Canberra

Mum and I headed up to Canberra and spent the night at the Avenue Hotel, in the heart of Canberra. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant, Marble & Grain, where I had beautiful melt-in-your-mouth slow braised beef cheeks.

For breakfast we headed across the road to Gather Cafe, which was bustling with the morning coffee crowd and served a great menu of seasonal, local foods. We then headed to the National Arboretum for a look at the bonzai and some morning tea in the cafe.

We then headed to Jamala Lodge at the National Zoo, where we had a substantial “high tea” waiting for us. The lodge is filled with a great selection of African items, has an aquarium on one wall, and an enclosure with monkeys outside one of the windows. Plus the presentation of the food and drinks is amazing.

For the afternoon we had a guided tour of the zoo, then settled in to our room – which opened onto an enclosure with meerkats. The weather was a bit drizzly, so both they and us were not inclined to spend much time outside, but we did get to see them being fed.

Before dinner we had drinks on the balcony, where we were introduced to a pair of lions and hyenas. Then we headed in to dinner, for some more tasting and well presented food.