12. Albury - Canberra - Coogee Beach (Sydney)

12. Albury – Canberra – Coogee Beach (Sydney)

We set off on our drive through the Heritage Route on our way to Albury.

Albury is an old town between Melbourne and Sydney. It is situated on the Murray river.

Nowadays it appears that it is a tourist stop. We drove out to Hume Dam. It was built between 1919 and 1936. When completed it was the second largest dam in the world.

When we were there they were releasing some of the water from the dam so the area was filled with birds looking for food.

It was very hot so we took a walk through the gallery and museum before having a stroll along the river watching all the children swimming and paddling their canoes.

The city park is small but beautiful.

They have an area there just for the children. Fairytale themed.

The loo (castle) was where you could sit on the throne.

Canberra was our next destination. Our friend Lorena and her family live there and we had been invited to stay with them for a few days. The day we arrived was Australia day and also Lorena’s friend Nada’s birthday.

We gate crashed the birthday lunch and drinks and met all their friends.

We had a great time. All Lorena friends made us very welcome.

We headed into the centre of Canberra to see some of the Australia Day Celebrations.

The party carried on later back at Lorena’s where we had a barbeque.

We had a day to ourselves so we headed into Canberra to visit some of the sites. Our first stop was the National War Memorial.

It has been given the honour of best museum in Australia many times and I can understand why. The building is extremely well laid out and honour the people from WW1, WW2 and all the more recent conflicts. The sections are laid out by year so that you can follow through as things happened.

The models and information are magnificent. There are many full sized aeroplanes and armoured vehicles to view.

We spent hours there before hunger forced us out. The view of the Australian Parliament from the steps of the memorial is magnificent.

We then visited the Australian Royal Mint.

Unfortunately they were not handing our free samples.

We had heard that the National Gallery was worth a look. They have a special exhibition on at the moment called “Hyper Real”. It has life sized models of people in various stages of their lives.

The models are extremely realistic. You can see the pores on the skin and veins beneath.

The security officer is one of the rooms was mistaken for one of the exhibits. In one of the rooms they have many old world leaders all in wheelchairs. Some of the wheel chairs move about the room.

It was a bit surreal.

Our last day in Canberra was spent with Lorena, her daughter Lesh and grandson Matteo.

Matti was entertaining us with his cheeky grin.

We took a trip to one of the winery’s close by where we had a wine tasting.

Think we must have had about eight different wines. In the late afternoon Lorena’s mother and father, her son Miguel and his fiancé Sam arrived so we had another barbeque.

It was great to meet up with the family that we had heard so much about. Thank you Lorena. We had a wonderful time in Canberra. Hope to see you again in Scotland soon.

We drove the final part of the road towards Sydney. We had booked accommodation near the beach at Coogee. The beach is a beautiful horseshoe bay.

There is a natural bathing pool on the far left edge of the beach. When the tide is out, it leaves a pool of water behind which is used as a swimming pool.

As the tide turns the waves crash over the rocks and the pool is submerged by the deep water. We spent a few hours on the beach topping up our tans.

Syd decided that he should shower off before we headed back.

Here it comes!

Where did he go!

All Clean!!!

There are lots of beaches in the Sydney suburbs. They all have cliffs which have been eroded by the strong waves that constantly pound the coast. Don't think it will be too long until this one breaks off.