When was the last time you walked up Mt Ainslie? Even though it’s so close to the city and I see it every day on my way to and from work, it’s been a while.
When I first moved to Canberra and started working on improving my fitness, I was heading up Mt Ainslie most weekends and often weeknights during the summer months after work.
I’m not much of a gym goer for the cardio side of things so walking up Mt Ainslie and running around Lake Burley Griffin was a much more fun way to work on getting fit than running on a treadmill.
Eventually I moved my walks over to Mt Majura and then started branching out all across the ACT after growing bored of the Mt Ainslie walk and no longer feeling challenged.
But with a brilliant spring day dawning on Sunday and being stuck in Canberra on call for work, I thought I’d head up Mt Ainslie once again and reacquaint myself with the area.
It was a beautiful walk up with the bright yellow wattle contrasting against the majestic grey eucalyptus gums, and I saw a lot of beautiful crimson rosellas hanging around the wattle. I took my time heading up to admire the views and enjoy the sunshine.
I’ve seen it many times before, but I still enjoy the view from up the top across the lake and over to Old Parliament House and the current Parliament House following the well-defined red line of Anzac Parade.
As usual, there were a lot of people walking up Mt Ainslie, both locals and tourists alike, and many people with dogs.
Mt Ainslie is my go to viewpoint to show Canberra to visitors. I think it’s the best viewpoint of the city to show the layout of Canberra. It’s easy to access by foot or car and I’ve never had any trouble getting a park.
I realised while I was up the mountain that it’s also been a while since I made a visit to the Australian War Memorial, and also I haven’t visited the National Portrait Gallery since my first week in Canberra in 2013. I admit that I get complacent having these eminent national attractions in my backyard but should make more of an effort to revisit these sites over the coming months.
Now that spring is here (although I’m waiting for the onset of that week or two of cold again as usually happens in the first half of the season) I expect a lot of people will be out and about enjoying the many natural and cultural assets of Canberra.
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