Up Up and oh a lizard and a plank!

Sunday

Decided to chill out on Sunday hadn’t felt great the night before and so had a bit of a lie in. If honest felt a bit washed out and sleepy. I got up around 10 and went to the Shopping centre and had a Skype. Was nice to see each other and it helped to brighten my day I love Skype. I also found the apple shop have a really good internet connection that’s not filtered. I had a wander around all the shops and also found where I have to get the Bus from on Tuesday. I picked up a few things from the supermarket and returned to have a late lunch. It was late afternoon and looking cloudy so watched a film on the laptop. It was about time for dinner and so had eggs and sausage sandwiches. After this I fancied a beer so went to the Transit bar under the YHA and had a couple of schooners [Aussie Beer Measures]  while I wrote some postcards. The barman was quite a laugh to chat to.

Monday

Was up earlier today and out by 9 as was going to get the bus over to the National Botanic Gardens. I got to the bus stop for about 9.15 to find that the bus I was after only ran during school holidays and that no other bus ran near to the gardens. So I walked about 2km to get there which included an interesting route through the University grounds.

I got there an at the information centre they had info on also how to get to the top of the hill called ‘Black Mountain’ which the gardens are built near the base of. At the top is also the Telstra tower which provides TV and radio to all of ACT. I had a wander through the gardens for around an hour all the time looking up at the tower at the top. Its only a 6km route up there I thought and its only 25’C and clear skies. So sure enough I headed up and only took about 30mins to get to the top as I had a bit of a cracking pace on. Well I got to the top and found I had gone beyond my T1 Hill Walking permit as its 811.9m high. So I planked the trig point and I then went to the tower and you can go up it around 70m and there is an observation room you can get a 360’ view over ACT. You can also go upstairs and outside to an open view. It was awesome I recon you could see for around 25miles.

After this I headed back down and to the through the gardens to the café where I treated myself to a milkshake! Last of the big spenders at $4.5 I also had my lunch here. I then wandered through the rainforest areas of the gardens and got pictures of many of the dragon lizards they have here and they get big! I saw one that’s body was around 30cm let alone his tail and he could move quickly, luckily he was more scared of me.

I then headed back and started to blog some before going to the Apple store to upload!

I plan tonight to have a pizza and beer for $10 downstairs in the bar and pack my bags. Tomorrow I’m of to Sydney!