My original plan was to cycle around Lake Burley Griffin on a bicycle but when I saw all the electric scooters that are around Canberra I thought hiring one would be a better way to go. There are 2 scooter hire places in our national capital and scooters are scattered throughout the suburbs. It is all operated through an app and you can just hop on and leave it anywhere you like for the next person. They cost 38 cents per minute. Great for going from A to B. They are GPS monitored and there doesn’t seem to be any security issues. The Visitors Information Centre also hires them out so I chose that as my starting point.
Here they charge $15 for 1 hour and $25 for 2 hours. I paid my $25, had my drivers license scanned, signed a form and after being shown the easy operation of it I was on my way.
It cruises at 20km per hour and up to about 25kmph downhill. Sometimes I had to manually power it up hills but as the terrain is fairly flat that was never an issue.
It was just so much fun! There is a path all the way around the lake. There is actually 3 “loops” or circuits you can go or you can just do one big loop as I did. I took a couple of little deviations to look at something in particular or to explore further. As my 2 hour time approached I realised I wouldn’t get back in time so rang them and just extended the hire for an extra hour. Quite simple. So for a total of $40 I had 3 hours of great fun and adventure. Apart from going around Government House at Yarralumla, you always have a line of sight to the lake.
Lake Burley Griffin was named after Walter and Marion Burley Griffin who were the architects of the Canberra Master Plan. Walter was always given the credit but it was Marion who had the real gift between the two.
Whether you walk, cycle, run or “scoot” in my case, the trip around the lake is a must do for anyone visiting Canberra.
rayaroundoz 