CANBERRA (Week 2)

16th October, 2014

This week we will be getting our culture fix and the first place we visit is the National Museum of Australia.  This is a modern building with (we think) the structure representing a giant lizard.  We walk past the Garden of Australian Dreams to the main entrance.  The garden is made up of maps and symbols where every step equates to 100 kilometres across the continent.

The Garden of Australian Dreams

In the foyer some different modes of transport are on display with anything relating to flying immediately attracting Wok’s attention.

Flying Machines in the foyer

The museum is a place that celebrates the Australian people, the places we live and past events.  From the First Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) to the modern day – there are stories to be told and lessons to be learned.  We wander through the galleries.  Sometimes we run across objects of our early childhood

The first holden model on display with a wagon and mining shovel

and sometimes we run across things that once roamed the land long before man set foot on the Australian continent.

A 'diprotodon' - sort of glad he doesn't roam the countryside now

The museum is located on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and from its windows we catch views of the lake. 

Views of Lake Burley Griffin from the museum

We take our time checking out each of the galleries until our little brains are on overload. Too much information can lead to brain freeze you know!   It’s back to the van for a late afternoon tea and a brain break.

Another day – another culture hit.  It’s off to the National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery.  Canberra has only recently converted many of its parking areas (including shopping areas) to paid parking – so we are getting used to carrying around two dollar and dollar coins for the pay stations.  The parking at these two galleries is no exception and it is hard trying to work out how much you need to pay as how on earth do we know how long we will be.  Honestly – the stress is just too much to bear! 

As no cameras are allowed in these galleries we are unable to post any happy snaps but we could take a photo of the sculptures outside.  So here is a one of a bunch of six foot pears.  Why?  Because it was there and we liked it!

A bunch of pears

As for the paintings and objects on display inside the buildings … well there were some we liked, some we didn’t like and some we are still not sure about.

We decided it was time for a bit of a drive in the country so we headed west out of Canberra and headed for Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, passing Cotter Dam on the way.  We stopped in at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

and were pleasantly surprised to find a small but jam-packed information centre with a theatrette and some hands on displays.

'Wok' the astronaut

We were amazed to discover that there were still some rovers trundling around on Mars.  These little rovers were only supposed to have a life span of 90 days but much to the scientists surprise (and delight) they are still active and gathering scientific information ten years later.

A large digital display was counting down the days, hours and minutes to the landing of a probe on a comet streaking through our solar system.

Glen (who works at the facility) saw our interest in the countdown and explained the way in which the probe was to latch itself onto the comet.  As this type of landing has never been attempted before the scientists were crossing their fingers and hoping all would go according to plan.  We asked Glen lots of questions about this comet and also about another comet that had (only the night before) scraped past Mars causing the whole complex to do an all-nighter.  This maybe explained why Glen was really excited about the whole ‘Mars and Comet’ thing as countless cups of ‘keep awake’ coffee will do that to you.  We spent a couple of hours at the complex and even had a great meal in the café.  We do like ‘space’ stuff and find it fascinating.  We’ve had a thoroughly enjoyable day!

The following morning we were sitting in the van when a knock came on the door.  Wok opened the door to find our friends Ken and Margaret Smith standing outside.  What a wonderful surprise!  They had just checked into the caravan park and were on a site on the other side of the amenities block.  They were off to the lookout at Black Mountain and were wondering if we wanted to go.  As we hadn’t yet been to Black Mountain we quickly got ready and everyone hopped in Mitzi and off we went.  The viewing area is part of the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain and only a few kilometres from the centre of Canberra

Telstra Tower at Black Mountain

From the tower one can get a 360 degree view of Canberra and the surrounding countryside.

Canberra from Black Mountain

After taking in the view everyone was keen to have a coffee and the first choice was to find something in the CBD but Margaret and Robyn decided that as they hadn’t been to Queanbeyan for over 40 years it might be nice to take a drive and find a coffee shop there.  Queanbeyan is a town in New South Wales but is only a few kilometres south of Canberra so it was no time at all before we were pulling into a parking space in the main street of Canberra and as luck would have it just outside a quaint coffee shop which had delicious coffee, superb hot chocolate and scrummy pastries.  Great afternoon tea – great company!

We took the scenic route back into Canberra and after a bit of going around in circles found the National Police Memorial. 

National Police Memorial

This memorial on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin commemorates all serving police men and women who have died.  We have come to see the plaque for Paul Daley (a friend) who passed away in 1995.

Ken, Wok and Margaret search for the plaque.

After a bit of a search we finally found the plaque.

The memorial has a wonderful view of the lake with the Carillon not far away – a nice peaceful place for us to remember an old friend.

View towards the lake from the National Police Memorial

It’s also a great spot for a photo op before heading back to the caravan park.

Ken and Margaret

In the morning Ken and Margaret are off to visit the War Memorial while we head out to have a look at Questacon – Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre.  Again we are confronted with the problem of paid parking.  How long do we pay for?  How long will we be?  It’s sort of like the ‘chicken and the egg’ thing.  In the foyer we are greeted by a ‘Shakespeare sprouting’ robot.

We wind our way up a spiral ramp to the top of the building and then slowly make our way back to the ground floor stopping in at all the galleries along the way.  The displays are set up for a real ‘hands on’ experience with perception and illusion sometimes getting in the way of scientific facts.  We liked the ‘tornado maker’

A tornado in the making

and Wok had fun making smoke signals with the ‘smoke machine’.

Wok has fun with the 'smoke machine'

A few hours later we were all ‘scienced’ out and as a plethora of schoolkids invaded the galleries and milled all around us we hightailed it out of the place.  Phew!  That was a close call.  We nearly became honourary grandparents to way too many anklebiters.

That evening we picked Ken and Margaret up from their campsite and went to Ainslie Football Club for dinner.  The club had been recommended to us by a guy in the office at the showgrounds and we would have to say that it surpassed all expectations.  The food was good and of course the company delightful.  In the morning we waved goodbye to Ken and Margaret as they headed off to Goulburn to visit some more friends.
Well our time in Canberra is coming to an end.  We will spend the weekend relaxing before checking out.  We have no idea where we are going next so we will look forward to our next blog to see where we end up …