First of the Last Three Travel Days...

About 400 Ks is the distance from the Blue Mountains to Canberra, our intended destination for the night. We were on the road at 8:45, leaving our homey little cottage for we knew not what.

We were soon over and out of the Mountains, [1100 meters] and into rolling drier farmland. It could have been Ashcroft or the Kamloops area. Winter wheat, beef and sheep farming it seems is the thing to do here. Some of the winter wheat is already taken off, and some of the sheep are sheared, as it is now Spring here. [The clocks went FORWARD last week.] It seems odd when we are setting in for winter in Canada. It looks a little dry here to me, for 'spring'.

I find the country towns fascinating. They are neat and tidy, the buildings are well painted or maintained, and the town starts and ends abruptly. There does not seem to be a lot of sprawl at the edges. Many of the buildings put up in the early 1900's are still there, and most new buildings are built in a traditional style so the towns looks 'co-ordinated', architecturally speaking.







Our first real stop was for lunch in a town of 9,000 people called Cowra. I had never heard of it but Rod has always wanted to see it and this was his first opportunity. It is an important part of Australian Military history. In 1941 the Government established prisoner of war camps in Australia. Cowra was the 12th built.

In 1944, there were over 1000 Japanese plus at least the same of Italians, Chinese, Koreans and Indonesians, all separated but in the same camp. At the time it was part of the Japanese Military culture to never surrender. People who did so were considered 'non-persons' that is why they were so brutal to allied soldiers who surrendered. Somehow, these Japanese ended up prisoners.


On August 5th, 1944 in the very early hours, the now famous "Cowra Breakout", started, swarming and attacking the guards by climbing over the wires, protected by each carrying their blanket. Many of their huts were set ablaze. What ensued was bedlam and massacre. 234 Japanese were killed either then or in the ensuing days as they were rounded up in the surrounding countryside. Less than six Australians were killed.

What makes it all so ironic is the fact that the Australians were treating the Japanese prisoners in an extraordinarily humane manner, hoping that the many Australian prisoners of war held by the Japanese would be treated less harshly. Sadly, that was not to be.

A note of interest is that the Japanese dead at Cowra were buried and kept in such a nicely Australian maintained cemetery that after the war the Japanese government had ALL the dead Japanese soldiers buried on Australian soil exhumed and moved to the Cowra Japanese Military Cemetery. Now maintained by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Next we had a leisurely visit to the Japanese Gardens at Cowra. Such is the forgiving nature of man!


A few more interesting country towns and we were in Canberra by 5.00 PM.

I always had an inclination to see Canberra for some reason. After an hour we had seen it, sorry to say. Canberra is a purpose-built capital city built away from Sydney and Melbourne in the 1920's [?]. There was and still is very fierce rivalry between the two cities. Melbourne was the capital, but I suspect that Sydney had moved 'ahead' of Melbourne and there was pressure to move the capital there. King Solomon must have decided, it is situated between the two rivals in the middle of nowhere from my brief perspective.

From the air it looks impressive. There is a Grand Boulevard stretching for many kilometres leading up to the Parliament Building[s] on a hill. Unfortunately they look rather unimpressive, large grand and no doubt efficient but sterile and cold. I am sorry if any Aussies are reading this but compared to other Capital Buildings it is quite far down on my list at least.

The city is well planned but cold. There are 'clusters' of shops and eating places, obviously planned that way to stop the city from looking like most other cities. If you want a coffee or a place to eat, you have to know where to go. If you need an ATM, you can look for blocks and then find 6 in one strip. It is of course a city of government and corporate building, big, conservative and cold.

Every embassy in the world has a building here, some less grand than others. The most impressive is the Chinese. Canada's along with Britain's look like Youth Hostels built in the 1960's by a Russian architect.




If any of you have been to Moscow and seen the "Stalinist' type buildings and flats there, you have some idea of how I at least think Canberra looks. There are many, many points of interest that are well worth lingering here for, I just gave my impression on how I think it "looks".

[I do appear to be rather opinionated this morning don't I?].

Tomorrow we go to the War Memorial [Museum], before heading out for our last night on the road. An empty suitcase is going to look pretty darn good.

The very pretty purple flowers in the fields that went on for hundreds of kilometres is a weed know as 'McPherson's Curse', for obvious reasons, the cattle will not eat it but eat around it!


For some reason Australia has a plague of imported weeds, pests, and other obnoxious things imported either on purpose or accidentally. That is probably one reason their customs inspectors are so alert.

Update: Earlier this week we visited with my Cruise Tai Chi teachers Robert and Bronwyn. Robert has a medical issue that requires further testing. They are hopeful that they will be able to make the 2008 World Cruise this year as scheduled. For any of you reading this and so inclined that know the couple you may want to offer your prayers for a good and speedy outcome.