Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra
Big male Kangaroo
Rest time in the Kangaroo Village
Burned out tree
Re-planting the forest
Hey Mate…..I dont want my picture taken!!!!
Michael’s favorite six pack!!!
Today, we intended to spend the day sightseeing, and started out our day with a 30 minute trip to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. We drove slowly and enjoyed the time spent in the pasture lands outside of Canberra. Much of this area was hit by the fires and we could often see the results. We stopped to take a photo of the sign for the nature reserve and then turned around and saw a mob of kangaroos and several emus just behind the other sign. It was such fun to see the kangaroos hopping across the paddocks.
We stopped at the visitor’s center and found out information about where the walks were located. We were told that, unfortunately, the fires had pretty much wiped out the reserve and they were just now getting it re-built. We drove to the main walk and spent about 30 minutes on it. You could see the areas where they were re-planting the trees and other plants, but, unfortunately, there wasn’t much to the walk. At one point on the Bush Wallaby Walk, Michael said “This reminds me of the line from Jurassic Park…..’and will there actually be dinosaurs on this tour’”. We got back in the car and started to drive out of the park, but stopped at a BBQ and park area and were fortunate to spot a large Emu. Michael was able to walk out very close to him and get some great photos, even though the Emu was giving anger warning signs through out the photo session.
We drove back into Canberra and drove along Lake Burley Griffin, enjoying reminiscing about our sailing days on the lake and looking for Black Swans (we finally saw one). We then headed up Black Mountain to the Telecom Tower (now called the Telstra Tower). We took the elevator to the top of the tower and spent a short time photographing Canberra.
We were both hungry so we drove to Cooleman Court Shopping Center, where I had done much of my weekly grocery shopping. Once again, it was in the process of being renovated and we were told hat our favorite Fish and Chips shop had closed only a year ago. We had lunch and walked around a bit. Michael was wanting to buy some wine for dinner and also to give away and was told that they had a buy 5, get 1 free sale, so he walked out with a 6-pack of wine….literally …there was a cardboard carrier to put them in.
Even though we wanted to spend more time looking around Canberra, it became apparent that we could not keep up the pace any longer so we returned to Brad and Jenny’s house and spent the afternoon, napping, reading and relaxing.