Wednesday 30th June - Blue Mountains - Canberra
Headed off this morning in the knowledge that we know now that 'Manchester' means linen - we spotted the sign in a supermarket and asked . About a 300k drive to Canberra with a cold windy day, barren brown landscape and an empty Lake George (they've only had 30 or 40 ml of rain this year compared with 400ml this time last year) on the way. Walked up the main street to check out some motels before settling on one (The Rexx which has been frequented by famous people in the past if you look at the pictures though not now if you look at the furniture!). By the time we checked in it was almost dark so we confined ourselves to our room, only emerging to go to the restaurant downstairs which as it turned out had closed early! So we ate in our room instead - fish curry and pork chops. Having watched Tim Henman lose at Wimbledon again, on Australian TV the overriding impression of Australian sportspeople (especially when it comes to England!) is pretty arrogant.

Thursday 1st July - Canberra
A day of culture in the capital started with us back-tracking to find a map! Our newly bought coats both served us well while we walked in the winter winds to grab some sandwiches for breakfast in a cafe . Headed on to the National Museum of Australia for an interactive and well documented history of the people, culture, land and legacy of Australia. A walk around the perimeter of the lake which divides Canberra brought us to the High Court of Australia - all the law-makers of the country were away on holidays but the people left behind made a good job of filling us in on the legal intricasies of Australian law. A quick 3/4 hour tour of the National Gallery brought us in contact with such luminaries as Magritte, Picasso and Monet. A stop in the Waldorf Hotel was required by this stage and the beer and champagne tasted even better when it was only 1.90 pounds a round! We left 2 hours later much happier as the afore-mentioned hour had suggested and dined in an Italian where the windows were sellotaped together - perhaps indicating it's not always this cold at other times of year!

Friday 2nd July - Canberra
After an hour or 2 to assess our hangovers we headed off into the local mountains to see Canberra 'Deep Space Centre' - one of only 3 in the world (the others being in California and near Madrid) that communicate with distant spacecraft exploring the solar system . Ironically, the film we were watching about a space probe exploring Saturn (Cassini) made it onto tonight's world news just about on schedule as predicted by the film we'd seen in the centre earlier! Derek rediscovered his early childhood fascination with all things space and planet related. The Australian War Museum was our next destination in the 'avo (as they say round here) - we got there in the end despite some very strange signposting on the way. The place itself was a minefield (no pun intended) of information especially on World Wars I and II though it did have features on all wars that've involved Australia in any small way in the last 100 years. Overall the impression left is one of a very proud nation not afraid to be ashamed to say so. A place called Dickson is known in Canberra as 'Little China' so we headed there for food. After deciding on the Ethiopian option (why not!?) we had to resort to our original choice of Indian in the end after the Ethiopian was full up when we showed up after spending too long in O'Neills pub (but not that long)!

Saturday 3rd July - Canberra - Sydney
Found out that our new credit cards are on their way! Hurray! Today we visited the Australian House of Parliament which seemed to quite similarly based to the one in the UK. The Queen still turns up now and again! We got there just in time for the 10am guided tour of the Federal House (the MPs or whatever they're called) and the State House which tries to balance off the stuff that gets through the elected house. Hit the road for a 300k drive back to Sydney - got back just in time to hear the car rep say 'you were lucky we're open' even though we didn't care that he was open as we could've just dropped the keys in! Anyway just a short jog accross the road was the comfort of our motel room - soulless but clean and comfortable so we're not complaining! Wound up back in our favourite noodle bar in King's Cross for tea. Off to Adelaide tomorrow to meet Sue's long lost relations.