Between Sydney and Canberra is some of the most beautiful, rolling hill country that we’ve seen yet. Most of this country reminds us a lot of the California foothills. There are, however, some things that are a bit different - like this sign along one of the rest stops.
Due to a late start out of Sydney and some lolly-gaging along the way, we didn’t get into Canberra until 6:30 pm, but we were able to navigate ourselves right to Liz and Mike’s place without any problems. Liz is Harry Jekel’s half sister and this is where we shipped Heather off to before New Years. Liz and Mike had generously offered to put us up while we’re in Canberra and were waiting with a welcoming barbeque when we finally arrived. They have a beautiful house on the outskirts of Canberra that overlooks the rolling hills that abound in the area.
For those who don’t know, Canberra is the Australian National Capitol City set up in it’s own territory, the A.C.T., much the same as our Washington, D.C. It’s a purpose built city designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin in the early 1900's. It’s a beautiful city, well planned and furnished with outstanding architecture in varying styles. Excellent use has been made of landscaping so that nearly every building stands on it’s own, screened from adjacent buildings by stately trees. The river that ran through the original site was ‘damned’ to form Lake Burley Griffin in the heart of the city.
In this photo you can see the fountain in the middle of the lake, the and National Library to the right.
On the first day, Mike took us on a motor tour of the Foreign Embassy compounds in downtown Canberra. The Georgian Architecture of the American Embassy complex set on a large rolling hillside was the most stunning of all the Embassies. It made us proud to be Americans.
Our trusty tour guide, Mike, continued the tour with a trip up Black Mountain to the Telstra Tower which provided a breathtaking 360 degree view of all of Canberra. This is Heather J, Mike and I having a snack high up in the Telstra Tower.
We then toured the new and old Parliament Houses with Heather J. The new house was remarkably similar to the new Parliament House that we toured in Darwin - we wonder if that’s deliberate. On the second day, Mike took us all around to see various state buildings including the High Court, National Library, National Art Gallery, and the War Memorial. We had tired feet at the end of that day! This is the view from the entry to the war memorial back along the ANZAC Parade to the new Parliament House.
After breakfast with everyone at the Mt Stromlo Observatory on the following day, we headed off for the Summer Nationals at the Exhibition Park. We have been following this event via the internet for the past two years and timed our visit to Canberra to coincide with it’s occurrence. The event itself is billed as the country’s tribute to performance street cars of all vintages, and, being a fan of performance street cars of the ‘60's era, I was naturally intrigued. As we approached the Exhibition Park, traffic was snarled to a dead stop - it was a sign of things to come. In the seemingly endless line up that crept through back country dirt roads on the way to one of many parking arenas, I managed to pick up a hole in one of my brand new rear tires.
The background is not a car wrecking yard, it’s the parking lot!! There were well over 100,000 people with their cars there. The average age appeared to be about 25 yrs and most could be best described by the Australianism, hoons. This is a pejorative term to describe someone that is loud, offensive and overly attached to cars with similar personalities. Now we have no objection to loud, mean cars, but we do have a problem with people of that description. The grounds were littered with empty beer cans and other rubbish. The 100,000 or so people were crowded along a single lane cruising road where cars were moving in both directions. The crowd was exhorting the drivers to light up their rear tires in a smoking burnout displays which where carried out despite the close proximity of pedestrians and rules to the contrary. Groups of hoons were also loudly exhorting any female passengers in the cars to bare their chests for general public view and many did so! Again, I have no particular objection to such displays, but the drivers of other cars is the heavy traffic and close press of on lookers were visibly and understandably distracted. Order was barely kept by an Army of security officers and regular police who were quite obviously out numbered by rowdies. The main exhibition grounds were little better with vehicles sliding through grass course events separated from the observers by little more than flimsy barricades. The crowding was unbearable! It was difficult to see any of the events or the cars that cruised around the grounds in an unending line. As the day wore on and pile of empty beer cans grew deeper, the crowd seemed to take on a wilder, meaner aspect. It was time to go. This is one of the few photos that I was able to take through the crowded avenue. Note the ranks of shouting young men and overcrowded passengers on the pickup truck. Nice Cobra replica though!
We have seen lots of car shows in our time, but nothing prepared us for the sheer pandemonium of the Summernats. It’s amazing to us that no one seems to get hurt at this event and that the local media portrays it as a clean, under control event. Maybe we’re just getting to old to enjoy the crowded, raucous, "up front and in your face" sort of venue that is the Summernats. We cut off our planned two day participation to just the one and gave the finals on Sunday a miss.
On the next day, at Liz and Mike’s suggestion, we went with Heather to see the Deep Space Tracking Center just south of Canberra. This is one of only three such centers established by NASA to keep in touch with it’s various projects. It was originally set up, along with similar stations in California and Spain, to track the early orbital missions and later the missions to the moon in the ‘60's. Now it’s used to track deep space probes to the outer planets and beyond. The visitor’s center is full of NASA mementoes including old space capsules and moon rocks - very interesting to spaceophiles like us! A guided tour of the facility by one of the staff provided some insights into the facility’s operation and the missions that it is participating in. Good old American tax dollars at work!!
That afternoon, we all packed a picnic lunch and went to watch/listen to a performance of the National Carillon at Lake Burley Griffin. The Carillon is a bell tower with 56 bells whose gongs are connected to an organ-like instrument by steel cables. The instrument is then played by the musician and the sound of the bells can be heard all around. The music can be anything written for other instruments or pieces written specially for the Carillon. The Carillon in Canberra is constructed on a small island in Lake Burley Griffin which is connected to the mainland by a foot bridge. The area all about is park land with trees and lawns - a beautiful setting! In summer there are daily performances and this one included a flute and tin whistle to accompany the Carillon. It was delightful to listen to the music, munch on our picnic lunch, sip a little wine, and enjoy each other’s company.
The next several days were filled with a visit to the National Dinosaur Museum, getting Heather J off to Melbourne and preparations for our departure into the Australian Highlands. It’s been very enjoyable to stay with Liz and Mike and they’ve been wonderful hosts, but our feets is itch’n for the road again. Amid heartfelt thanks, warm good-byes, and a promise to return on our way back to Sydney for the Olympics in September, we charged out of the nation’s capital with the mist covered peaks of Mt Kosciuszko framed in the windscreen.