The Nation's capital

We arrived in Canberra, tired after the very slow trip from Thredbo. The viscose hub was not locking the fan in so the engine was over-heating, making the trip very tedious, however the kids were very good about it. We would read stories at each stop we made to cool the engine. And finally we arrived, weary and desperate to get out of the van. We booked into the South Canberra caravan park - I wouldn't recommend it as a tourist destination.


After driving around in the rain and a couple of tries we stumbled across a mechanic that could fit the van in. Meanwhile, we visited the library and the Dickson shops and went Banana's at the fruit shop.











Canberra has so many things to see; we started with the War Memorial, where the children were extremely well behaved and soaked up the was histories. B1 was particularly interested in trench foot. youch!

We climbed to the top of Parliament House (well actually you can't climb all the way up anymore- so we took the lift and walked across the top) and rolled down the grass. Did you know the flag on top is as big as a double decker bus!!

Next we made our won money at the Australian mint, and saw one of the strongest robots in the world. Mum particularly liked the cascading staircase made of 5c pieces and blanks.

Questicon was very impressive, there is so much to do we actually got worn out in there. they have an amazing pendulum that shows you the revolution of the earth, fascinating. B1 had another turn, or 3, of the vertical slide, not quite as high as Bendigo's but just as fun.

Mum bought freeze dried icecream, which we gobbled up in no time. Yummo!! Bizareo!!

From Mt Ainslie lookout we were ablt to see the remarkable town planning of Canberra with the view showing the Memorial across to Parliament House.

Rain stopped us from going to the planetarium and Black Mountain Tower. But.....

We met the queen







and Nikki lost ... another tooth!

The flood waters started encrouching from Queenbean, so we took leave, after driving down the street mum used to live on - Kinleyside Cres and going to her favourite bakery - although long since changed hands, however we found an equally nice baker who filled our arms with free goods and sent us on our way. (He was sad he couldn't deliver the delicous long jam and cream filled doughnuts mum remembered.)

Mum suggested she liked Canberra much better as a tourist, but that it hadn't been bad living there as a nanny.