Canberra is an unexpected capital city. It is purpose built, therefore it is well planned with spacious roads that are a pleasure to drive along, between nicely spaced out suburbs, each house on a 1/4 acre plot and parks and reserves of bushland maintained in between each suburb. In spring when I visited everything was lush and green with wonderful spring flowers and trees in blossom. I am told that it's not usually that green, and my visited happened to coincide with the arrival of the La Nina weather system, so much more rain than usual was experienced by all.
The Botanic gardens are impressive, home to all varieties of gum trees with their peeling bark that drapes over the branches as it falls off, like lameta on a Christmas tree. The colours of the bark vary from blue grey to silver, some so shiny that they look almost spray painted. As the sun warms the leaves they fill the air with a wonderful herby eucalyptus smell, especially strong after rain. I loved the Waratah flower, which looks like a waxy red or white powder puff. Most other native flowers seem to be small and delicate; hard, spidery looking branches are decorated with small delicate flowers, that are like a dusting of colour against the green of the leaves and branches.
Although most visitors to Australia would not spend more than a day in Canberra, if they visit it at all, it is well worth a visit to see the museums and the parliament house. Parliament house is architecturally interesting, sunken under a grassy hill with a good view from the top across the city to the war memorial and the mountains in the distance. Apparently the idea is that Australians can stand on the grassy topped roof right over the heads of their elected representatives.
The bird life is varied and noisy, it feels a bit like living inside a bird park. I was often woken with a start in the morning by the raucous screams of a sulphur crested cockatoo sitting on the telegraph line. When it sees someone looking it sticks up the yellow feathers on its head as if to say 'Look at me!' I also liked the red and blue Eastern Rosellas, brightly coloured little parrots that hop round foraging in the grass and make chuckling noises as if they are having a nice little chat to each other. I also enjoyed watching the spinefex pigeon, which is light grey and has a spike of feathers sticking up from its head and make it look like a businessman with a punk hairstyle. Of course, mention also has to be made of the many dangerous animals in Australia. I did see a couple of venomous snakes and a few large and threatening-looking spiders, but the worst experience has to be being dive bombed by an Australian magpie while I was riding a bicycle. Australian magpies are not related to European magpies, they are large crow-like birds that happen to have white on them. I was also hissed at by a swan and saw a duck attack a bicycle. They breed them tough in Australia!
5 minutes from a suburban street, Kangaroos inhabbit the golf course, watching the golfers from the trees during the day and coming out onto the course to take the evening air. They are a lot bigger than I was expecting, the biggest males have such powerful looking legs and are quite impressive when they are jumping along. I saw one with a joey in her pouch, though since both head and legs were sticking out I think the mother will soon be pleased when the joey decides to leave home! I feel bad putting this in the same paragraph, but it reminds me that I also had a few good meals involving kangaroo, which I thought was delicious, quite similar to beef. Kangaroo is a game animal, the meat is very lean so it's healthy, so it wins points on environmental impact as well as health and flavour.
From Canberra to Melbourne along the coast
The first view of the sea was at Merimbula for a walk along the golden sands and then onto Eden for the night. Eden has a small harbour and next to the harbour the road climbs up a steep hill to the lighthouse on the point for a view across Twofold bay, one the deepest bays in Australia and which had a long history of whaling. Local history tells of a group of Killer Whales that used to help the whalers by herding the humpback whales into the harbour and drowning them. When the carcass would sink for some hours the killer whales would guard the spot they sank until the carcass floated to the surface. They would be given the tongue and other bits of the humpback whale they favoured as a reward for their efforts.
Today fortunately the only whale-related activities which happen here are whale-watching cruises. Sailing out of the bay we saw a pod of dolphins swim alongside the boat and had a few sightings of a whale and her calf, the calf even treated us to a display by jumping out of the water several times, which was a spectacular sight.
The next stop along the coast was Malacoota, which is a simply beautiful place where the estuary meets the sea. At the main jetty where people were fishing, pelicans were sitting on the piles sticking out of the water, presenting a more statuesque figure than the usual old seagulls. When you are standing eye to eye with a pelican they look very large. Walking round to one of the headlands presented what I thought was probably the most perfectly situated picnic table in the world. The view of blue sky, pale sand and sparkling blue sea was simply stunning.
Leaving Malacoota I wondered how the next destination could live up to that experience, but Paynesville was attractive in a completely different way. Instead of beaches it had a harbour filled with little sailing boats and lots of waterways and natural canals between islands. The distance to Raymond Island is so short you feel you could reach out and touch the other side. It may in fact have been safer to swim, since the ferry captain seemed to be from the 'left hand down a bit, back a bit, whoa, we've hit it' school of navigational excellence, much to the disdain of the locals. The journey was worth the risk however, as the Island was a wonderful haven for wildlife. It is home to black cockatoos and all colours and sizes of parrots and parakeets as well as a considerable quantity of mosquitoes. The highlight of the island was koalas sitting in the trees along the main road. One was actually awake, and had a surprisingly long leg hanging down on one side of the branch. The koala lazily gazed down at me from his lofty height, clearly about to summon all his energy and drop out of the tree to launch a ferocious attack.
The following day featured stops in Port Albert and Welshpool and accommodation that night was at the Toora Tourist Park, (say that without singing it) Toora is a very quiet village with an antique shop and a small supermarket, and the Royal Standard hotel was the only place in the area which provided meals. It was a slightly shabby old-fashioned hotel/bar/restaurant and I was expecting typical pub-food, but was surprised and delighted to find gluten-free options available and a highly drinkable local sauvignan blanc called Djinta Djinta.
Since this was Australia, and the drought has broken, 4 days of fine weather gave way to one day of persistent and heavy rain. It did stop raining enough for a walk through the bush at Wilson's Prominatory. It was interesting to see how the trees were still black from a bad forest fire which had burnt through a couple of years' previously, but now the leaves were sprouting so the forest presented quite a contrast in black and green, rather than the normal brown or silvery colour of the gum trees.
Unfortunately the tops of the hills were still shrouded in clouds so we missed out on the spectacular views the guidebook promised, along with the enticingly named 'Squeaky Beach'. However, a flock of more than 20 emu grazing noisily on the grass at the side of the road was an impressive sight.
