Since I’ve been here, many people have asked me why I chose Canberra, which is well known for being a quiet town, over any other place. Well,
That Friday was St. Patrick’s Day. The first thing that I noticed was Canberra is not like New York where everyone is decked in green and is hammered by midday. All the bars and pubs were packed, but it was nothing wild. My friend Duncan, who is a Scottish transplant that moved to Sydney, and I decided to go to a brewery to celebrate the holiday. After a 30-40 minute walk, we arrived at Brentspoke Brewing Co., which was packed. We were able to find seats though and ordered a beer sampler, 4 different beers for $16. We went through two of these and I got a 12% alcohol beer as well. Apart from one of them, l all of the beers were pretty good. My favorite was actually a cider:
On Saturday, I rented a car through ANU car share for the day and decided to go hiking at Tidbinbilla again. There was this hike up to a peak called Gilbraltar’s Peak which took 3 hours round trip and left you with some amazing views. The hike started on grassy plains (where I saw 13 kangaroos) and gradually led to the mountains. In 2003, there was a bush fire that ravaged Tidbinbilla and decimated wildlife populations. 90% of the emu population died in that fire. That must have been a horrible day for the rangers. Walking up to the mountain, you can still see the scars from that fire in the form of charred trees. This was more prevalent at the bottom as the higher up you go, the
Having some energy left, I decided to walk the Birdigali Time Trail. I expected to see aboriginal rock art, but never did. I had a different experience instead. To get to the start of the trail you had to take the back path to Gibraltar’s peaks and then turn on to the trail. As I’m walking on the trail, I see mobs of kangaroos, who all stop what they’re doing to stare at me, It really gives you the feeling that you don’t belong there. Anyways, I was too caught up with the kangaroos to notice that I missed the exit for the trail. So I kept walking towards Gibralter’s Peak without realizing it. The hike gradually got harder and steeper, and after 30 minutes I finally turned back. I did end up finding where the turn was for the trail and said fuck it, I’ll hike the trail, even though by then I was exhausted. I followed the trail until it led to an open field with, I shit you not, over 100 kangaroos. I was able to get as close as a meter to them, It was a sight to be seen. By the end of the walk, I was utterly exhausted and made my way back to ANU. That day, I saw 150+ kangaroos and an emu; it was a pretty good trip.
The only notable thing I did that Sunday was going stand-up paddle boarding, which was actually extremely fun. I did it on the eastern end of Lake Burley Griffin (a huge lake in the middle of Canberra) at a place called Mongolo Teach, a place where many kayakers and canoers take off from. We spent the first half hour going over instructions on land before going into the water. Paddle boarding is hard. I fell four times just before I could even stand. I soon got the hang of it though and worked on some skills. In total, I fell in about eleven times in the hour we were in the water, but it’s something I would do again. I think despite having my plans cancelled, it was still a pretty good weekend.