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.
