Day 21 - Goodbye Australia!

Our last day in 'Straya... the flight isn't until late tonight so we had the chance to see a few more things.

Mostly Old Melbourne Gaol, where you can dress up in a replica suit of the armour worn by the infamous Kelly Gang... well, it would have been rude not to!

Nick 'Ned' (short for Edward) Bolding

The Old Melbourne Gaol ticket also gets you in to the Watch House Experience in which you get to have a fake 'rap sheet', get locked in a cell and finally have the chance to have a 'mug shot' taken. Note to self - don't take a full length shot & then zoom in 'cos it'll make the picture grainy...

Looks like butter wouldn't melt, doesn't she? 

Shifty...

It was bloody hot today and we both felt a bit poorly - not been hydrating as well as we should, plus a bit too much booze at the 'final supper'. We spent a lovely couple of hours just chilling on a park bench in the shade...

So it's farewell Australia... it's been fantastic and we will definitely be back!

Day 20 - An old friend in Melbourne

Another 'free' day in Melbourne... we had plans for lunch so after a spot of brekkie we wended our way down from the hotel toward the embankment via the various parks and gardens.

Fountain outside the Royal Exhibition Building

Melbourne really is a very 'walkable' city - the only real restriction is when it's very hot it's quite wearying.

A selfie a day...

We didn't get around to seeing the botanical gardens but even so, spotted this lovely jacaranda despite the flowering season nearly being over.

Lean on me...

Another fountain, I did some experimenting with aperture and exposure settings... but the results were rubbish so here's the one using the 'intelligent auto' settings.

That would look good with a long exposure - if I could work out how

After mooching our way down to the river (probably stopping for a coffee along the way) we met up with Karen's old Equiniti colleague Ruth for lunch.

Lovely food, bottle of very tasty vino (Squealing Pig Sauvignon Blanc) and fantastic company!

Mmmm... tapas

 After lunch we did a bit more wandering around and ended up at the Remembrance Memorial.

Vista from the steps into the city

All the war memorials we've visited have had great views into the city and therefore have also been very prominent / visible from within the city.

Panoramico!

This one also has dramatic views down into the surrounding 'gardens' which relate to more specific conflicts etc.

Hmmm... cubist?

Day 19 - Melbourne (Penguins!)

In Melbourne we were pretty much left to our own devices - no included tours (not counting the trip to St Kilda) and only 2 optional ones, of which we were only doing one.

So, we paid $10 each for a 2 day hop-on, hop-off tourist bust which goes around the city. This gave us the opportunity to explore at our own pace. First stop was the waterfront where we found a cow up a tree (Melbourne is overflowing with 'installations'). This is in response to a picture the artist saw of cows stuck in trees where they had been washed after severe flooding and also a article he read about fake cows used in WWII to try to disguise airfields... basically, "What would the outcome have been if one of these airfields of fake cows had been hit by a flood?"...

Cow up a tree

The waterfront is undergoing extensive development and is nice, though a little deserted...

Anyone there?

A very touristy day which included going up the Eureka Tower for the wonderful views across the city from the 88th floor and 'The Edge' experience.

Going up in the world

It was a clear day (not like the Blue Mountains), so the views were a-may-zing...! 

That's a bay, not the sea

The Edge experience was good but not great - they tried to make it ore scary with sound effects, which seemed to work on the other passengers, though they were already pretty nervous. The windows were a bit foggy, so the views were actually better from the main viewing level.

'Do a silly pose' they said...

After a day of 'touristing it up' which included a lovely lunch down on the embankment and bumping into an old colleague of Karen's (more on that tomorrow) we were back on the bus for the 2 hour drive to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade.

Basically, the male Little Penguins go out at dawn to fish and return at dusk with a gutfull of fish which they feed to the females and chicks. They are at risk from predators as they cross the sand from the sea edge to the scrubland, so wait until a bunch are together and then waddle along in a little group.

You can't take pictures down on the beach as the flash might scare them and then they would either not return to their nest or might regurgitate their catch - either way the females and chicks don't get fed. However, you can take pictures away from the beach and before it gets dark...

Penguin box

This coast provided our 3rd Ocean view (Southern) and we saw a few fairly big waves crashing against the shore.

Wavesplosion

Day 18 - To Melbourne

Another travelling day... flying this time thank goodness!

A quick trip to parliament house first to see the seat of power. It's a very impressive, modern, purpose-built building set in Canberra so that the politicians are away from any distractions. Instead it seems to mean they end up flying in and out all the time at a cost to the taxpayer of millions...

Good kerb appeal

Inside is decorated with native wood and stone and feels very 'open' both physically and also in terms of the ability of the public to see politics 'in action'. They have Senators (equivalent to the Lords) and Representatives (equivalent to MPs). The Senate is decorated in red:

Where's Palpatine?

While the Representatives use green, like we do in the House of Commons but it's 'Eucalyptus green' to make it Australian:

Just looks faded to me

 Great views from the roof, which is covered in turf and consequently needs mowing. You can see the National War Memorial at the far end, below the mountain.

They aren't short of space here

 You also get a great view of the $1M stainless steel flagpole...

Karen and a massive pole

  Ah, selfie... no day is complete without at least one!

Really should get someone to take pics for us

 On arrival in Melbourne we took a trip down to St Kilda for a coffee and a cake then went on the beach. Nearby is Brighton and Torquay!

Can you tell I cropped my arm out?

Day 17 - To Canberra

From Sydney to Canberra by coach, stopping at a truck-stop for breakfast and then a sheep station for lunch.

Truck stop was nothing to write home about, but the sheep again was very interesting.

First of all we saw the dogs round up the sheep - pretty much by themselves. They are also trained to run across the backs of the sheep in order to control then when they are in close confines.

I got to have a go at catching a sheep and holding it in the 'shearing position'... You can just about hear Craig (the owner) say that I '... chose a big one...' and '... maybe he should have told me to pick a different one...'

We then had shearing demonstration - a top shearer can do it in about 2 minutes... the owner took over 6!

The station has Merino sheep and this one produced an AAA+ grade fleece, this quality is likely to end up in Italy to be used in high-quality suit fabric e.g. Ermenogildo Zegna. The length of the fibres, the fineness and the crimp (which is very visible here) are what define the quality.

First stop in Canberra was the war memorial up above the city. It is aligned with the main war memorial and museum, lake and finally the Parliament building.

View across Canberra. It's possible to access both the mountains (for skiing) and the sea (for sailing) in a few hours.

Next stop was the National War Memorial/museum. Outside the walls are covered with plaques bearing the names of the nearly 103,000 Australians killed in wars/conflicts. As it was Remembrance Sunday recently they were covered with poppies left by visitors.

The exhibits inside were informative, interesting and very moving. I was reduced to tears on more than one occasion by the sheer tragedy of what was being commemorated. But it also had incredible stories of heroism and the rarest tank in the world - the Mephisto, the original German armoured vehicle.

At the end of the visit there was the playing of the Last Post and a Eulogy for one of the fallen, this is done every day. Incredibly emotional and hardly a dry eye among any of those present.

I'd bought a couple of poppies, intending to attach them by the name of one of the fallen where there wasn't one already... Imagine my shock when almost immediately I found a Bolding - one of only 2 in the entire list of over 100,000.a

https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1443738/

Day 16: Bridgeclimb, botannical gardens, SOH tour

Today was a 'free' day - no included or optional excursions... so we set our own itinerary.

We'd got the Sydney BridgeClimb booked for 09:25, so we were up and breakfasted and off the the starting point.

Very slick organisation - safety and equipment briefing with 'stations' where you got breathalysed, into your jumpsuit, harness and were equipped with headset, jacket, went on the 'simulator' (set of replica ladders) etc. etc. - took about 45 minutes, then onto the bridge!

First picture stop.

Nice outfits!

As we climbed, the guide was great - pointing out points of interest and telling us about the history of both the bridge and Sydney.

Apparently the headsets make us look 'cool'...

Great views from up here... you can really see how spread out the city is.

It's the SOH baby, yeah!

Shot from near the highest point, I think the top of our hotel is just visible behind my head - the one with the triangular bit on it (roof, not my head!).

Top of the world!

Crossing from one side of the bridge to the other to come back down (you don't go all the way from one side to the other), time for a quick smooch...

Get a room!

On the way back to the hotel (the quick way, nit the way Brian told us to go) we passed these steps. The old buildings have gone but left some of the interior walls and dummy furnishings have been put in place.

Inside, outside

We had a fantastic Italian sharing platter for lunch (we are going to be such porkers when we get home) then wandered down to the SOH to book a tour for later in the afternoon.

Then a stroll through the botanical gardens, where we saw one of the Extreme Sailing Series catamarans 'doing laps' of a couple of marks and putting the crew through their paces.

One in, one out.

Botanical gardens were very pleasant but not exactly riveting. Some interesting specimens and views though.

Due to prevailing winds?

Lovely park view from these offices

Think this was some kind of government building.

Cup of coffee and a cake in the cafe and then it was time to head back to the SOH for our tour. Initially the guide was a bit tetchy handing out headsets and trying to get them all working, but once that was sorted we were off!

Went into the Joan Sutherland Theatre, where we saw The Sleeping Beauty - in the intervening time it had been used for a lecture and had now been set up for the ballet to practice.

Stage

Tried to get a shot of where our seats were but it didn't really come out.

Photo fail

I just loved the rawness of the interior - inspired by Le Corbusier it could be described as 'a symphony in concrete'. These radiating ribs are what form the structure that supports the roof. you can see all the marks from the moulds used when they were cast.

Concrete

You can see the ribs and roof here. Each side of each roof is supported independently - if you removed one, the other would remain in place.

Mmmm... ribs

You also get fantastic contrasts inside of materials. A lot has been renovated and much use of light wood and light itself has been made to make everything feel open and airy,

Wood, concrete, steel

So raw - 'bolt this bit here...'. You also often see woodgrain in the walls - not a design feature, just the imprint of the planks used as shuttering when they were poured.

A tour of the Opera House is a must and was one of my favourite bits of the trip.