OK, I’m going to admit it right here… this post is way too long! Because we crammed so much into one week here, and I want to record at least a snippet of our travels because this is how I will remember down the road.
Sydney Harbour is HUGE. It is the largest natural harbour in the world, and Sydney uses it well. There are ferries running everywhere, and they are fast, frequent, comfortable and easy to use. You purchase an Opal Card when you arrive in Sydney, say at the airport, load it with some money when you buy it (from your credit card) and then you can “Tap on and Tap off” any train, bus, light rail or ferry. When you tap on, it knows where you are, (even what bus stop!) and when you tap off, it computes the fare and deducts it from your card. You can replenish the value of the card from an app on your phone. (or several other ways) The coolest feature was that if you travel up to a certain limit within a week, or even within a single day, further travel is at no charge!
One of the more colorful areas in Sydney is the Circular Quay, at the junction between the downtown area and the harbour. There are dozens of ferries, tour boats, jet boat thrill rides, and even one cruise ship there all the time. Every day is a different cruise line docked in Circular Quay; I guess they schedule their times out years in advance so everyone gets a turn.
At one edge of the Circular Quay is the Sydney Opera House. It juts out into the harbour, so is visible from many angles, especially if you are traveling by boat. If you follow the shoreline from the Quay around past the Opera House, you find yourself in the Royal Botanical Gardens.
The gardens are very beautiful, and really huge. It’s especially interesting that the gardens can be so pretty and quiet, right on the edge of the city. So you see gorgeous landscaping framed by super tall skyscrapers.
Almost touching the Royal Botanical Gardens is Hyde Park, (just like in London.) I put some pictures of that park in last week’s blog, but here is a shot of St. Mary’s Cathedral, bordering Hyde Park.
One day we took a ferry all the way to Perramatta… about a 1.5 hour ferry ride, if you did it all in one go. The ferry makes many stops, just like a local bus would. Immediately after you go under the Harbour Bridge, you see this cheesy amusement park, with the giant face… you enter the park by sneaking in the open mouth of that huge face. If we’d had more time, I’d have liked to check it out just to see how well they formed his maxillary arch.
We chose to stop at Cockatoo Island, for the interesting history there. When Australia was just a British colony, and England liked to send prisoners there, they ended up on Cockatoo Island. Many prisoners served their time on the island, which in a way reminded me of Alcatraz. But here the water seems so peaceful, and it’s not that far out in the harbour… why couldn’t you swim?
You can see the ruins of jail buildings, and even a tunnel that cuts under the high mesa that most of the buildings sit upon.
Eventually the island was no longer a men’s prison… it was a girl’s reform school. And later, leading up to the second World War, shipyards were built to create and repair ships. Now that enterprise is gone, but there are tents available and you can come camp on the island. It looked like lots of Boy Scout types were there when we visited.
One stop, where we didn’t get off, was Abbotsford. I include this for our Canadian friends who live near Abbotsford, B.C., especially Chuck who let us visit his home in Abbotsford.
The ferry eventually arrived at Perramatta… we had figured it would be a small town surrounded by nature. Wrong. It’s still city, with more super tall buildings.
We did like checking out an Oriental market, with fun produce.
The two things we hoped to see on our trip to Perramatta, were the Elizabeth Farm, and another Experimental farm, both dating back to the late 1700’s. It was getting very hot, and we hiked uphill seemingly forever, only to find the Elizabeth Farm Visitor Centre was closed! (We hadn’t researched that very well!) A few blocks away we found the remains of the other farm… that rectangle below. Well, we had a great boat ride and relaxed on a train all the way back to our hotel.
Another day’s outing took us to Bondi Beach and Beyond. (Bondi is pronounced like 007’s ocular organ)
A train ride and then a connecting bus gets you to the popular beach. You can walk a trail south along the coastline, and see beach after beach, with beautiful rocky cliffs in between. We walked the length of the trail, to the town of Coogee.
The Iceberg Pool is a famous salt water pool, made all the more interesting by waves occasionally breaking over the wall into the pool!
Too many beaches to name. All pretty, and we were getting pretty tired by the end of the trek!
The trail isn’t all level… there were a few thousand stairs thrown in!
We came across a Lawn Bowling Club! Fun to watch for a few minutes… I think the club has been here for many decades, because property values would make it difficult to place a club where the view is so awesome today!
Then back in the city for a few shots of the diverse architecture.
The Taronga Zoo is over 100 years old, yet one of the best we’ve ever seen. A short ferry ride across the harbour gets you to their dock, then you ride a bus up the side of the mountain that houses the zoo. That way, if you don’t backtrack, you pretty much walk downhill through the zoo to the dock.
They had several aviaries, where we spent a lot of our time. I admit we saw only a small portion of the zoo – a flying bird show and the Australian animal area in addition to the aviaries.
Alright, I usually won’t take pictures of animals or birds in the zoo, because it feels like cheating… but so many were so adorable or beautiful here I broke my own rules. I’m not going to try to name all the species of land critters or birds… just enjoy them.
We hired a guide to show us local birds in the wild. Mike with Aussie Bird Tours was really great! He took us through a few different habitats, and showed us an amazing array of interesting birds. He is tremendously knowledgeable, and great at helping you appreciate the local birds. If you’re in Sydney, check them out!
We trekked through forest, grasslands and even waded a bit in tide pool areas. We were able to see about 50 species, most of which we’d never seen before. Great fun!
Here are a few pictures of us in the birds’ habitats, and some of the birds who were patient or kind enough to pose for me:
Here we are with our new birding buddy Mike, at a small waterfall.
Here are some of the birds we saw:
The Australian Brushturkey makes a gigantic nest by digging and scratching forest debris into a mound. The female lays her eggs inside this huge mass, which then incubates them for her.
You can see how big this nest is, compared to a full sized turkey. I’m told the nests are sometimes far bigger.
As we passed a golf course, Mike spotted this big lizard on a green. He picked it up to show us… it’s an Australian Blue-tonged Lizard. They grow to be up to two feet long. I included this badly focused shot because that’s all I have of his long blue tongue.
I never saw this guy’s tongue…
On our Bondi Beach walk, we’d seen a Superb Fairywren… yes, that’s its name, and it is a tiny bird with brilliant blue accents. On this walk, we saw the Varigated Fairywren… It has much of the same bright blue, but also a bit of red on the sides. It was exiting to see this dramatic little bird!
Sydney Tower Eye, at 1,014 feet, is the tallest structure in the city. Good news… it has elevators! So we, with our worn out feet, could still check out the amazing views. (We’ve been averaging 5-6 miles on foot daily)
With this little overview of Sydney (!) I will close the blog for now. A bit more next week, then we hop countries again!
