley a ways to see the verdant forests and ranch-land before continuing on southward to Canberra, the capitol city of Australia. Bob and Cheryl had gotten us all a special rate on very lovely rooms in a fine hotel. We timed our arrival in order to participate in a special choral evensong at All Saints' Anglican Church, a beautiful little sandstone church building with a unique history. Wonderful music, song, and an excellent and timely homily by the Rev. Michael Faragher made it a very meaningful time of worship for us all.

Today, Monday, we spent the middle of the day at the Australian Museum of War, undertaking a 90 minute tour lead by a very knowledgeable volunteer guide who took care to remind us that the museum, while very much a part of the nation's history, is filled and focused particularly on the stories of the men and women who fought for and alongside their country. The wars and conflicts in which Australians have been engaged, even before officially becoming a nation in 1901, have been many and in places we may not have noticed.  We had people in our tour group from Australia, of course... including a father and son who had come to donate to the museum photos, equipment and medals of a father and grandfather who had fought in WWII and the Great War (WWI), respectively. We Americans, a couple from South Africa, and a couple of young men from Nepal rounded out our group. Our guide did a wonderful job of pointing out various portions and personal stories connecting all of our various nations to Australian wartime history. It is clear that these military struggles have been a strong factor in establishing the Australian national psyche and identity in the world today.

We'll be touring the National Museum of Australia before leaving Canberra and will have more to say about that, I'm sure.

The magnificent eastern coast of Australia.  We saw surfers at various small beaches all along the way.
Fishermen cast from shelves of sandstone rock over which waves wash depending on the tide.  Very dangerous!

Lunch while enjoying the view and watching surfers and families play on this nice sunny winter day.

Coffee and cake at Cliffhangers.  We had driven up from the beaches far below.
Bob and Becky had the lemon meringue.  Cheryl had scones and I had the black forest cake.  All to drool for!

The one-lane Hampden Bridge at one end of the town of Kangaroo Valley.

It was a very small town, but a great place to stop for the night. 
Be sure to check out the magnificent rocking horses at the Wood Gallery.  The ones you see here are the "lower end."

Fitzroy Falls at a roadside park along the way out of the Kangaroo Valley.

One of the farms on the floor of the Kangaroo Valley.  Lots of dairy, and even a vineyard!

The Kangaroo Valley is not all flat!  Note the sandstone cliffs at the valley rim.

 

All Saints' Anglican Church actually began life in 1863 as a mortuary in a different place.  When the mortuary was going to be razed, someone had the vision to see further use.  The building was deconstructed stone by stone and rebuilt at its current location in 1958.  The interior is lovely wood and stone.  The Even Song service was wonderful!

 

The park view from our room at the Royal Crowne Plaza.

From a high viewpoint one can see the purposeful design of the capitol city, Canberra.  The green-domed brown structure in the foreground is the Australia War Museum looking down the monument-lined avenue across the lake past the old parliament building to the new Parliament Building beyond.

The large valley around Canberra gives one the clear sense that Australia is a big land!

One of two long memorial walls (the other is to the right of the large patio below) listing the fallen in all the country's conflicts and wars since before Australia was a commonwealth nation. 
This was at the beginning of a very informative 90-minute tour.

Bondi on my mind . . .

Today was an "at home" day, so we drove through the city (Sydney) to Bondi (pr. bond.eye) Beach on the south coast.  There is a surfaced path all along the headlands of that area, so we set out to walk about 6 kilometres south to Coogee.  The views were some combination of spectacular, stunning, and just plain breath-taking.  Of course, the sun was shining in the clear blue sky and lots of walkers and runners were using the path, although not so many as will be on the weekend.

Every beach along the way had an ocean-side salt-water pool built at one end among the tidal rocks in such a way that the waves would keep washing "new" water into the pool where people were swimming.  One bay even had a natural long channel running inland about 100 yards where people were swimming in the swells generated by the tidal waves.  Some people were even swimming out in the open ocean and among the surfers waiting to catch a wave.

We actually walked through several communities on the way, each with its own shape of bay or beach that dictated the path and the amenities and activities that were available... and there were many very nice facilities and beaches.  One community of note is Waverley... due to its massive cemetery covering "quite a few acres" and coming right to the walkway above the beach.  This has got to be some of the most expensive real estate in Sydney.  And some of the graves looked to be pretty old.  There were even a few substantial above-ground family vaults near the beach, which caused my "Far Side" theological bent to wonder if they were all having a party in there.

As the Aussies would say, it was a brilliant day... with lots of sunshine, too!  If this keeps up, Becky and I will return home with far better tans from wintering in Australia than we've ever had from summers in the Pacific Northwest!

Unfortunately, we cannot show you many of the magnificent vistas we enjoyed throughout the walk because I forgot to charge the camera battery yesterday... way to go, Dave!  It died with the third picture of Bondi Beach at the beginning of the walk.  I tried using the photo function of our DV camera, but it only produces low resolution shots.  So, I am attaching only a small number of shots from the day.  Sorry about that. 

(I've also added some shots Bob took as we arrived at Coogee.  I know.  It's a tough life, but somebody has to do it!)

Whatever the case, please accept my strong recommendation that you be sure to do some of the Bondi Beach walking trail if you ever visit this area.

Bondi Beach on a beautiful winter day.

Looking down the length of Bondi Beach... lots of surfers out for a Friday. 
(The bad news: my camera battery died with this last shot, so I had to resort to low res shots with the video cam.)

 

It is a beautiful rocky sandstone coastline.
(This is a low resolution shot with the DV cam)

 

Becky looks out over the Pacific from the walkway high above the rocks and surf at Waverley.
Note the very large cemetery off to the right.  It extends back up the slope to the right for several acres.
(This is a low resolution shot with the DV cam)
 

Bob shot this from the beach at Coogee... if you look carefully at the two figures standing up in the park at the left center you will discover that they are Becky and me, just coming down the path and stopping to take a picture.

Arrival at Coogee!  What a beautiful day to walk the coastal pathway!

Nothing like a good lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel overlooking the beach.  Great burger and fish and chips!
Did I mention that this is winter in Australia?

Looking on down the beach at Coogee.  There were actually a lot more people around than this photo would indicate.

Return to Sydney

On returning to Sydney from the Red Centre we were treated to our first daytime look at the city from the air.  Then we beat the traffic by having dinner downtown while all the working folks slogged home on the jammed roads.  The walk around Circular Quay afterward was lovely, if a bit cool.  But that didn't stop us from getting ice cream!

Best shot.  Bob caught this one from his side of the plane as we were on approach.
All of downtown Sydney with the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House to the left.

The iconic Sydney Opera House was almost ghostly in the lighting.

The end of Circular Quay, normally bustling but now a bit slow on a cool winter Wednesday evening.

Sydney Harbor Bridge over which we would be driving home. 
Sorry about the small wiggle... I didn't have a tripod.

A few more images from the Australian heartland...

Some random images from our travel to the region also known as the Red Centre . . .

Did I tell you that it gets cold at night?  ... at our first night dinner and stars presentation.
The offered fluffy ponchos made Bob and Cheryl look like Obi-Wan-Kenobi.

Sunrise steals across the land . . .

. . . and once again paints the canvas that is Uluru.

Uluru as we hike along its base.

The Kantju Gorge at Uluru. 
When it rains the falling water creates dark streaks of sediment in the side in the rock. 
There is another large waterhole at the bottom of this fall.

Some of the flora of the area... (We don't know all the names)

Honey Grevilleas

More of the bushland around Kata Tjuta.  The low grassy cover is Spinifex, very useful in the ecosystem of the land. 
The red gum trees provide many resources for the aboriginal people.  You can see the effects of a controlled burn.

More of Kata Tjuta.

Desert Oak (not like ours at home!) at sunset with Kata Tjuta in the background.

Sunset again comes to the land.

Tourists!  Enjoying drinks and nibbles while watching for the sunset colors to appear on Kata Tjuta.