Postcards from Australasia #11

Landing back from Lord Howe was a bit of a shock, from a sun drenched tropical island to the middle of a windy Sydney city then an hour or so drive down to Woollongong for an overnight before heading further south to Eden. 

Eden sits atop the Ben Boyd National Park and what a wonderful place it all is:

A particular highlight for us was eating dinner in our motel suite, watching whales pass with one exhuberent young humpback jumping for joy on the way, absolute magic!

We visited and explored Ben Boyd shower-dodging, finally the weather had caught up with us having had only one rainy day since early June.  A particular highlight was watching the Shearwater migration past Green Cape Lighthouse, literally thousands of birds of a number of different species, cruising past in the howling gale.

The lighthouse itself looked quite serene perched on the prominontory:

The next day we made our first foray into the State of Victoria, driving down to Mallacoota to explore around there.   The best spot was the camping ground and picnic area (this is becoming a bit of a theme on this trip).   While we were watching some birds a young Koala clambered down a tree pretty much next to us and then slimbed up another, changed its mind and crossed the road before climbing yet another tree:

I was trying to combine getting my camera, taking pictures amd stopping the odd car too to keep the animal safe (there's so much roadkill in Australia is's acutally very sad).   Another magic experience, as too was seeing this young Black (Swamp) Wallaby, looks like something chewed its ears.  It was munching away on something while trying to stay in cover:

From Eden, which we'd go back to again without hesitation, we drove inland and somewhat back on ourselves to Canberra, Helen paused for a snap in front of the old Parliament Building:

After checking-in to our hotel we walked down to visit Floriade:

It's a mini Kirkenhof with added stuff around it.   We spent an hour there before heading back.  The next day we touristed around the city, visiting the wetlands, the Australian War Memorial and ascending the Telstra Tower (in a lift).   The views of the surrounding landscape are amazing and thankfuly you're behind 10-foot fences which made it feel a little safer:

That night the sunset was spectacular as the sun descended below the rain clouds and behind the hills:

From Canberra it was on to the Snowy Mountains in Kozciusko National Park.   We took full advantage of a sunny morning to walk from the village up to Dead Horse Gap and towards the snow:

It was fun walking in the snow but a bit dodgy too, a lot of it was hollow with melting which made walking hazardous.  Rather than complete the shorter loop we therefore returned the way we'd come.   After the Snowy Mountains it was time to head back to Victoria and to turn the corner West.