Greetings from Canberra! I am currently in the
Australian Capital, a few hours southwest of Sydney. Canberra is part
of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), kind of like Washington DC.
There are sprawling lawns, lots of trees and more monuments than one
can ever see in a day, which is about how long I will have been here.
I will tell you this, the most interesting thing I have learned so far
is no Senate meeting can start without "The Usher of the Black
Rod" coming into the room with his large dark rod and proclaim
the meeting started. I might also mention here that ACT has very liberal
laws, making it the porn distribution capital of Australia.
A few days ago, Ronit and I drove up to the Blue Mountains to do some
camping and hiking. It was absolutely gorgeous! The mountains aren't
incredibly tall, but the rivers running through them have cut out some
steep cliffs and deep gorges. There are waterfalls and cascades to view
from various hikes around the national parks. We also drove out to the
Jenolan Caves, cut out from millions of years of underground rivers
running through limestone caverns. It was mesmerizing.
After the Blue Mountains, we drove back to Sydney and the next day I
took the car down south to Shoulhaven, a series of municipalities along
the Southern Coast. There are national parks all along the coastline,
with wild animals that will come up and eat from your hand (though you
aren't REALLY supposed to feed them). I stayed in the small fishing
town of Bateman's Bay, before I drove to Canberra.
Today I'll head back to Sydney for the rest of the weekend. Tuesday
we take off for Tasmania. As Marc says, "There are a lot of weird
animals there." Tassie is known for its backward, hick-like folk,
so hopefully I'll have some good stories to share when I get back.