FEBRUARY 7

A wonderful experience awaited us today. We went off to visit Parliament House and what an incredible piece of architecture greeted us. We sat in on a video on the construction of the building, from conception, to sourcing and creating the overall effect of this magnificent building. Mike and I spent several hours oohing and ahing at the marble columns on the ground floor to the huge tapestry and and even more unbelievable embroidery panel with contributions from each state. We went outside onto the grassed area and the view was unbelievable.



Looking from the roof over the old Parliament towards the War Memorial



Who thinks she is a Senator?




House of Reps.



FEBRUARY 8

We went to Fyshwick, south of Canberra, looking for a model shop and a motor bike shop. Found both but neither of them had what we were after.
After having a luckless morning back to Canberra Central which is a huge shopping complex with hundreds of specialty shops and supermarkets. We didn't need anything so wandered around for awhile getting lost and confused several times but it was most enjoyable

FEBRUARY 9

The Zoo beckoned today so off we went. Had a great walk around visiting all the big cats,white lions, Bengal tiger and Sumatran tiger, a fun Red Panda, some extremely playful monkeys of various species, my favourites the Meercats and so it goes on. Probably not one of the best zoos but we enjoyed ourselves.

On our way back into town we decided to visit the Telecom Tower on Black Mountain. The view from there was amazing and spent sometime walking around the tower getting a 360 view of Canberra and the surrounding mountains and water ways.



We went to the top open air viewing platform at
860 mts above sea level.




View down to base. Our Spyder bike is just left of middle of photo. Looks like a black dot.



























Lake Burley Griffin, Capt Cook fountain and old Parliament
House to the right




New Parliament House just right of middle.

















FEBRUARY 11

Pack up and fuel up day ready for our next short trip

FEBRUARY 12

Off to Yass today, only about 60ks down the road so a very easy morning.


FEBRUARY 13

Thought we would travel to Wee Jasper as there is a Cave there that we could go into.
We arrived just in time to catch an early tour and down we went with a character for  a guide. The tour was to last about 1 hour but an hour and a half later we had only seen half of the cave (guide liked to talk and because there were some amongst us giving some cheek-Mike included we were running late) the next group of people waiting for a tour were waiting so the guide left us down below and up he went to collect the next group to join us. The temp below was 16 and by the time our guide returned we were feeling the cold. Some of the formations were great and had very extensive explanations on how they were formed. By the time we reached daylight were were starving and freezing. we were below for 2 3/4 hours and no where to get food when we did leave. Wee Jasper is in a beautiful valley but there are no shops or fuel. People do live there but it is 50ks to civilisation.

Entrance to Wee Jasper

FEBRUARY 14

It was time to do Yass township where there are some very old buildings and the facades are fantastic. Mike was impressed with the Courthouse. Back home to relax and get ready for our next move.



This the second Court House built on this site in 1880
ending the use of the lashing tree that was removed
to build the bigger Court.