Not that we really need an excuse, but we like to go away for the weekend to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Now that we are retired, it doesn’t have to be on a weekend, but we still think of them as weekends away.
For Joy’s birthday, we went to Canberra. We hadn’t been there for quite some time, so were looking forward to seeing what, if anything, had changed. And there was a reasonable bit, as it turned out.
We left Sydney on Sunday morning, down the M something (I can never remember what number goes where), heading south-west. Lunch was at a rest stop (Black Bob’s Creek, near Sutton Forest) that had lots of eucalypts that were still in flower – heaven for Joy.
As usual, we were staying in a place that is self-contained, so would be cooking for ourselves for some of our meals. So, before we could go to our accommodation, we had to do some grocery shopping. We did that at Belconnen – the shopping centre there is pretty impressive (or at least it is bigger than Joy was expecting).
As we were sitting in the lounge relaxing, we saw we had some visitors.
Les cooked hamburgers for dinner the first night, but not on the BBQ, as it looked a bit dodgy. But that was really the only problem with the accommodation, as long as you don’t mind décor with character.
Next morning, we walked up the hill to the main house for breakfast – cereal, juice (freshly squeezed orange juice), bacon and eggs, toast, coffee and tea. It always tastes better when someone else cooks it!
Then our first tourist attraction for the day – Cockington Green.
Cockington Green itself is now much bigger than last time we had been there. It was fun to walk around and try to find the little “clever” things they have put in.
And to see the international area.
After Cockington Green, we went back to Belconnen to have coffee with a mate of Les’ from when Les lived in Canberra. It was good to catch up with him, as we hadn’t seen him since our wedding! If you think you know someone who has a coffee problem, get this – Paul gets his coffee in a milkshake container with 4 shots of coffee!
After coffee, we wandered down to lunch, which we had at a restaurant on the banks of Lake Ginninderra in Belconnen. We needed some sustenance, as we had more touristy things to do in the afternoon.
It was back to near Cockington Green (there are many more things in that area now), and to the Walk In Bird Aviary. We both love trying to spot different types of birds when we are on our trips, so this was great, because the birds were everywhere! We had some apple slices that we could use to tempt the birds nearer. What we found, though, was that the birds know you have food, and you get mobbed as soon as you go inside!
Some of the birds were really taken with Les – they started preening his hair and beard! I’m not sure Les liked it much – or maybe it was just ticklish?
There were the usual suspects (rainbow lorikeets and other parrots). But also some finches and a white parrot of some sort.
That was enough for the day, so it was back to the train for resting, and a light dinner since we’d had a good lunch.
Next day (after another cooked breakfast – yum), we went into the centre of Canberra to Questacon. This was Joy’s only essential tourist attraction, as she had never been there. We spent a few hours there, and had great fun.
Lunch was a picnic on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin. We were lucky enough to see the water jet start up.
We wonder how they decide when it works and when it doesn’t? And also, where are all the people? Canberra looks empty.
Our last tourist attraction for the day was the National Zoo. Now we know that it isn’t very old, and they are still working on it, but it was a disappointment – certainly not value for money. Still, we did see some nice animals, even if they weren’t very active.
The next day was our last – we had to leave before Barack Obama arrived. So, after another cooked breakfast, we headed off towards Braidwood. Just before Braidwood, we turned north to take the back road to Nowra. It was a nice drive. Only problem was, as we got closer and closer to Sydney, the weather got worse and worse. At least we had lovely weather until then.
It was a lovely few days away. Maggie punished us for leaving her alone, though, by jumping up on the tables and benches, and scratching the furniture – things she doesn’t normally do when we are around (we are perfectly aware that she probably does those things when we are not there). For those who might worry, Maggie got visited by a cat-sitter, so we aren’t horrible to her.
