We don't do traffic!

Canberra on a Bank Holiday weekend is wonderful- very little traffic, but Sydney- that's another matter entirely. After visiting the museums in the capital we felt we should see the spot where James Cook stepped ashore in 1770, Botany Bay. Getting there was another matter, as the closer we got the more traffic we came across. Having got used to clear roads in our travels- on some roads we could go for an hour without seeing another vehicle- it came as a shock to the system.

Thoroughly shell shocked by the time we arrived, it was a real pleasure to step out of the car into the calm of the park and the visitor centre. Sitting down to watch a film, the only couple in a theatre built for 100, we relaxed.
The Endeavour was a small collier from Whitby, overcrowded with some 65 seamen, and 15 scientists on board. Sent out to witness an eclipse from Tahiti, his secret orders were to go on to investigate the East coast of 'New Holland', as Australia was known at the time.

Lieutenant Cook, as he was then, was not the first Englishman to step ashore, it was his nephew, Midshipman White, who held the cutter's bow for Cook to step ashore safely. They were met by natives, who were not entirely happy to see their territory invaded, Cook had to fire off pistols to keep them at bay. Their attempts to make friends were completely in vain, the trinkets they left for the locals went completely unheeded.

Over the next few days they collected wood and fresh water to replenish their stock, while the scientists marvelled at the variety of plants and animals that they had not seen before.The name Botany Bay came about because the botanist, Joseph Banks, collected many samples of flora and fauna that were completely unknown to European science. They stayed for eight days, during which time one of their scientists, Sullivan, died, and, having decided that the soil was not really suitable for crops, moved north to Port Jackson, now Sydney Harbour.

An interesting day, however we still had to travel to our accommodation at Penrith- the gateway to the Blue Mountains- a journey we shall draw a veil over.......

Who's watching us?

Apart from our friends and family we know are following our adventure, we are aware that we have viewers in Australia, Russia, Germany,The United States and Canada. We would welcome your comments, or any questions you may have, but in particular we would like to know who you are.
In the meantime- welcome to you all!

A Very Modern City

It was only in the 50s that Prime Minister Robert Menzies encouraged the city fathers to improve the infrastructure and amenities in the city, and he came up against quite a bit of opposition. However his doggedness resulted in a dam on the Lake Burley Griffin, to make it the grand water it is today.(See Location Below)
Nestling between the Central Business District and the Parliamentary and Embassy areas, the lake is a mecca for walkers, cyclists and boaters alike, an oasis in the centre of a busy metropolis. The views across the lake include the Parliament Buildings, the National Library and Museum, an international flag display,as well as Mount Ainslie and the Black Mountain.

We took a walk along the lake, 5k in total, from the Captain James Cook memorial, to the National Carillon.

The Cook Memorial is a Water Jet and a globe, to commemorate the bicentennary of his landing on the East coast in 1770, and was officially opened by the Queen.
The water jet, in the middle of the lake, reaches a height of 147 mtrs, displacing six tons of water each minute of operation.

Dodging the bikes, and the many runners on the wide pathway, we took in the sights along the way, the Commonwealth Park, Gallipoli Reach, HMAS Canberra memorial, which is one of the ship's anchors, and Blundell's Cottage, one of the few buildings that predate the 100 year old capital. Eventually we arrived at the Carillon, a gift from the people of Great Britain in the 60s, to commemorate the golden jubillee of the founding of the city. An imposing tower, the Westminster chimes ring out the quarters and the hours, but the carillon itself is only played on Sundays and special occasions, so we missed it.

Further along the lake is the National Museum of Australia, an ultra modern building which sits on a peninsula reaching out into the lake. With galleries such as 'Landmarks', which explores Australian history since European Settlement, and 'First Australians' which traces the experiences of the Aboriginal peoples, the museum took us most of the day to explore. Also containing an excellent temporary exhibition 'Travelling the Silk Road', the displays took us back 1000 years to experience the sights and stories of one of the greatest trading routes in history.

Tomorrow we move on again- north, we haven't yet decided where to!

Canberra-The nation's capital.

Dominating the centre of Canberra is the Parliament building, which sits a couple of hundred feet above the city and is visible from almost all of it. A very modern building, completed in 1988, the design is of five seperate parts connected by glass corridors, and with a roof mainly covered by well manicured grass. Above the centre of the building is a structure supporting a flagpole which is 250ft high, adding to the magnificence of the whole design.

Each building has a seperate purpose, one contains the house of Representatives, with 150 MPs who sit for about 72 days a year, another containing the senate, the equivalent of our House Of Lords, but all 76 of them are elected for six years at a time.

The Australian democratic institutions are modelled very much on the British Parliament, with a speaker in each house, a despatch box, even calling their records Hansard as we do. We had a great guide who was able to answer all our questions, we found the building and its processes fascinating.

We were able to go up on the roof, from where we had great views of the city, most of the institutions such as the museums and the government buildings are just a short distance away, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard's residence.

The Federal Capital  is where it is because it is fairly high up and enjoys a more moderate climate than many of the state capitals on the coast. In 1903 when the decision was made to join the six colonies together it was thought that there was less chance of disease at this altitude. But it still gets very hot in the height of summer, and the parliament building, the second one to be constructed here, was built with that in mind.

From the front of the building is a long avenue which leads up another hill directly to the War Memorial, an imposing building which not only remembers the Australian dead of many wars fought in the last two centuries, but houses one of the finest war museums in the world.

We spent a good three hours in the various halls, viewing the many dioramas which reconstructed the battles that the Anzacs had taken part in, from the Boer War to the Vietnam war. I could have spent much longer- there were a number of film presentations which were extremely well done in the larger halls, using lighting to show the aircraft and weapons used in the many wars.

We are here for three days- there is so much more to see in this marvelous city- and more to report. Watch this space.....

There's no catch- honest!

Been fishing today- seems there is a lot of trout and salmon in this lake, and I've been told the bait I've bought is the best available. Spent four hours with my very expensive rod (27 dollars) to no avail. I spoke to one guy who caught two great salmon and a trout on Sunday, but he hasn't had any luck today either!

I'm convinced there is no fish at all anywhere in Australia- or maybe they just don't respond to Poms!

Anyway, in the past couple of days we have travelled around this beautiful area, it;s quiet at the moment as most of the tourists come here in the winter for the skiing.There are some great runs up at Thredbo and Perisher, ( called that coz it's Perishing cold up there), but of course nothing doing at the moment,
The runs are as good as any I have seen in Europe, and are very well served with lifts.
The highest mountain in Australia is here, Mount Kosciuszko, weighs in at araound 8000ft. No prizes for guessing what nationality the guy was it was named after. We are told there was snow on it just a few days before we arrived, but we've been very lucky, we have had three of the hottest days we have had for weeks.

Lake Jindabyne is part of the Great Snowy River scheme, I remember hearing about it in the 50s when it started. They drowned the town of Jindabyne, and rebuilt a modern town above the lake. Then they cut a tunnel for some 50 miles to the Murray Catchment area, to use the snowmelt to irrigate the breadbasket of Austalia- the Murray valley. Unfortunately the flow of the snowy river has been badly affected, resulting in silting. However they have now realised their mistake, and are releasing more water into the Snowy, and conserving water in the Murray.

The lake has been at 100% in the past few weeks due to very heavy rainfall in the mountains here, they have had to reduce the height to it's normal 86%through the Snowy, and we have been so lucky in the past few days to see the Snowy at it's best.

Today we took a drive to Dalgety, a historic town about 30 miles away. There we saw a trestle bridge built in 1888, an amazing construction which really has stood the test of time. Bear in mind, that while the Snowy river is tamed nowadays by the dam and lake, in those days a great deal of water poured down this river during the snowmelt, and it has survived many floods.

But talking about bridges, the Aussies seem to have a ironic sense of humour, I fail to see there is a need for a "No Passing" sign on a single track bridge.....

The man (and woman) from Snowy River...

What a day! We knew when we left Lakes Entrance that we were in for an great day in the Snowy Mountains, but just not how exciting it would be. As we started to rise on the secondary road we passed by the Buchan Caves, and a few waterfalls, on the way to our objective- the Snowy River, and a 120k off-road section of the Barry Way.

We were almost there when we stopped at Seldom Seen Service station for a coffee. What a place! Along the side of the hill were about thirty cars in various states of disrepair, the petrol pumps were decorated with items of scrap metals, a 'sculpture' of cycles decorated two trees, and a couple of cars were arranged as a smash- again as 'art'.

Perhaps we should not have been surprised to meet Bryan, the proprieter, a larger than life Blackpudlian with a beard which almost reached his waist. We ordered coffee with a little trepidation, seeing inside the "cafe", which was just as untidy and dirty as it was outside, hardly a place to sit down that wasn't covered with what appeared to be scrap or rubbish.
He asked where we were headed, and when we told him, he told us that the road was closed because of water damage, and suggested another route. So out came the maps, he suggested a route which would take us at least twice as long as our original one. By then it was too late to turn back- we had already gone about 100k up the road, so we decided to go on the new route, which involved around 120k off road. As we arrived at the junction where we were due to turn of our planned route there was no notice to tell us that the road ahead was closed. There we spotted a local farmer just about to mount his horse, we asked him about the state of our original route. He told us it had been closed, however he had seen cars coming through in the past couple of days, so it may have been reopened. We decided to take the chance.
Shortly after that we we allowed a car and caravan to pass us, and almost at the same place a car and trailer came the other way. We were more hopeful, but they were the last two vehicles we saw until we were almost back on tarmac!

We continued to rise through the mountains.  Around every bend- when we dared to look as the road was narrow, very twisty, and had a sheer drop to our right, were views to die for. Shortly we arrived at the river, and what a wonderful sight! In flood at the momant after recent rains, and the release of water from an upstream dam, the water was flowing swiftly, twisting and turning through the valleys.
As we approached the many blind corners we proceeded very gingerly, if another vehicle had come round the opposite way there was no room to pass and if he couldn't stop........
However we were lucky and it didn't happen.

At one point we came across a 'Road Closed' sign, the road had opened up in a 6 ft deep chasm, washed away by floods. It would have been impassable had the local authorities not worked to make a short bypass. Extremely narrow, and still a deep drop down and up again we were very careful as we passed.

After a dull day yesterday, the weather has changed to bright sunshine all day, it was so hot that we had to have the aircon on for the first time for a few weeks, hopefully the sun will follow us all the way to Brisbane.

We drove some 50k along the Snowy River, still along mountain sides most of the way, but occasionally came across bush camp sites, offering little more than a deep drop toilet and a fire ring, except for the amazing views of course! All the way we saw no other people, and very few animals either, just a few lizards. Oh- except for a couple of 'Brumbys', a wild mare and it's foal which were wandering across the road. There must be hundreds of these here, the horse manure on the road was everywhere.

We were almost at the end of the gravel- just about to move onto tarmac again, when we came across a young couple who had had an accident, she was driving,- I think too fast- and had hit a pothole, burst a tyre, carreered across the road, up the bank and into a tree. Thankfully they were not seriously injured, and along with a local resident we got them back on the road, although their car was not driveable. I'm glad we didn't meet them further up!

We are now in a place called Jindabyne, a town which could have been transplanted from the Alps,with it's wooden chalets and ski shops, quite lovely. We'll have a couple of days here, and report later. In the meantime, a few more pictures for you.

Entering the lakes....

From the leafy avenues of Bright, the Great Alpine Road begins its ascent into the High Country, through ski resorts and spectacular views of the mountains. A popular year round resort area, Mount Hotham is Victoria's highest mountain at almost 8000ft. The ascent is awsome, narrow roads with hairpin bends, edges unguarded except for the trees, many of which have been burnt and are regrowing.

Signs exhort us to "Keep right of the red poles", should we defy them it is a very long way down!

As we descend we pass through Oleo, where Gold was discovered in the mid 1800s, attracting European and Chinese miners, becoming Australia's most lawless goldfield. The hotel there had been rebuilt no less than five times after fires, the last in the late twenties as witnessed by it's art deco frontage.

Our first sight of Lakes Entrance is from the hill as we descend to the river. The lake is actually a long lagoon, running almost 50 miles along the edge of the Tasman Sea, with sand dunes protecting it. The Gippsland Lakes, as they are called, team with fish, and as we descend we can see the fishermen casting their lines along the shore as well as from boats.

Along the esplanade we come to a footbridge across the lake to the dunes and  '90 mile beach', which, when the conditions are right, are a surfers paradise. 

Today we have travelled a few miles west along the lakes, passing through Bairnsdale to Paynesville, the boating capital of the Gippsland Lakes. It is surrounded by water on three sidesand is popular with windsurfers, jet and waterskiers who flock to it's easily accessible water.

The abundance of aquatic birdlife along this coast gave us the opportunity to take some excellent photos, many Australian Pelicans bask in the sun just offshore, as do egrets and cormorants.

But it is the majestic black swan that catches our attention as they fly over the lake, landing close to us and preening themselves. There are many hundred pairs in this area, they have distinctive white wing ends. The whole area is a birdwatchers paradise, and we have many great photos. 

Tomorrow we move again- who knows where?