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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Hello from Sydney, where we’re both a little tired after celebrating a certain young lady’s birthday!
Our week started in Canberra, in Australian Capital Territory. We weren’t expecting huge things from this rather sterile planned capital city, so we weren’t too disappointed with what we found. We started by driving up Mount Ainslie to look down on the city along its main axis that runs to Capital Hill and the Parliament House. This kind of reminded us of Bucharest with the boulevards radiating from Ceausescu’s Palace, reminding everyone who’s in charge. We then moved on to what we were most looking forward to, and what we were told was the only thing worth visiting, the Australian War Memorial.
Australia takes its war memorials seriously - it apparently has more than any other country – and the AWM is the jewel in the crown being part memorial, part museum and part educational. The centre is what we would consider the memorial part, with a Roll of Honour listing those lost and a Hall of Memory which contains the tomb of their own Unknown Soldier, with mosaics and stained glass for the different military services. The outer halls contain museums detailing each conflict they have been involved in, through the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq/Afghanistan with incredible exhibits, models, dioramas, re-enactments and witness accounts. Then there’s the ANZAC Hall which has light and sound shows recreating World War I dog fights, WWII Lancaster bombing runs and Japanese submarine attacks on Sydney Harbour, all around displays of the actual machinery involved.
Other areas are for education, where school kids are brought in by the bus load and made to realise not just how many people died by looking at names on plaques, but why and how they died, to make it very real and bring it home. Then there’s the immaculate grounds with various machinery, sculptures and memorials too. It is a fascinating and moving place all done in a typical Aussie “matter of fact” way, not too sensational, not too sombre and not too nationalistic, unlike others we have seen.
Then we set off to have a look at the Parliamentary Zone, which in comparison was very disappointing. It was just so soulless and quiet. It probably didn’t help that parliament wasn’t sitting that day, but even so, you’d expect something to be going on! We parked at the National Library (which by law contains a copy of every book ever published in Australia, although you’d think that was the idea, without them having to pass a law) and walked to the artificial lake and then up to Capital Hill (no marks for originality, but at least they spelt it right). Everywhere was deserted. The only real traffic we saw were Federal Police cars cruising about and empty buses. Even the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (a protest camp claiming political rights) was empty. We had a wander around the Parliamentary House, going into the House of Representatives and the Senate and then up to the roof to stand under the huge flag pole and look back on the AWM and Mount Ainslie.
The next day it was back on the road and towards Sydney. The main highway between the two cities is another war memorial, The Remembrance Driveway, what they call a “living memorial”, a British Government idea that didn’t take off in the UK. Every rest stop on the route is named after an Australian Victoria Cross recipient. At the Canberra end there is also the RAAF Memorial Grove, which has on display a propeller from a Hawker Siddeley HS748, a propeller which was made by Dowty Rotol, so that too had come all the way from Gloucestershire, UK.
Our journey took us through more varied landscapes of hills, valleys and great plains. We passed Lake George, which is currently dried-up, but comes and goes with the rains. The area is so flat, that although the lake can be 25km long, it will only be an average depth of 1 metre. We then stopped off at Goulbourn to see the Big Merino, a 50ft high concrete ram celebrating the local wool industry and containing the ubiquitous gift shop.
In Sydney we decided to stay at a proper campsite and found one not far out of town, near a train station for easy access. Unfortunately it is also on the airport flight path. But it has full facilities, a pool and is set in a National Park – so it’s very quiet, between flights! On our way to the site, we stopped off at the Olympic Park and managed to get Mario in front of the main stadium, where Caroline believes England may have won a rugby game in 2003, but Bry denies any knowledge of it.
So Friday was Caroline’s birthday and we were set for a long weekend in Sydney, one of the World’s great cities. We had booked to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb on the Saturday morning, which looked best weatherwise, so on Friday we just went for a wander around the city, taking in the sights, the old streets of The Rocks, brunch at a patisserie, the bridge, the city centre, Martins Place, Hyde Park, lunch at a new very trendy Westfield shopping centre below the Sydney Tower, more wandering about, rubbed a bronze boar’s nose for luck, then drinks and dinner at the Opera Bar followed by puds at the Guylian Cafe. It was a very relaxed birthday to remember, in complete contrast to Bry’s birthday that was spent fighting Russian customs and then a night at a truck stop!
We were up bright and early on Saturday for our BridgeClimb – a truly once in a lifetime experience. It took about an hour to get kitted up and run through all the safety briefings, then it was out clambering over girders and gantries, making our way along the arch to the very top of the bridge, over the middle section and back down the other side. The views were amazing, the weather was perfect, it was just incredible – particularly just standing on top of one of the World’s iconic structures – if you get the chance, you’ve got to do it. There were some hairy bits – on the way up you climb a ladder that actually goes between 2 lanes of traffic, just inches away, and on the way down, you go between two railway tracks – the whole thing shakes and groans as they thunder past you! A few of the gantries are just hanging there, you can see through the grilled floorway straight down to the water or road below, all a bit nerve-racking, but very exciting!
The afternoon was a bit more sedate, we got a ferry to Manly and had a wander around there, along the beach with all the beautiful people. It’s a lovely place and we hope to get back there for a day or so and of course we want to get to Bondi as well. We need to be up the coast in Newcastle next weekend for Nitro Circus (lots of stunts on motorbikes and stuff!), but it’s only a couple of hours away, so we will have a lazy week killing time before then.
Hoo Roo!