Entry 3 = Canberra with a hot air balloon & enlighten festival.

3 - Canberra - March 2017 

We have been to all of the capital cities of Australia with Canberra our favourite city to visit. There are so many various activities one can participate in around Canberra throughout the year. We have been to one of the main attractions, the War Memorial 3 times over the last 9 years, with additional displays each visit and we are still in awe of the atmosphere created at the War Memorial. 

Adding to the attraction of Canberra our son Tim and wife Penny now have a home in Canberra providing additional incentive for us to visit. We always look forward to our time spent with Tim & Penny and the added bonus to further enjoy some of the different Canberra events on offer. 

With Tim & Penny off at work and our planned activities for the evening to attend a pre-season football match we reminisced over our younger days at the footy when attending the footy went hand in hand with pies and pasties for tucker at the game. With this in mind we spent most of the afternoon chopping fresh food up into small squares making fresh pasties for tea at the football. We met Tim & Penny at the football oval when they finished work. The food was delicious and we appreciated the high standard of play at the football match.

Our timing for arrival at Canberra was to experience another new highlight for us, the Canberra annual hot air balloon festival, “Canberra Balloon Spectacular” and associated activities over a long weekend. Balloons come from around the world to participate. 

The first day of balloon activities the four of us we were up at 5.15 am to make our way to the grounds in front of old Parliament House, where the balloons launch at first light. We gathered around some of the balloons viewing the activities required to get a hot air balloon from its packed away position on a trailer to set up and inflation. Many other people seemed to have woken up early as we were accompanied by hordes of other people looking on.

It was a fantastic spectacle watching the balloons slowly inflating, taking shape. 

Unfortunately as the balloons were inflating a fog started to settle around us obstructing vision, negating a safe passage for the balloons flight. We watched on for a couple of hours but alas the fog refused to disperse.

We do like this photo with old parliament house seen under the humming bird

Our attention started to waiver and we were off to obtain a yummy breakfast at a nearby café. 

With content stomachs we were off on a walk around some of Lake Burley Griffin with a newly refurbished Captain Cook Memorial Jet Fountain shooting water 152 metres up into the air as a central focusing point.

We arrived home around midday where we managed to catch up on some lost sleep. 

Canberra is populated with a large diversity of people from around the world. This has resulted with many different types of food on offer around Canberra enticing people to experience food from different cultures. One of our home meals Tim prepared a roast duck meal a first for him and us. It was very taste-ee.

Another Canberra activity during this period was an “Enlighten” event with artists presenting an “Electric Canvas” across 6 iconic buildings during the evenings with spectacular architectural projections illuminating the buildings and surrounding areas. The projections on all of the different buildings had been individually designed taking into consideration the architectural design of each building with no overflow of light projections onto other areas other than the targeted spot. The light displays were constantly changing on each building. It was brilliant.

Parliament House just prior to illumination time.

Old Parliament House

Blank canvas just prior to below illumination

This building had a photo booth where you could have your portrait taken which was then projected onto the building face. The individual picture appeared to move across the building facade on a conveyor belt. At the time the line-up for the photo booth appeared to be in excess of 50 people dampening the appeal for us to participate. In hindsight maybe we should have participated in this display due to its special significance and possibly a one off for us?

“CLOUD” created from 6,000 re-purposed incandescent light bulbs with pull chain switches.

One afternoon we walked around the National Arboretum and thoroughly enjoyed the bonsai display.

We spent five wonderful nights with Tim & Penny. After assessing our different route options (do we travel down the coast from Batemans Bay or explore the Snowy Mountain Region or travel inland towards warmer weather) adding consideration for the projected weather conditions over the following week we decided to explore some of the Murrumbidgee River Corridor Reserves sticking with our preferred travelling distances and we set camp at the Cotter Campground about 35 kilometres down the road.