Road Trip - Day 3: Canberra to Sydney

We were up early (still some residual jet-lag effects that have us waking up at 4am), to be greeted by a clear and crisp Canberra morning.  We checked out of the hotel and set off to do some sight seeing and check out a couple of national monuments in the nation's capital.

First stop was a drive up to the Mt. Ainslie lookout.  From this vantage point you overlook the entire city.  As it was a nice clear morning we had a great view.



View of Canberra from the Mt. Ainslie Lookout - Australian War Memorial in the foreground with Parliament House on the hill on the far side of Lake Burley Griffin

After getting a view of the city from the lookout we decided we would stop briefly at the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House before departing for Sydney.

The war memorial is a very large and moving place that recognizes all wars and confrontations that the Australian military has been involved with and the men and women that have served and fallen in those conflicts.

Below is a photo of 'Simpson and his Donkey' with a wounded soldier.  At Gallipoli in 1915, Simpson was a medic and his donkey was essentially an ambulance.  Together the two went forward multiple times to the battle front to retrieve wounded soldiers and return them to the field hospital.  Unfortunately, Simpson was killed after just four weeks of the battle.  The statue and story is very moving.

Simpson and his Donkey

A quick drive past Parliament House to see where the politicians tend to behave like children under the guise of running the country (they are the same the world over), and it was back on the road towards Sydney.

We made it into Sydney without event and checked into our hotel overlooking Coogee Beach - this place was our treat for ourselves and the views all along the beachfront were beautiful.

Heather on the Coogee Beach boardwalk

Tomorrow we will confirm our appointment to pick up Bernard from quarantine and then spend time in the Sydney area as we watch the clock slowly move towards collection time on Sunday morning... we can't wait!