Canberra

9th January - After being beaten up all night by boys (Al slept with I and Rach with C) we packed car, jumped on the jumping pillow and played on playground before heading off to Canberra (south to Batemens Bay and then turning inland). We stopped pretty soon to pick up some caffeine and the cafe shack was full of great Aussie photos including the one below of a wild pig shot after it ate all the farm dogs. (Any one remember the film Razorbacks??)

After 50km we saw a sign for Pebbly Beach and as it is legendary for its sunbathing and surfing kangeroos we thought we would investigate. The road soon turned into a dirt track and was 8km long with eucalyptus trees and palms lining each side. On the the walking track from the car park there was a huge Iguana chilling out under bush which Rachel and Isaac were told off for getting to close to "He may be old but he's aggressive and bites." I & R were unphased and carried on snapping photos.

The beach was so lovely that we ditched our lunch plans at the wildlife centre and decided to stay here.

I & R were popping the beautiful blue seaweed bubbles until they realised they were dried up bluebottles (very painful stinging jellyfish). I & C played trucks with Daddy and then it was time for lunch. R,I & C sat at picnic table whilst A got food from car and by the time he'd joined us, the boys had heated up both BBQ plates so we had cheese toasties and cooked tomatoes, whilst boys dipped rice crackers in a jar of peanut butter.

Winnie the Pooh

An Italian Australian family pitched up to picnic next to us we were slightly embarresed by our absense of plates and our stick knives but the boys had soon scrounged a drink and packet of crips.

The road to Canberra was a real treat with a windy single lane with 180 degree bends up through rainforest. It then opened to grassy plains strewn with round granite rocks and plenty of dead wombats on side of road. We stopped to refuel in Braidwood which felt like the back of beyond despite being on the main road from the East Coast to the Capital. 'Braidwood FM bought to you by the Livestock and Pest Control Authority! Playing the best of 50's & 60's music, "Yee Haa!"" Its worth noting at this point that Australian radio is hilarious. A lot of it is amateur community radio based on phone-ins on the most obscure topics or just "Tell us what yur up to". All sorts of people phone in - mostly just for a chat with the DJ, who they often appear to know. It is very entertaining and bizarre although the music played is invariably on the Country side of Easy Listening which does get a little wearing. We arrived in Canberra having been just bowled over by landscapes we had driven through.

We are becoming experts on cabins and the Canberra Motor Village served up the best to date - a Jayco Deluxe 2 bedroom model with reverse cycle heating and cooling - really top of the range!

10th We had been cold during the night and Rachel had woken up with a very stiff neck which would last for several days. Having been on the coast since arriving in Australia we were not used to the drop in temperature at night and forgotten to switch the heating on.

The Questacon National Science and Technology Museum had been recommended to Al in Sydney, was our main excuse for coming to Canberra and on the agenda for today. It was the best exhibiton for kids that we have ever been to.

Driving in Canberra is very easy as it is planned city with wide and well signed roads and the city has a feeling of being deserted as it is overly large for its population so we had soon arrived at the (enormous) car park.

Before we even got inside and bought tickets there were numerous hands-on displays - a large marble ball floating on a jet of water, a hand print heat sensor etc etc. Isaac and AL even went in for a 30min presentation on rockets were Prof Yuri Blashtov launched 30 rockets in 30mins. These ranged from pumped up air toys to impressive hydrogen powered explosions and multistage rockets. Al & Isaac reckoned with a little time in the garage we could get Charlie airborne - although the presentation did not cover landings.

The main Museum was split into 6 galleries each covering a scientific field such as Size and Measurement. Everything was hands on and Al had the unpleasant experience of jumping off a 7 metre high tower (the height of a 2 story house) onto a curved slide that caught him and broke the fall. The video captures well the guttural groan associated with the decelleration.

Charlie is 8 hands high and Isaac can throw a tennis ball at 37kmph.

Who eats who?

How hard does a python squeeze?

We had arrived midmorning and they kicked us out at closing timing which is an indication of just how much there was to see and do for the kids.

Surprisingly after such a busy day the kids were an absolute nightmare to get to bed and finally settled at 6am!!!

11th After the previous disasterous night we had a quiet morning in the swimming pool chatting with a very pleasant but rather rural South Australian couple who had driven the 13 hours to Canberra for a wedding. The boy were quite happy "surfing" and splashing.

In the afternoon we drove to the Australian War Memorial which turned out to be only 5 minutes away and an extensive museum. The parkland and steps leading to the museum were, as everything appears to be in Canberra, unnecessarily large. This did give room for several enourmous naval guns and bronze status.

This is John Simpson Kirkpatrick who became famous amongst the troops at Galipoli for bring water in and casulties out on his donkey during the heaviest fire but he only survived four weeks.

The view to Parliament House.

The main part of the museum was split into sections on the WWI, WWII and Vietnam with the most interesting items being scale models of the important battles. The photo below shows a small section of a 6 foot square model of the battle at Mont St Quentin 1918.

The most striking thing of this part of the museum is the importantance of Galipoli in Australian history. The anti-British sentiment in the Mel Gibson film was not evident in any of the displays.
In the large ANZAC hall there was a great light and sound show of a bombing running over Germany in 1943.

A Kittyhawk.

The best bit without doubt was the discovery zone where the kids could get hands on and in a WWI submarine, a Vietnam helicopter and a WWI trench. This was fantastic fun for everyone!

Daddy, what did you do in the war?

Not many submariners suck their fingers....

In the end we were kicked out at 5 and listened to a short reading by the memorial and then a piper played a Scottish lament which was quite a dramatic (and atonal) ending to the visit. On the way back to the car Isaac managed to trip over and hurt himself on the statue of Australia's most famous Red Cross worker which seemed slightly ironic. The piper then appeared and confirmed our feeling the Canberra is very under populated and a well kept secret.

The view from parliament house

We then over indulged at an Italian restaurant and tried to drive the children to sleep. The parks around the lake which divides the cities north and south are beautiful and contirubute to a the feeling that the city is deserted. We came across this memorial to refugees that drowned attempting to get Australia when their boat sank. Each post represents one of the 146 children, 142 women and 65 men that drowned.

12th Today was a travel day to the Snowy Mountains but we called in at the Australian National Museum before leaving Canberra. This museum seemed a little low key after the last few and was predominately to do with the Aborignal and Torres Strait Island peoples. Sometimes the Australian attitude to the indigenous peoples seems a little confused with the public/political stance on how to demonstrate respect for The Dreamtime and rights at conflict with the views of most Australians. Anyway when you're knackered there are only so many boomerangs and stone implements that you can look at so we didnt stay too long. The museum shop was excellent and unlike such shops in the UK full of interesting and well price memorabilia.

The journey to Jindabyne was another epic drive and quite hard to describe.

Jindabyne is in the Snowy Mountains and is mainly a ski resort servicing the nearby Koziosko mountain and is next to a very large (~14km) man made lake created for hydro-electric power.

Another excellent Jayco cabin but after a long afternoon in the car the boys were again very hard to get to sleep. Charlie ended up sleeping with us and he is not a good bed pal.