Canberra

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of news lately. I have just had an amazing week visiting Canberra and a number of towns and tourist attractions between Sydney and Canberra with Wayde. We left Sydney last Sunday morning and took the tourist route to Canberra. The drive would normally take about 3hrs I think, but we took 6hrs door to door!! On the way we stopped in past the Wombeyan Caves:

They were really interesting, unfortunately not many of the photos have come out as my camera isn't great in the dark!! There were a number of signs on the road to and from the caves reminding us to toot our car horn on blind corners. Being the mature adults that we are, we thought this was great fun and continued this for the rest of the week - oh the simple things entertained us! We then stopped to see yet another of Australia's Big Things:

On Monday morning we went to Parliament House and joined one of the tours there. It was very interesting. We then went on a tour round the Australian Institute of Sport. The first half hour was spent practising our basketball shooting, penalty kicks, and a number of other sports. We then got shown round all the halls and just for you Laura here is part of the gymnastics hall:

It was really interesting hearing about all the athletes training programmes. We then spent the afternoon relaxing in the Botanic Gardens before going up to the top of Telstra Tower, unfortunately it wasn't that clear and so the photos have not come out too well.

Tuesday morning we went to Cockington Green which is a display of miniature buildings and gardens of Great Britain - I felt right at home!! There was even Braemar Castle:

We then went back to the war memorial and spent a good few hours there.

In the evening after our meal we went up to one of the lookouts. It made Canberra look so big!!

On Wednesday we left Canberra and took our time coming up the coast. We went to the beach in the afternoon and stayed the night in Batemans Bay I think - I will have to confirm place names with Wayde as we visited so many places I can't remember them all!!

On Thursday we headed up to Berry where we stayed on Thursday and Friday night. On Friday morning we went riding in Kangaroo Valley. It was great to get back on a horse even though it was one of our hottest days away! On Friday afternoon we visited a winery and sampled a number of lovely wines. However the Crooked River Winery that we visited on our way home yesterday was so much nicer. Every wine we tasted we liked and of course we bought a few bottles to take home with us! We also stopped in past Kiama to see the Blowhole but unfortunately it wasn't blowing yesterday. However we still had fun climbing over the rocks .

We got back to Sydney last night and I am staying with Wayde and his family until Tuesday. There might be the chance of going with Wayde in his truck tonight/tomorrow but will have to wait and see what happens. On Tuesday I am meeting up with Jo to plan our Blue Mountains trip at the end of the week.

Wayde, thank you so much for being my personal tour guide for the week. I had a great time and I hope you enjoyed it too. And remember.............blind corner = beep beep, hehe!! :)

Take care everyone and thanks for all your emails.

xxx