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For the first time during my trip, I hopped in a car hire and left the city behind. I headed into the countryside, well actually, the rural area in between Sydney and Canberra, the capital of Australia. There are only 10 major cities in Australia, including the aforementioned, then Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Cairns Brisbane, Hobart, which is the capital of Tasmania, Darwin and Alice Springs.

Although, Canberra and Sydney are only 260 kilometer apart, the land between them is very pastoral and completely rural. Rolling hills, pastures full of sheep and cows. I find it hard to analogize the land or compare it to the United States, but in a few places, the landscape reminded me of the gentle slopes of eastern and southern Pennsylvania. Other places were kind of like the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My drive took me through some land that could compare to the upper Midwest, starting from Colorado to Wyoming, or even the plains of Texas. I took this drive in the late fall, and most of the foliage is still green, even the grass is green and hasn’t started to take its winter nap.

I arrived in Canberra just before noon. The city is almost a century old and was designed by an American. When Australia became a commonwealth, which was granted by Queen Victoria just before she died, both Melbourne and Sydney laid claim to be the nations capital city. But, rather than risk a civil war, which would tear Australia apart, the wise politicians of the day made a decision to find a neutral site and build a city up from scratch. This is how Canberra came into existence.  I found the Canberra Australia hotel where I had made reservations and checked in. I’m looking forward to exploring this cities history further.