EC-Rider Travels

After a delicious breakfast with Kellie-Anne and nice chat … we managed to extricate ourselves and headed off towards Canberra. We decided to take the scenic route, though Maude on Googlemaps perhaps took this a bit far and we went a little more scenic than intended! At one point, down a wonderful dirt track, reminiscent of New Zealand and one Mum would have loved.

It sadly led to a road-closure, but on the way a beautiful flock of galahs flew up in front of us with their pretty pink tummies – which was pretty special. We passed more wonderfully named places, I think today the winner being Burrumbuttock, although The Rock (not just Rock) and Gumly Gumly were not far behind. We went through miles of farmland, mainly arable and beef farms with fields stretching as far as you could see. They have small man-made lakes, known as dams, to catch rain water which is used as an additional water-source when things get dry. It is also a valuable source for the water-bombing helicopters used to put out fires. There are huge grain silos everywhere to store the vast quantities they are farming. Some of these have been painted and there is a whole art-silo-trail you can follow. Sadly none on Maude’s route.

The landscape then became much more hilly and the farming less intensive. We stopped at a place called Jugiong for a quick bite and a bit of retail and then on to Canberra. As we left and hit the main road, a wedge tailed eagle (enormous) flew over us. Apparently not uncommon here, but pretty spectacular and I think the biggest bird I have ever seen (with a wingspan of up to 2.3m!).

We arrived in the capital late afternoon and found the AirBnB apartment we had booked on the waterfront. This proved a bit of a challenge to get into but we eventually succeeded. The weather tried to take a nasty turn but failed and simply displayed the most beautiful rainbow over the water which we enjoyed while we had the most indulgent supper of arancini balls and halloumi and just a little Pino Gris!

Canberra is an entirely planned city created as a compromise following a long dispute over whether Sydney or Melbourne should be the national capital. It was designed by American architects, husband and wife, Walter and Marion Griffin who were selected after an international design contest. Influenced by the Garden City Movement, it incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation and water and is Australia’s largest inland city (eighth largest over all). It was formally named Canberra in 1913. It has a population of just over 450,000 and is home to the federal government, national monuments and museums which we look forward to exploring a bit tomorrow.