Mriga Williams: Afternoon in Canberra

When we started off to Canberra it was a nice cool cloudy day and better for driving long distance than a hot summer day with bright sun and blue skies. As we got out of Sydney, the clouds were a little darker and it looked like rain on the horizon. By the time we reached that horizon we did find the rain. Not particularly heavy rain but from light to heavy drizzle most of the way till we got off the Hume Highway and on to the Federal Highway. This road is also called Remembrance Highway as there are rest stops along the way that have memorials for various Victoria Cross holders.

The road runs around Lake George. Lake George is in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, 40km north of Canberra. This is a vast lake, 25 km by 10 km in size. This lake fills and empties of its own volition. Over a year ago, on my visit to Canberra this lake was more than half full. We could see the some cattle grazing at one end of the lake but water was not much further away. This trip the lake was totally empty as far as the eye could see. There is a long line of wind turbines that line the far side of the lake, along the hills. This area is pretty windy, as the wind seems to tunnel between the surrounding hills. At one of the rest stops, there is a plaque that tells travellers that in 1956 there was a boating accident and 5 cadets drowned. Another fellow traveller said that there was water in the lake at the very far end.

We drove into Canberra around 1 pm. The information centre is just as one enters the city. We stopped to find out where the Aboriginal Art Gallery was, since that was really the one I wanted to see. The National Australian Museum, the Sydney one, we had seen a while back. There was the Gold of the Inca exhibition but that was not free. On looking up the information about the Aboriginal Art Gallery, I found that it was a private gallery and one had to make an appointment to see it. Sad is it not that one cannot drop by and see the wonderful art of the local artists? One would think that it would bring in more people and therefore more sales if it was possible to just walk in. As a tourist, even with good intentions I find it a bind and restrictive if I have to decide and make appointments well in advance. What happens if I am late? Suppose I change my mind or am not well enough to go on the day and time the appointment is for?

London Road - tent city

London Road

So that put a kibosh to the plans for the afternoon in Canberra. Well we drove into the city centre which has 2 ring roads, the outer one is London Road and we went around it to find some parking. I must say it is not bad to find parking especially on a working day when there is no ‘festival’ happening in Canberra. We had seen shops and people just off the ring road, so wandered through the lanes and found the shopping mall. It is not very big but certainly looked new. There seemed a lot of space and places to sit and watch the world go by. Lunch was the thing on my mind so a quick wander around the food court to decide on some nachos in the Mexican. A nice, slow, long walk up and down the mall, to work out the kinks from the long drive, and a yummy ice cream was just a good way to spend the time.

Canberra Centro

Then it was time to venture out and look around. Seems we had just missed a weekend of ‘something’ as the lanes outside looked like tent city being dismantled. There are a number of sculptures around place and a lovely fountain. The wind was fairly cold and with the sun behind the clouds it was easy to shiver and forget this was summer, especially since I was in shorts and t-shirt.

Icarus

Icarus from another angle

Memorial Scuplture

Sculpture in front of Hall of Justice

Court of Arms on Hall of Justice

Sculpture in front of the Waldorf

My new best freind

This was a sheep sitting in a chair with the wasitcoat on one arm of the chair very nice.. am annoyed to think that I relied on someone to get this pic right!

Then we drove towards the bridge over Lake Burley Griffin that leads right to the parliament. Just before the bridge you can take the exit that leads to the lakeside. Still cold wind and no Sun meant a short stop. There is a view of parliament, the Telstra Tower, the National Museum building, and a nice monument to Captain Cook. The central fountain was not on today. It was nice to see some ducks wandering about, a lone fisherman waiting patiently to get that fish. Well that was it for Canberra trip and off we went to Goulburn.