Australian Capital Territory

Cycling in Canberra: Lake Burley Griffin Circuit

Distance - 32 km or three separate rides of 5km, 11km and 16km
Terrain - Flat and sealed the entire way.
Difficulty - Really easy - this is a great family ride.
Highlights - Lake Burley Griffin and all the iconic public buildings on its shores.
Map and Info - For a 'Lake Cycling Loops' map and info click here. For a Canberra/Queanbeyan cycling and walking map click here.

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Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, A.C.T - The best place in the world to see a platypus.

My search for the elusive platypus is over. I have finally found the best place in the world to see these shy little creatures and, like the whales we saw in Sydney recently, it turns out they are almost in our own backyard.

When the first sketch of a platypus was sent to England from Sydney in 1798 the animal seemed so strange it was dismissed by many as a hoax.*   When a platypus skin ...

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Floriade and Tulip Top Gardens

Tulips came to Europe in the mid-1500s. Native to the Ottoman Empire, the first tulip bulb was sent to Vienna in 1554 from where the flowers found their way to Amsterdam and into history - economic history that is, not botanical. You see tulips were the cause of the world's first recorded financial bubble - and it was a big one.

The Dutch literally went crazy over tulips and the crazier they went the higher prices for tulip bulbs became. In about 1624 an Amsterdam man declined an offer of 3,000 guilders for one bulb. It is said that not long afterwards, Rembrandt received about half that sum for his now famous painting The Nightwatch. 

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