Thursday 6 March we were up really early and at 6.30 am left the apartment and walked down the street to drop off the keys to the managing agent. We then waited for an Uber to arrive. Which came about five minutes after the expected arrival time so not too bad. At Melbourne airport we quickly navigated the bag drop off system (having checked in online) and then through security. Pretty empty this early in the morning. We had breakfast then went to our departure gate…by which time we found out that the plane was delayed.

Eventually, about 45 minutes later than scheduled, we boarded the plane and took off towards Sydney. Why Sydney rather than fly direct to Canberra? Canberra flights are much more expensive (business demand pushes the price up I guess) and hire car companies charge a one way drop off fee (and we were ultimately flying out of Sydney home). Taking these factors into consideration it was the better financial option to fly into Sydney although it meant we were now facing a three hour drive on arrival….

We landed, got our baggage quite quickly, and then headed out to the courtesy bus area. We waited and waited but no Ace minibus came along – although we had let them know our estimated time of arrival (and flight details) when booking the car. We tried to go online to resolve the situation but that didn’t work – there were ‘no drivers in the vicinity’. Great, not! Finally we resorted to the old fashioned methodology of calling them on the phone – and yes, they were on the way, but we had to move ourselves across the road to a different collection point.

A Hertz courtesy minibus turned up so we asked if they would take us (Ace are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hertz International, dealing predominantly in the off-airport car rental market in Australia) and the answer was no! Hmmmm…. Eventually Ace turned up – we were the only customers – and we were transported to the car rental office which is actually a shared facility with Hertz. Go figure!

Inside the office there were some Chinese customers who were fussing – their car was not ready and English was difficult for them – they even had to ask how to actually start the car! This request made me giggle but I was told off by Richard for my lack of empathy. There was also a guy who turned up with his dog and was told to tie it up outside. He did so and was then told he could not collect his booked hire car because dogs (other than service animals) were not allowed in rentals – the guy behind the desk was pretty harsh telling the guy dump the dog or no car! The guy was clearly distressed by this news…but I do remember reading it in their small print…so he left and sat outside the facility while he worked out what to do next. Felt very sorry for him. Sigh…

We eventually got dealt with and, already behind schedule by around 1 1/2 hours, we were upgraded to a slightly larger petrol CX-50 which is a compact crossover SUV produced by Mazda.

Delighted to finally be on our way we took off and drove towards the Australian Capital Territory. We stopped at a service station for some refreshments and a comfort break and, eventually, arrived at our apartment block in Canberra. Getting the keys to the apartment and the fob to enter the car park was easy enough but, despite driving around and around, we couldn’t actually find our allocated parking space. As this is a privately-owned block it was important that we only parked in the nominated place…. Eventually we got out of the car and walked up and down – I headed towards the apartment lift thinking there might be a map or something left in the apartment for us. And, lo and behold, right by the lift was our space! Phew…mystery solved LOL. We quickly parked the car and unpacked.

We were delighted with the accommodation – two bedroom unit on the top floor this time – and the facilities. So we set out on foot to the Canberra Central Mall which was a five minute walk away for some provisions. But afterwards ended up stopping in the Asian Food Court, had a Chinese meal and a couple of beers, before heading back for an early night.

Later on we contacted Nigel and Sandy who we had missed in Caloundra – we knew that their schedule would overlap with us at some point, and we couldn’t believe it when we realised that they were staying just outside Canberra…. What a lovely coincidence! So we quickly made arrangements to meet them in the morning as they were going to show us around as they had previously lived here.

Friday morning Nigel and Sandy picked us up at 11 o’clock – gosh it was so lovely to see them again – and we headed off to Mount Ainslie to see the views of the city from this elevated lookout.

Afterwards we visited Old Parliament House which was splendid….old leather seats, a ‘Speaker’s Chair’ and lots of Westminster-looking architecture…this is where the Federal Parliament sat from 1927 to 1988. We visited both the House of Representatives (the Commons) and the Senate (the Lords)…. after checking out some political satire first. No country was left untouched by the various artists….nor any topical subject ignored.

Moving on we headed to Nicholls which is a quaint English village including a traditional pub, of course! We went into the George Harcourt Inn for lunch and had a really good feed of traditional English favourites – from fish and chips, bangers and mash to a ploughman’s platter.

During lunch we told Sandy and Nigel of our plans for Saturday – which was to go to the Queanbeyan Rodeo. We had seen adverts for this en route to Canberra and it had always been something we had wanted to experience….they were of the same persuasion…so we all booked our tickets online there and then. Yay! Saturday sorted LOL.

After lunch and a great catch up we headed back to the City to visit the New Parliament House which was built ‘up the hill’ atop Capital Hill and was opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, in May 1988. This was very different with lots of marble…and vast amounts of seemingly unused space….

After exploring this modern building, again with visits to the Senate and the House of Representatives, we concluded our ‘tour’ at this point and Sandy and Nigel took us back to our apartment. We rested up and, despite earlier complaining that we couldn’t eat again for a week after our hearty lunch, we decided to go for a walk. We ended up in the West Civic Pub for supper where we shared a meal…. And lovely it was too.

Saturday morning we headed off to the rodeo in Queanbeyan – Nigel kindly offering to drive us again as they had to drive anyway, staying in a place called Vass about an hour outside Canberra CBD. En route we had breakfast on the Kingston foreshore before heading off to Queanbeyan.

We were very excited although not quite sure what to expect. We arrived…yeehah!…checked out the cowboy hats and boots before taking some seats in the stands for the first part of the show…. Well it was amazing! We saw bareback horses, bucking horses (specifically bred for this purpose), bulls (large and small), lassoing steers with many iterations from catch and tie down / team lasso (neck & leg) / lasso & tie / lasso only (neck). There were both cowboys and cowgirls involved in the competitions – and some pretty talented kids too. There were also some speed events with horses racing between bins on a circuit.

At lunchtime we headed over to get some drinks….and a bite to eat. Heading back to the arena and we realised that the crowds had filled in and there were no longer seats available in the stands. So we found some chairs and sat quite close to the railings keeping us safe from the rampaging horses and bulls…great view until the kids came and stood in front of us. Hey ho…. Everything appeared incredibly dangerous and a couple of people being thrown around by bulls / horses showed us very quickly how it could all go so badly wrong. The medics were on the scene immediately though and I have to say, the back-up staff at this event were splendid. The bull athletes who ‘encourage’ the bulls to depart the arena once they have got rid of their burdensome riders – they do this on foot – to the “rounder ups” on horseback who collect the loose horses once the riders have been despatched to the dirt and the (not so funny) clowns who entertain the crowd when the arena is being set up for the next competition.

Such an exciting day out – and will just leave you with a range of photos to give you a flavour….

Sunday we were supposed to be leaving Canberra but, as Cyclone Alfred was expected to hit Brisbane and the bad weather (heavy rain) was anticipated to come inland we decided to stay a couple of more days – especially as we now had friends to share it with! Sadly we couldn’t stay in our apartment as it was fully booked after our departure but we found another one about 10 minutes walk away online.

So on Sunday we checked out of one – headed to the Kingston foreshore for breakfast, then onto the National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery – where we particularly enjoyed the water features and the lake.

We then went shopping for some provisions before checking into our next apartment which we found easily….this was different in that it was a serviced apartment with a reception desk and everything. So checked in, got the keys, and a fob to access the car park. The car park had the narrowest entrance ever and the guy warned us it was very tight underground too having to negotiate a 90 degree turn immediately at the bottom of the slope…so as our car was a little larger he gave us permission to park in the disabled bay or the bays with the yellow striped lines as they were easier to access.

So with both of us breathing in (and turning the wing mirrors parallel with the car) we drove towards the car park entrance. We squeezed through with no problems and got parked up easily. The walls had huge chunks out of them so clearly this had caused previous guests some difficulty…. Good job Richard! We then unpacked the car again and used the lift to our apartment….and very nice it was too. We then took ourselves off to the Australian War Memorial…..and the rest will follow in the next blog. Come back soon.

Bye for now, Jan