Australia 2024 - Day 8

 Day 8 - July 5  Canberra  - Loftus

We decided to start today with a visit to Tidbinbilla Nature reserve to see if we could see some Australian wildlife.  It was a 45 min drive from Canberra and as we drove in there were 100s of kangaroos on the side of the road. But thinking we would see plenty more we drove right past them and on into the reserve.  The ranger (absolutely useless) suggested we do the wetlands loop walk so we took his advice and headed there, but it was a bit disappointing.  We saw one swan on her nest, a couple of other water birds, and one Bandicoot (they are much smaller than I expected) and that was it.  

Hey look we saw a Platypus!

Bandicoot

Once we got back to the car I was able to read the map a little better and I finally realised that what we wanted was the Eucalypt loop where all the koala's are, so we stopped in there briefly - were able to see the nesting pair that they had but we didn't have time to do another walk. 

                                         

 Had a quick morning tea at the playground and then headed out, hoping to check out the kangaroos on the way out since we had only seen about 4 in the reserve itself - in the parking lot in the way in...But of course they had all gone.  So we headed back to Canberra - was a bit disappointing really.

Got back just in time to pick up Kate from work again, and we headed out to Lunch - Since in the US it's technically the 4th July still we decided to go to a burger joint....well I have to say, they were good burgers.  Josh had the everything burger which was huge - Lexie and Kate had the Salmon burgers with beautiful big pieces of Salmon and I had the Vege burger with Haloumi and roasted veges and all were great - Grandpas Hot dog was ok - and definintely a good size!.

After lunch we went into the Glass works next door and checked out some of their glass - there were actually some people in the factory blowing glass and we were able to watch for a while which was fun, then Kate decided to walk back to her place - and Grandpa, the kids and I headed back to Sydney.

Obligatory shot of Josh asleep in the car with headphones and sunnie's - It's not a real holiday until we have this shot!

On the way home Dad stopped to show  me the Pauline Brothers Monastery - it's this huge church in the middle of nowhere  - but the weirdest thing is all these little chapel type things spread around the grounds - there were probably over 50 of these in all shapes and sizes.  Such a weird place!