My big day out

I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep.  I felt like a little kid who had ‘had a big day’.  And I had.  It was one of those rare days that just turned out amazing, but was totally unexpected.  Much like a kid who has their entertainment pre-organised by an adult, they just turn up and have all the fun. My day kind of worked out the same way.

 

There were three things that we wanted to do when we came to Canberra: visit my mum, bike ride around Lake Burley Griffin, and sail on Lake Burley Griffin.  We also bought the kayaks with us, so having a kayak on the lake would be pretty cool too.

 

We are staying in the Yarralumla Sea scout hall.  It is right on the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin.  The view is amazing and the hall is really neat and clean and beautifully set up.  Although we are essentially camping, the location is fantastic.  Most of Canberra has vacated the city, so the whole place is quiet and easy to get around.  It is brilliant, definitely the best time to visit, in my view.  I hate crowds and the most crowded place in Canberra at the moment are the cycle ways.  Canberrans are cycle crazy.  And well they might be as they have a fabulous network of cycle paths to enjoy.  The Government has built the infrastructure and the populous are flocking onto in droves, proving that if you provide the community with a good place to recreate, they will automatically get out and avail themselves of the opportunity to live a more fit and healthy lifestyle.

Avail us of the cycle ways we have. They extend in both directions from the scout hall and give us the choice of a number of picturesque walks to take.  Weston Park is very close by and an easy walk from the hall.  Unfortunately we are not allowed to take the dog, but the play ground is a big hit with Ellie (and Harry).

The mornings by the lake are just beautiful.  Canberra starts its day in a cool way, with barely a puff of wind.  The lake is still and serene, the air clear and fresh.  We started our day with a walk to Weston Park.  The walk was lovely along the picturesque lake, and it was shown off to its best.  I found myself yearning to get the kayaks out and get onto it.  The walk meandering along the foreshores of the Weston park peninsula and took us longer than expected, so my anticipation levels were rising.  I had to tell myself to relax and enjoy the moment.

For lunch we had left overs from the big barbeque that we had the night before.  We had invited Steve’s parents and my brother and sister in law around for dinner. There was plenty leftover to last a few days for lunch, so the kids made themselves sandwiches.  Then we headed out to find out about how much it would cost to hire a bike and a sailing boat. 

First stop was Mr Spokes bike hire on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.  Mr Spokes has been there forever, I certainly remember it being here when I was a child growing up in Canberra.  We were immediately pleased that their rates for a family were very reasonable.  They seemed not to be too picky about the children’s ages and accepted our hoard of 2 adults, 2 teenagers, 1 primary schooler and a baby as a family.  How often do you go to places and a family is defined as 2 adults and 2 kids?  So for just $90 we were able to hire bikes for four hours for everyone, and a trailer for Ellie.  They weren’t busy, so we decided that tomorrow we would definitely come and hire bikes.  So tick, that was the first thing that we wanted to do covered.

Second stop was the Yarralumla Yacht Club.  Here there were sailing boats galore of all sizes and shapes. With much excited anticipation we walked around to the sailing hire place to only find that it was closed for the entire period that we were going to be in Canberra.  What a major bummer.  There were people on the Lake flaunting their sailing and here we were only able to look on with forlorn longing.

If we couldn’t sail the lake, the next best thing was to get the kayaks out.  Hiring a sailing boat could be something that we could leave for next time we visited Canberra.  We headed back to the hall and dropped off everyone except me.  I headed to the shop while the others either kayaked or walked around to Yarralumla Bay swimming area.

After finishing the shopping I met them at the bay and got to go out on one of the kayaks.  The water was a bit choppy, not quite the serene glassy ambience of the morning, but still heaps of fun.  Harry had a ball racing the kayaks between the pontoons.  He would swim and we would paddle.  At times it was quite challenging in the choppy waters.  We continued to gaze longingly at the sailors, but had reconciled ourselves to the fact that we would make sure we sailed next time that we came to Canberra.

Steve and Sarah paddled the kayaks back to the hall, Evan walked Ellie back in the pram and I drove the car back with Harry. As we walked into the courtyard area, Harry noticed that the shed door to the sailing boats was open.  I dropped the shopping on the ground and rushed into the shed calling out a friendly hello.  The shed was set up with an amazing array of sailing boats, canoes and boards.  The life jackets, masts and paddles were all arranged neatly around the walls.  This was one very well organised and well cared for outfit.  I missed the people who had been in the shed as they had already gone out the lake side door and closed it having already got their boats out.

Harry and I hastened around to the lake to find that Dad and Sarah had already made it back to shore outside the hall and had already started talking to the people launching the scout boats.  We introduced ourselves and wistfully mentioned our desire to have a go at sailing.  They hinted that they might let us have a go a bit later.

With hopeful anticipation we entered the hall and settled down to a game of cards.  Ellie was asleep and we were basically killing time until we were going to go and visit mum at the nursing home.  The kids taught Steve and I how to play Governors and Convicts, and just as I won my first hand and was starting to get the hang of the game, Ed the scout leader we had met earlier popped his head in the door of the hall and said that there was a boat free if we wanted to have a sail.  Steve, Sarah and I looked at each other for about a nano second, slammed our cards on the table and said ‘yeah’.

We rushed around to the front of the hall and donned life jackets.  Ed helped us get into the boat and gave a few pointers to help us navigate this new boat.  It was a bit bigger than the lasers we had learnt to sail in Urunga.  This one was called an Envy and it had a centre board rather than a dagger board and had much more room under the boom.  This was also to be the first time that we would be setting off from and returning to a wharf.

Being under pressure and being watched by complete strangers Sarah and I put Steve at the helm.  He wasn’t going to come at first because he wanted to stay behind and look after Ellie.  We convinced him that Evan and Harry were quite capable, so he jumped in with us.  We manoeuvred our way out into the lake and under the watchful gaze of Black Mountain we started to randomly tack and gibe our way around the lake.  We didn’t head too far from our setting out point in case we’d have trouble making our way back.  Rule number one: head off into the wind, so that it is easier to get back home.  Once Steve had us under way, I took over the helm and had a few laps of the lake between the tower and the willows.  It was pretty gusty, so we alternated between almost being becalmed and ripping along quite fast.  At one point I sent the boat into a 360 degree spin and nearly capsized us.  I still don’t know how I did that, but Sarah instructed me to let out the main sheet, and I think that that helped right things.

Sarah took over the helm and did a few more laps, then brought us back to the wharf.  Originally we were going to make Steve do that bit as it had to be done very carefully, and in front of an audience.  But Sarah stepped up to the mark and did an absolutely superb job of skippering the boat into the dock and pulling up ever so gently at the wharf.  I was so proud of her.

It felt like we had been out for about half an hour, but Evan said that it was actually closer to an hour and a half.  We were so lucky to have a sail, especially after we had thought that our chances of getting one were dashed.  I felt so excited about it that I felt pumped all night and then had trouble settling down to sleep.  Yay, we managed to cross off a major TO DO from our list of things that we wanted to do in Canberra.