Saturday, November 28th, Canberra and Surroundings
Bob: Karen had to work, so we drove off to tour some of the natural areas west and south of Canberra that we had just glimpsed from the mountaintop observatory during Wanderung 20. But first we stopped off at an Aldi store to get bottled water for the day plus some groceries for the next couple of weeks. Back on the road, we drove along Cotter Street first west than south through completely rural areas. The city limits of Canberra were surprisingly clear and abrupt compared to the uneven suburban sprawl found around most large cities in the U.S. Out in the boondocks we ran across a very modest, understated sign for a space museum at a satellite tracking station called the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex. Of course were intrigued by that and stopped off for look-see. |
Monika: After Karen left for work, we quickly signed into our email to check on "Kith and Kin", particularly our children and grandchildren, to let them know that all was well with us. After that we decided to drive out into the country the way Karen had suggested. First we drove over to the shopping mall to get some of the necessities, like water, coke, wine, and pretzels at the Aldi store [Editor's note: A balanced diet? Not!]. I also saw beach towels for only $9 and decided if we wanted to go swimming we absolutely needed them. After that it was off on Cotter Road driving to the west past the observatory that we had visited last time we were in Canberra (Wanderung 20). After a while Cotter Road turned south into a valley. The area was quite pastoral but also looked awfully dry. After the lush green everywhere in New Zealand, we were back to brown grass landscapes in Australia. 15 miles down the road was the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex. |
Bob: The installation turned out to be partly a NASA tracking station and partly an radiotelescope installation for exploring the cosmos. The museum had many models of spaceships plus a full-scale mock up of a Mars exploration vehicle, some space suits plus several films. I enjoyed two films, one on the one on the early history of NASA and another one on JPLs recent space probes. Since the countryside had been really deserted up to that point (and nobody does deserted countryside quite like the Australians!), and the museum had a cafe attached, we decided to play it safe and have an early lunch there. |
Monika: At the NASA tracking station they have a couple Deep Space Radio-telescopes to help with communications from space explorations. It is a joined venture between NASA and Australia. There were two Deep Space Telescopes: the biggest, appropriately called the "Big Dish", is truly astounding in size and can listen far, far into space. The smaller one is used to communicate with space missions and was previously situated at another tracking station but then moved to this station. There was a small museum at the visitors center, where they had a replica of the Mars rover, projections of the pictures of the other planets that had been sent back to earth and also a movie about the history of NASA. Altogether a very interesting place, well worth a visit. We had a light lunch in the attached cafe and sat there in the shadow of the Big Dish. |
Bob: After lunch we continued our drive on through Tharwa to Namadgi National Park. I saw an Australian and Aboriginal flag flying when we drove up to the Visitor's Centre and sure enough the park was kind of jointly governed by both parties. Correspondingly, the museum part of the Visitor's Centre had a strong focus on the Aboriginal relationship to the land and the plants and animals. It was good to get the aboriginal viewpoint on these issues fairly first hand, so to speak. But we were there to try walking in the bush, so we started off on the Australian Alps Walking Trail that winds from there up and over the Australian Alps to the other side of Mt. Kosciosko National Park, 162 kilometers in all! We managed to get maybe 3 or 4 kilometers into the bush, just far enough up the side of Mt. Tennent to get some nice views of the valley. Along the way Monika suddenly grabbed my arm as she does when she wants to stop me without noise, and I looked up to see three furry gray heads intently watching us from about 15 feet away. Those furry gray heads were attached to kangaroos who were watching us about as intently as we were watching them. I started to pull out my camera from its bag and they turned around and hopped off a short ways. But fortunately they didn't rush off into the wilderness and I was still able to get a decent photo with my telephoto lens. |
Monika: After this we went on to Namadgi National Park. We found out that this was the start of the Australian Alps Walking Path that wound its way from this spot for about 160 km through the Snowy Mountains. We decided to start walking on the trail at least for a few kms. Soon after we started, I stopped because I had seen 3 furry faces staring at us, 2 larger grey kangaroos and one smaller one. We got our cameras out, and they started to hop away. But stopped very soon and turned around to face us. Luckily Bob had his telephoto and got some nice shots. At one point, the youngster started to get bored and turn away, when the mother gave him a swift swipe so that he would stand up again. It was like she was saying "look smart, you are being photographed". |
Bob: Monika finally gave up after 45 minutes uphill in 85 degree sun with little shade. I thought that was wise as she is prone to overheating and we were already getting low on water. The take home lesson for me was that walking in the bush in Australia on a hot, sunny summer day requires LOTS of water, more than we are used to carrying. Karen later confirmed that more at least a quart or more of water per person would be a number one priority for summer hiking. Rather tired and hot by the time we returned to our car, we gratefully turned on the airconditioning (Don't rent a car in Australia without AC!!) as we drove back to Canberra via the more direct route through Targananon Valley. We once again stopped off, this time to fill up the car for the continuation of our driving tour the next day, and then rejoined Karen and "The Boys" at her home. |
Monika: We and the kangaroos all finally went our separate ways, but now I knew, I really was in Australia. Starting the climb uphill, shade became harder and harder to come by. The whole area had burned in the large brushfire in 2003 and you could still see burned-out woods and straggly dead snags. In fact, at the beginning of the walk was a warning, that the snags may fall down at any time. We were climbing up Mt. Tennent and walked past different Eucalyptus trees, small ones that had started to grow after the fire and a few large ones that had survived the fire. I looked up at all of them hoping to see a Koala bear, but no such luck. After 45 minutes of walking uphill and consuming 2/3 of our water supply I was feeling hot and tired. So we decided caution is the better part of valor and decided to turn around. As is often the case with an in-out trail, the way back out offered quite different vistas from the way in. So on the way back we still looked at the views and took a lot of pictures, but I did obey the old adage on mountain walks: "walk or look but not both at the same time". By the time we got back to the visitor center, our water was gone and we both were thirsty. We picked up a bottle of Gatorade and finished it in short order. Not only was it hot and the sun was shining (yes we did put on sunblock and were wearing our hats), but the air was also extremely dry and there was a strong wind blowing. The wind cooled us down very nicely, but it probably also dehydrated us. So I was glad we stopped when we did. We drove back a shorter way to Canberra through a succession of small suburbs each with its own little shopping center. We decided to fill up at one such center so that we would be all set to resume our driving tour the next day. |
Bob: Karen took us out to what absolutely had to be a 4-star restaurant near the center of Canberra. The appetizers were quite artistically arranged but more importantly, at least to me, was the fact that they had truly unique flavor combinations. The same thing was true about our main entrees: I really had never had whitefish that tasted anything like that, even on cruise ships where they generally have quite decent cuisine. Monika said the same thing was true about her filet mignon--it was far better than any steak she had ever had before. Going to a restaurant that makes other places pale in comparison is a rather dangerous thing to do, in a way, because now we have an extremely high bar for what is "excellent" fish and beef cuisine. [Thank you, Karen!] We had a very leisurely meal (for heaven's sake don't rush eating cuisine as good as that!), so it was dark by that time we finished. Karen drove us up the mountain above the Remembrance War Memorial to look out over the city by night. The air was clear and the lights of Canberra gleamed like diamonds against a backdrop of black velvet. It was a nice way to end a very memorable day. |
Monika: Karen was already home, so we had a nice time chatting while I downloaded our cameras and backed up the pictures. Afterwards Karen took us out to a wonderful restaurant, where she was obviously well-known as the staff and owner called her by her first name. The food was superb, Karen and Bob had fish while I had the filet mignon. I know, they thought they had good food, but it could not possibly have been as good as the filet mignon. I finished every bite of it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Afterwards Karen drove us up to the hill above the war memorial, where we had a wonderful view across to the parliament buildings and the lights of Canberra at night. When we finally got home, we all three were ready to hit the sack and call it a day. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Cruise around New Zealand | Map of Drive through Victoria | Epilog |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||