Canberra trip - days 7&8 (Canberra)

Hi all

I'll  combine the two Canberra days into one blog - we've had a great time here with Geoff and Tracey but now approaching exhaustion stage I think.

Had a good trip from Jenolan - the Guide's advice to come via Oberon was good advice. By nature, the road out of Jenolan HAS to be steep and this one was steeper than the usual track in - steepest road we've travelled in Autralia by far. Absolutely magnificent grazing country fom Oberon all the way to Goulburn but a lot of roadwork slowed us down.

Stopped for a break in Goulburn where we wre impressed by the main centre - lots of very good shops and lots of activity. After Goulburn the federal highway means 110km all the way just about to Canberra - easy to see where the road money gets spent!

Got to Canberra about 1 and tried to book into our unit but no-one at the office. went around to Geoff's, had a lovely lunch and tried to check in again - still no-one. Rang the "emergency" number and eventually had retun call from someone who told us where to find the key. Not very satisfactory and when we got to the unit found it to be pretty ordinary to say the least so we've chalked up our first "failure" for booking.com so we'll let them know!!

Off to birthday dinner for Geoff  - went to "Grazing at Gundaroo" which is about 30k outside Canberra and was last year's "Restaurant of the Year" and we found out why - just the best  meal and service we've had anywhere and set in an old 1865 pub - just beautiful and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as was the wine (a Mother's Day gift from the kids)

Sunday: called into a beautiful bakery to get some croissants, bread and bits and came around to G & T's for breakfast. Then to the National portrait gallery (terrific and VERY interesting), the sculpture garden and  a walk in the sunshine along the edge of Lake Burley-Griffin to the "Mork" Thai restaurant for lunch (are you picking a theme here??) which again was great - Canberra certainly has wonderful eating places and we've given them a pretty good try-out.

Back along the Lake to the fishwick markets where we enjoyed coffee (of course) and went shopping for veges, fish, prawns etc which Geoff is going to create into something wonderful for tea.

Tomorrow will see us leaving early and heading via Goulburn up to Tamworth where we'll stop for the night before heading for Brisbane on Tuesday for a pre-Cambodia departure dinner with Heather - then back home wednesday night.

It's been a really great trip - magnificent countryside, wonderful meals and great wine - hard to beat.. Great bithday and Mother's Day celebrations with Geoff and Tracey over the weekend so all together a terrific little break - back to reality on Thursday!

Cheers all - look forward to seeing everyone back home again.