Australia Road Trip: Blue Mountains to Canberra/Tinbinbilla NP, Day 5-6

February 5, 2016 10:45 pm / John

Hi All,

We were feeling a bit disappointed about our Kangaroo sightings. For whatever reason we both seem fascinated by these animals. On the drive from the Blue Mountains to our hotel outside Canberra we saw maybe 3-4 but had visions of whole herds bouncing along the way. Once checked into the hotel we drove a half our to the Tinbinbilla NP…..and oh, let the skippy show begin. Our count is now close to 140. We saw mainly grays kangaroos but one Swamp wallabies.

We took the scenic route….it was a lovely drive with some very nice wide highways to some very narrow steep roads!!! Of course, the signs said not recommended for trucks and what did we mainly see….trucks going faster than us….first time I’ve ever moved over to let a truck pass….whoa!!! We saw a lot of pasture land….sheep and cattle. And a lot of timber….mainly pine…..but not much farming….but there were signs for wineries!!!

Tinbinbilla NP: “Tidbinbilla offers outstanding wildlife viewing, bushwalking, great BBQ spots and fun for kids on the Discovery Playground. The nature reserve borders Namadgi National Park and is nestled between the Tidbinbilla and Gibraltar Ranges to the south of Canberra. With fourteen protected habitats including wetlands, grasslands, woodlands, wet and dry forests and sub-alpine areas, the reserve supports a wide range of wildlife.”

This is a nice little NP that had 10-15 easy to moderate walks of various lengths. We did the ones out of Black Flat, Eucalyptus forest, Sanctuary and Lyrebird trail. Al were excellent and in total we did about 8 miles. Besides the kangaroos and wallabies, we saw an Emu, several Koalas, many different kinds of birds and ducks including 2 enormous black swans, several sightings of platypus…..they were like whales, we have many pictures where they were….they would just come up to the surface, you could see their bill, then dart back down. We also ran into our first snake on the trail, a red-bellied black snake and gave him a VERY wide berth!Unfortunately we did not see any Lyrebirds….maybe as illusive as the Kiwi in NZ!!!

BTW….Kathy’s back is doing better….certainly not 100% and at times quite frustrating for her but so far she has been able to do all the walks with very little pain or after effects! We have now done 3 days of hiking and so far so good!!

Stats:
Traveled: 225 miles to Canberra, about 4.5 hrs; 520 miles total
Wrong turns: Zero….luv Gigi!!! Well, we did take a wrong turn in the NP….we were out of range for Gigi:((((
Kangaroo/”Roos”/Skippy count: ~40 today; ~140 total!!!
Skippy roadside warning signs: 16 today, 43 total
One Way bridges: 4 today; 14 total, can you believe that, thought we were done with all that in NZ!!!! But these have no right away signs so gulp!!!
Hotels: Alpha Hotel….just a bed, but it had a 2 seater spa!!!
Food: Thai takeout….just ok, but they delivered!

LIG!!!! Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon