Do Not Read This Title

In which there are photos of planes and photos from planes, and photos of planes from planes.

Being as I was awake most of the night and already packed, I was early getting to the airport. I had to catch a taxi there. Flight departure time was 10 am and the airport bus earliest arrival was also 10 am. Handy, not, especially as there is no public transports anywhere near the airport on Sundays. (Taxi was only $23. It might be a bit more during the week, but as the airport express bus is $12 one way/$20 return, if I was travelling with other people, it'd be worth getting a taxi for the convenience.)



The airport, once through security, is just a long hall with seats at each end and a couple of cafe things in the middle.

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Don't want to write these any more, which is silly but there it is. So this one might be short on words. I have some hope once I actually get started it'll be better.


So I did retake that photo. I still meant to go over to the fountain thing and take a photo, but I didn't.

Note clouds. Forecast is for much rain. After much frowning at map and Centenary bus route, I planned a schedule for today that involved getting off at the Russell Offices (admin centre for the defence forces & the Dept of Defence) and walking down to the lake.

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Today's plan is simple. Go to the National Museum, then go across the lake to see what I feel looking at over there. Oh, and catch up with Jo.

To get to the museum I could, of course, catch the Centenary bus and do the loop, and get there just after 9.30. However, my phone claimed it was just 1.4 km drive from where I was staying, which is what? A 20 minute easy walk, and the last part of which would be along the edge of the lake. So I could a leave a bit earlier and get there just after it opened.

I should include a map of Canberra for those not familiar with the city. Basically, it two circles, on either side of the lake. The bus terminuses, shops and YHA where I was staying are to the top and top-right of the northern circle (e.g. Canberra Central). The southern circle, with Capital Hill, is where Parliament House is, and between that and the lake is where most of things I plan to visit are, also lots of parks and gardens. So the "centre" of the city, that in any sensible place has been built and developed over decades, is all open space and public buildings. Also, it's very new. Canberra itself is celebrating it's centenary this year, but most of the buildings are from more recent times. The lake itself was constructed in the 1960s and I think most of the construction (of significant buildings and suburbs both) in city is from after that. So whereas in a town of any size, you have layers of building, development, demolition, replacement, redevelopment over time, in Canberra it's much of a single layer. On my first visit here, about ten years, I decided it had been dropped by aliens.

Anyway, let's go and have a look around :)


Because I'm not a car, I didn't need to go around the circle but could cut across the middle. It's all park (and car park) area. This looking back the way I've just come.

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OK I have decided I will do a trip report, because I like to look back at them years later. With photos, of course, but these will mostly be of things I saw while walking/on a bus with maybe a handful of photos and a overview of places I actually visited to give an idea of what they're about. Then I can do more detailed posts of them sometime down the track when/if I feel so inclined. That way I can give myself a record of what I did without spending hours and hours editing photos.

Of course, based on the first day, this still leads to a lot of photos for each day. But then you don't have to look at them all!

(Also, if anyone particularly wants to see what photos I took in a given place, or what I thought of it, wave your hand because I'll probably never get around to it otherwise.)