- Australia - Part 11 0 views
- Australia - Part 10 435 views
- Australia - Part 9 396 views
- Australia - Part 8 412 views
- Australia - Part 7 427 views
- Australia - Part 6 411 views
- Australia - Part 5 415 views
- Australia - Part 4 419 views
- Australia - Part 3 420 views
- Australia - Part 2 - let the adventure begin! 0 views
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- August 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- November 2010
- December 2010
- January 2011
- February 2011
- March 2011
- April 2011
- May 2011
- June 2011
- July 2011
- August 2011
- September 2011
- October 2011
- November 2011
- December 2011
- January 2012
- February 2012
Wednesday March 3, 2010
Greetings from Canberra,
Yesterday we arrived back in Hobart after a crueling 4 1/2 hour drive from Strahan. This drive took us through the mountains and consisted of an endless winding series of narrow roads making conditions, particularly for the passenger, very uncomfortable. However, we arrived about 2:30 in the afternoon with cloudless skies and temps back in the mid 20s - very pleasant! After unloading the car we immediately set out to walk into town to relief some of the tension of the drive, a walk of about 20 mins. Hobart has a population of about 160,000 with a beautiful downtown core centred around its harbour. It has a thriving fishing industry but also accomodates pleasure craft of all types and the odd cruise ship (see pics). Dotted around the harbour are restaurants and bars and a large number of establishments serving fish and chips - an Aussie specialty, plus many other varieties of sea food.
Today we left Hobart and flew to Canberra, the nation's capital, a flight time of about 1 1/4 hours. Canberra is situated between Sydney and Melbourne and was first established as the capital city in 1913. It is actually Australia's smallest Territory known as the ACT or Australian Capital Territory and has a population of about 350,000. We found it to be an extremely well organized and laid out city with wide roads but absolutely no sign of any commercial enterprise. We found this very strange, particularly since we were looking for a supermarket. Even the so called City Centre had little resemblance of such, except a few banks. I'm sure that once one learns where things are this concept is pretty good but for a visitor we found it very difficult. In our opinion we felt the city lacked the sort of heart beat found in Melbourne and Sydney and most other major cities. Before returning to our Motel we drove around Capital Hill visiting both the old and new Parliament Houses (see pics).
Tomorrow we will say goodbye to our friends Gordon and Wendy Haywood and set off to drive the 313 Km to the Blue Mountains; a journey we expect will take us about 5 hours. We will be staying in the small town of Katoomba for 3 days where we plan to explore the area and take a few hikes - stay tuned!
David and Barbra
