Dear All,
Well here we are in the Blue Mountains. We had a wonderful week in
Canberra with Sue's cousin Peter & his partner Jill. We have been to
Canberra before, but we really enjoyed this visit. We were there
particularly for Peter's 70th birthday party which was held by Lake
Burley Griffin. We visited the War Memorial Museum for an afternoon
but could, in fact, have spent the whole day there.
We also went into' Civic' in Canberra and went to the Canberra Museum
and Gallery, where Jill works. It really was fascinating. There was a
display by two artists who each had painted the same subject for three
hours. The artists used different mediums and the results were
amazing. There were about fifteen portraits and we were entranced.
On 15th April ( Sue's birthday) Peter took us to Thredbo. An
interesting drive and well worth it. The architecture at Thredbo was
most interesting and we could see the ski slopes. We passed on the
cable car ride to Mt Kosciusko as we both had a nasty virus and were
not feeling the best.
On Wednesday Peter & Jill took us to dinner at University House (ANU).
It was a wonderful evening where we met fascinating people and it was
rounded off by a talk on " How words get into the dictionary"-- most
interesting by the man who edited the McQuarrie Dictionary .
On Thursday Jill took us to see her family home which is now a museum.
It was one of the first houses built in Canberra and has remained
unchanged since 1926 and really is worth a visit. It is called
Calthorpes' House. We were so lucky to have Jill show us around and
fill us in on all of the history as well as play the pianola! Her
mother, Dawn, has written a book about her childhood in that house and
it is a joy to read. As it happened , we went and had afternoon tea
with Dawn after we had visited the house, so that was really special.
She knew that we both had birthdays in April so she had baked a cake
which was lovely. Her house and garden are lovely and so we were
really privileged to be shown around.
On the last day in Canberra we went to the National Art Gallery and saw
an exhibition by Thea Procter. It was absolutely stunning and we could
have spent all day there. When you walk out of the gallery (the old
Houses of Parliament) you look back towards the War Museum and the view
is amazing. I must say that we appreciated Canberra much more this
time and were really sorry to leave. Jill and Peter were great hosts
and we look forward to their next visit to Perth.
Having left Canberra we headed for Cowra. We stayed for four nights as
we were still recovering from some rotten bug that we took to
Canberra!. Cowra was very interesting because of the break out by the
Japanese POWs during World War II. The Japanese cemeteries in
particular were impressive. They have evidently buried all Japanese
citizens who died in Australia during the second world war in this
cemetery. There is also cemetery for the Australian soldiers. We saw
the 'Peace Bell' and also the Japanese Gardens which were stunning. We
then headed off for Bathurst as Mac wanted to drive around Mount
Panorama. I think that he was rather hoping to do it with the caravan
but we desisted.:-( I must say that the drive was " interesting"and
coming off the mountain would have been terrifying at speed. We also
went to the Fossil Museum and the Warren Somerville Mineral
collection, both housed in an old School, which was superb and must be
world standard.
We then set off for Oberon in the Blue Mountains. It was quite a climb
but a very pretty town. We decided to go and see the Jenolan Caves.
What a drive! A really steep and winding road down into the gorge. We
then had quite a walk down to the cave but the scenery was spectacular.
Once down there we booked in to " do " a cave tour. There were so
many people and all of the tours were pretty booked up. Anyway we went
on the Lucas tour which took one and a half hours, but it was worth it.
We had intended to do the Kanangra Walls walk next but we ran out of
time. We went back the next day and were glad that we had done so.
The scenery was wonderful and we also walked down to the falls - rather
steep. it is strange when you travel around the people you meet.
Before we went on the Kanangra walk we met two men who were quite
chatty and told us it was worth seeing. When we got back(about an hour
later) they were still there and we had a coffee with them. One of
them was very chatty and after he moved off the other guy told us that
he was famous and had, in fact, been the first Australian to walk to
both Poles and had OBEs!! They had just done a days walk from Katoomba
to Kanangra Falls and were waiting to be picked up!
We left Oberon and travelled to Blackheath (which is near Katoomba).
The drive was fantastic and the caravan park is lovely, so we may stay
here a few days as there is so much to see. We still want to do a hot
air balloon flight but not sure if they do them here! Will keep in
touch.
Whilst we were in Bathurst caravan park an elderly lady (late sixties!)
parked next to us . She was on her own and towing a small caravan and
this was her first adventure. She told us that she was on her way to
visit her friend who could not understand why she had gone the long way
round. Her reply was " because I can!", which rather epitomises our
trip. We feel that we can do whatever we want & it is lovely!!.
On that happy note we will close.
Love to you all,
Sue & Mac.
Malcolm McCallum
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