Kosciuszko NP, Canberra and Murramarang NP

After visiting the Travel Doctor in Wodonga and having a cocktail of vaccinations in preparation for our trip to South East Asia we drove to the stunningly beautiful Kosciuszko National Park and had a few nights enjoying the scenery. We had lots of rain, wind and mist so we didn't manage to walk to the top of the highest mountain in Australia but we did see lots of kangaroos and other fab wildlife and it was nice being in such a lovely place.

Below is the view from Charlotte Pass; these clouds were moving at 90 km per hour - fun to watch:

We left the wilderness and drove to Canberra to get our top-up vaccinations. We had a few days sight-seeing in the capital and it was much greener that we expected.

Here is a view of Parliament House, which was opened in 1988 by our lovely Queen:

This is the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, which has intermittently existed on the lawns of Old Parliament House since 1972 and permanently since 1992.

We walked to the wonderful War Memorial and spent hours looking around the very detailed and moving WW2 exhibit.

They also had an exhibit for the service men that had been awarded the Victoria Cross and we found a 'Gurney' who fought in WW2 and been killed but was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Here's the view from the war memorial all the way down to the Old Parliament House and the new Parliament House.

We left the capital and drove to Batemans Bay and visited the fabulous Birldland Animal Park.

Here is Nic eating a 'Golden Gaytime' (no comment)

We also caught a couple of wallabies procreating - nice!

We met Peanut the wombat

and we were lucky enough to give him a cuddle:

This is Jasmine. She was supposed to be the one we cuddled but at 2.30 she was fast asleep. She is so cute it's ridiculous and we got to play with her (through the bars).

This is a Corella called Ned Kelly, thus named as he likes to stick his head in a can?

We stayed a couple of nights in Murramarang National Park.. The campsite is in the forest and we could see the ocean and this beach from our van. It's strange being back at the Pacific Ocean, which we left behind last July.

The first night was blissfully quiet but the following day a bunch of blokes turned up on a Stag Do and drank all day. They were quite amusing to listen to though and one of them had a great laugh like Santa.