Alright, its about time for another post, I've just finished writing up our West Highland Way walk on my Crazy Guy journal so I've been neglecting the blog a little. We've also just come back from a trip up to Canberra so I figured that I would do a quick post about our stay there. I mentioned to my neighbour Daniel that we were going to Canberra, his response was a classic 'what, have you run out of good places to go?' I mumbled a few things about culture and art but I think that he suspects that his neighbour is a boring old fart....actually come to think of it he is probably a bit closer to the mark than I'd like to think!
Hotel Hotel, Acton.
I arrived in Canberra after a small detour to Mt Jagungal on the way up, Mt Jagungal is a two day walk in the Jagungal Wilderness area near Mt Kosczuiosko and by the time I met up with Sam at the Hotel Hotel (that's not a typo) in Canberra I was ready for a wash and a bit of relaxation. Sam had flown up after finishing work for the week and was set up quite comfortably at the flash hotel. Being a little tired after my 40 kilometre walk on the way up we decided that we would do a fairly relaxing walk in Canberra, choosing a walk called the Lake Burley Griffen - Central Basin, at just over 5 kilometres on easy paths it should prove pretty cruisey.
The National Portrait Gallery.
The Bob Brown painting.
Leaving the Portrait Gallery we wandered down to the shore line of Lake Burley Griffen and reset the GPS. We walked the central basin in a counter clockwise direction from the lake shore in front of the High Court of Australia. Almost immediately we left the lake shore to check out the extensive sculpture garden hidden in the native bush at the National Gallery, the sculptures proving a little easier to photograph than the paintings inside the Portrait Gallery. We were lucky today that we had mainly blue skies which always help the photos a bit, the weather was a little unsettled though so it also promised the chance to get some shots of the billowing cumulonimbus, always a favourite.
The National Gallery's Sculpture Garden.
After the sculptor garden we crossed the Kings Bridge over Lake Burley Griffen to the north side of the lake, the day was now quite warm and the concrete path radiated the heat enough that we appreciated the shade when it came. Our first landmark on the north side of the lake was the National Carillon, a tall slender tower with bells in it that ring every quarter of an hour. The National Carillon was a gift to Australia from Great Britain on the 50th anniversary of the National Capital. We were now on the R G Menzies walk around the north side of the lake which we followed from the Carillon to Nerang Pool, on the way passing Blundell's Cottage, one of the oldest buildings in Canberra.
The path climbing onto the Kings Avenue Bridge, even the footpaths look good.
Would you call this street art? This is a section of the foot path.
The National Carillion.
Crossing the foot bridge over the entrance to Nerang Pool we headed off towards the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, heading around Regatta Point. Along this section is an interesting skeleton type sculpture of the earth which is there to commemorate Captain Cook's three voyages around the world. We now climbed up onto the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and crossed back over Lake Burley Griffen, being up a little higher allowed us a bit more of a view of the surrounding city as well as the storm clouds building up behind Black Mountain.
Parliament House from the north side of Lake Burley Griffen.
The bridge over the entrance to Nerang Pool....a small lake adjoining Lake Burley Griffen.
One of the locals on Lake Burley Griffen.
Captain Cook's Skeleton Globe.
There were a few storm clouds building up behind Black Mountain.
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The neighbourhood around our hotel was also super trendy too, with lots of street art and nice cafes and restaurants. Apart from our usual time spent at cafes we also easily filled in a couple of hours wandering the streets of Acton checking out all the nooks and crannies. One thing you don't get in Canberra is gritty, all the public areas are squeaky clean and in most cases very well manicured, some would say too sanitised and sterile.
There was plenty of street art around Acton. |
The Dirt
As I've mentioned we stayed at the Hotel Hotel, we enjoyed the experience but if we go back we'd try and get a room with an out side view. The walls and roof of our massive room were rendered to look like bare concrete which, along with the lack of natural light gave our room a bit of a cave like feel, to the point where I had to break out the head torch to read the whimsical evacuation plan! Our Canberra walk was out of 'Canberra's Best Bush , Park & City Walks' 2nd edition, it was written by Marion Stuart and published by Woodslane, they don't have a website that I can see so no link. We walked 5.77 kilometres and climbed a grand total of 32 metres on this stroll, needless to say this is an easy walk. If you like public art and history as well as easy paths this walk would be worth checking out.
This work was called 'Carbon' it looked like roots coming out of our hotel and was made of recycled and shredded rubber tyres and hoses. |
Sam, checking out the lake from Aspen Island. |
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