Canberra

I know its been a while. Been busy. My brother and his wife arrived and kept us busy hunting for cars etc. And been working, working, working. I took a 3 day trip down to Canberra this week for work and it was interesting. The trip takes about 3.5 hours and for the last day I drove an additional 3.5 hours to Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga), which is a bit in the middle of nowhere.

I was told that Canberra was a dump by the Sydney guys, but was surprised. It is a manufactured city with its whole economy dependant on the government offices. It is estimated that 2/3 of the people that work there commute from Melbourne or Sydney on a weekly basis. But it is really a pretty place - tons of parks everywhere and the roads are wide, immaculate and fast. Well ok if you were allowed to. Compared to Sydney's horrific roads which are really 4th world, it is a real pleasure. Just a word of advice, do not stay at the Canberra Rex - looks really great on the internet, but... well just don't go there. Trust me on this.

I saw my first kangaroos. Ok so they were dead, but it still counts doesn't it? Let me explain. A freind of mine who lives in Melbourne but works in Canberra says that these kangas are nibbling on the grass in the mornings when he gets to work - sounds idyllic? He says they aren't aggressive and will generally run away if faced with a human. So what's the problem? Well he said he was cycling to work the other morning and a baby kangaroo (locally called a joey) was happily hopping alongside him. At 40km per hour. He warned me to watch out for them. Adult Kangaroos can grow to over 2m and are big buggers. You can't fence them in because, well they clear 2m in a normal jump and at full tilt - somewhere maybe between 50 and 60km/hr they will jump much higher than that. Again, so what? Well they appear not to be too bright. So imagine you are driving along at 110km per hour and a kangaroo doing 60km/hour clears a fence and meets you halfway across a road? Needless to say I drove the whole way down to Wagga scanning either side of the road as far as I could see. So thanks to my buddy Tony scaring the heck out of me, I was a total wreck by the time I reached my destination! There are special whistles you can fit to your car that emit a high pitched sound that they don't like and keeps them away, so I will get some and post a picture soon.

By the way, still waiting for our container - it is here apparently, but been checked by customs... so we wait...