Canberra - 35° 18' 26" S 149° 7' 27" E

Graham and Gabby have met us in Canberra.  We are staying with them in their caravan on the edge of town and using it as a base to explore Australia's capital city.  All is neat and orderly here.  The streets are well laid out and signed.  A man-made lake is at the center of the city and provides a view to many of the major institutes in town.  We've come at a good time, too.  Floriade is an annual floral display and festival that happens on the lake.  We've decided to take it in and pick the nicest of the days to wander around.  Lots of colour, lots of prams, lots of grey hair, lots of school uniforms are wandering around the showgrounds.

Graham at the National Museum
We take in the War Memorial (which builds up our knowledge after visiting Gallipoli) and spend all day wandering around the displays.  The next day we go to the Parliament Buildings and find more than a few hours of interesting displays.  Australia owns a hand-transcribed copy of the Magna Carta (dated from 1297!) that is on display in the main building.  We looked into the chambers of the lower house and the senate chambers by tagging onto a tour that was making its way through.  I found it fascinating discovering the differences between the Canadian and Australian systems of government.

Friends are already emerging from Kate's past.  We were contacted by Hilary and Andrew, who invited us over for an evening to visit and catch up.  We had a look at suburban Canberra life - their lovely home, their two pre-teen daughters, their stories of comings and goings.  Evenings were spent back at the caravan park, catching up with my grey nomad parents-in-law, trading jokes, stories and sharing evening meals.

As the weather in Canberra was sunny but refused to warm up (or let up the easterly winds), we decided to pull up stumps and head back towards Flinders.

Sean, observing some of the locals

Floriade

Paintings of Prime Ministers at the House of Parliament

 
Caravan Life
Evening stop at a roadside pullout

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