Phillip to Canberra, The Bike Route

G'day mates. 

Today I left Phillip, the suburb where I am housesitting, for a bike ride into Canberra to the ANU and back again. Today's post is a picture record of the sites along the way. David offered his bike before he left, which was quite kind. It is one of those sit-upright kind of bikes with semi-mountain tires, rather than the speed oriented street bike with thin tires. I won't complain, since it was a wonderful ride and I experienced a lot of Canberra up close, but my buttocks and legs will, and did, when I finally returned 7 hours later. There are more pictures here.

OK, so the Australian Capital Territory (counterpart in the US is Washington DC) is overloaded in the north by the city and suburbs of Canberra and overloaded in the south with the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, parkland, open space and sheep/cattle ranches.

The Brindibella Mts flow through the southwestern side. The ACT is completely surrounded by the state of New South Wales; indeed it lies way down in the south eastern tip of the state.

Green space separates Canberran suburbs into 7 distinct districts, each of which has many distinctly named suburbs. Phillip, where I live now, is in the Woden Valley, and is one among 12 suburbs in the Woden area. A settler named the Valley in 1937 after the Anglo-Saxon, and therefore "pagan", god, Woden, a Father god. Our word Wednesday comes from this god's name.

Woden Valley was the first "satellite" of the central Canberran district to be built. The signs say that Woden Centre lies roughly 14 km (9 miles) from city centre by bike along the bike paths. I don't believe it, given the time it took me to bike into town. One of the three major hospitals of Canberra is here, across the street from David's house, and serves also surrounding areas of NSW.

Here are a couple of views traveling along the bike route. The roads and cars are barely visible, since the path runs next to the creek in the flood channel. I see a number of playing fields, mostly soccer, rugby and tennis. Here is a youth rugby team playing.

Unexpectedly, since I thought I still had quite a ways to go, I was riding across the dam that holds back Lake Burley Griffin near city centre. The rather large lake splits the city into two parts, north and south, with the Parliament Building sitting prominently on the southern side. The dam is on the far western side of the lake. Scrivener dam is named after the fellow, one Charles Scrivener, who suggested the site for the Australian capital in 1903. The lake is named after the American architect, Walter Burley Griffin, who won the design contest. Canberra follows his original design somewhat, but was changed over the years for many reasons, from the start of construction before WWII through the 1950's. For one, the lake is much larger and bears his name; the final layout ended up following Scrivener's original plans more closely than did Griffin's.

Circling the lake was easy; the bike path is well marked, well paved and except for a couple of not so steep hills, pretty flat. I was quickly on the ANU campus. The entire ride from Phillip, on my next to poorly shaped bike (for my body), was all of 1 hour at a modest pace with site seeing.

I'll explore the ANU campus and city centre another time. Right now, I'll show views around the lake, the Parliament Building, and the road home.

This week is Australian Science Week, so all sorts of science events are happening around Canberra. I stopped at the Academy of Science building, called "Shine Dome", and saw this old DeLorean with its own flux capacitor, reminding me of Back to the Future.. A venture into the theatre led me to a quite interesting presentation on the Physics of Computer Games.

The waterfront has some marvelous views of the Parliament building across the lake and of the large fountain that accentuates the National Carillon, seen as the "tiny" structure to the left of the fountain in the distance. The Carillon, a gift of the British people to the Australian people has some 55 bells covering four chromatic octaves. Several other national buildings surround the lake, among them the National Gallery, the National Museum, the National Library, and the High Court (like our Supreme Court).

Commonwealth Bridge spans the lake and leads directly to the Parliamentary Zone, capped by the Old and the New Parliament Buildings. Here are views of both from the park centered between them. Old Parliament first, then the new Parliament Building.

Reconciliation with the Aborigines has been a major concern over the last few decades with a formal apology from the Labour government given this last year. The history was much like American treatment of Native Americans, but the US has never formally apologized, as have the Australians. Here is a shot of Reconciliation Place just outside the High Court building.

The way home took me under a number of road overpasses and I was surprised to find them all well graffitied. I came to realize that the graffiti is also planned, and these fellows were quite well into their designs and having a grand time. I found these in Phillip, just before arriving back home 7 hours after my start. So the day was a very pleasant and interesting one of exploration.