Category Archives: Australia

Great Ocean Road – Apollo Bay to Port Campbell

After a nice breakfast, back on the road again… up to Port Campbell with the Twelve Apostles.

Unplanned Stop

My first stop was planned to be at Cape Otway Lightstation, however, I had an unplanned stop before getting there… Driving along the relatively narrow road, I suddenly spotted a group of people in the road, all looking up and pointing at something, some even taking pictures… What could be so important to see that people would even get out of their cars for?

A closer look revealed the cause, and made me copy their behaviour: I parked my car, grabbed my camera, and joined the group of spectators… to take the following picture:

Koala… my first Aussie animal in the wild…

Really glad I b(r)ought my extra zoom lens! He/she wasn’t quite asleep (yet), but didn’t seem to have plans for moving about much either. But then, as I’d learned earlier: koalas sleep 18-20 hours per day…

Telegraph Station at Cape Otway

After this short interlude, Cape Otway Lighthouse was my next stop. It appeared to be a very interesting site with much more than “just” a lighthouse to visit. To begin with, there was the telegraph station (1859), which connected the island Tasmania to mainland Australia using a 386 km long cable under the sea (ok, that’s about 240 miles… if only just everyone started using the metric system consistently…).

But already after 2 years, the cable failed, after which the building was used as signal station to communicate with ships that sailed passed in the Bass Strait using signal flags that were flagged from the flag pole in front of the building:

Signal flags
Flag pole for signal flags

Signal flags could be used for many different things: to communicate where the ship came from and was going to, if it was an immigrants’ ship: how many people on board, births, deaths, diseases (so the ship could be immediately quarantined upon arrival), but also personal messages from passengers. These would then be passed on to Melbourne (and beyond) by telegraph – it would take 4 minutes for a message to arrive at Melbourne. It was also a means of getting the “latest” news from eg Europe, and pass on the latest news from Australia to the passing ship.

A very informative board in the telegraph station told me the following interesting information about communication in the late 19^th and early 20^th century:

In 1872 Australia was connected with Europe by a submarine cable from Darwin in North Australia to the island of Java, while overland cables carried the telegraph messages to the cities in the south
This was a vast improvement: the congratulatory message from the Mayor of London to the Mayor of Adelaide in South Australia took “only” 7 hours – compared to several months by ship
In 1876 Australia and New Zealand were connected by cable
In 1902 the loop was closed by a cable under the Pacific Ocean

As great as these improvements were at the time, it is unimaginable at the moment with a flight from London to Sydney taking only about 24 hours (including stop over), and instant access via mobile phones and internet!

As telegraphy is basically sending messages by electric signals over long wires, telegraphs need to be powered by a large bank of big batteries, all filled with sulfuric acid. To prevent that any spillages would leak everywhere, the floor of the battery room looks a bit like a bath tub:

The telegraph station was also used as Lighthouse keeper’s lodgings, and even as school. As I used to play the organ a bit, it was good to see this nice example… if only my house was big enough…

It is not clear how this organ came into the telegraph station (from Canada…!), but one story is that it was on board of the “Eric the Red”, a ship that brought exquisite exhibits from New York to Australia for the first “International Exhibition”. The ship was shipwrecked at Cape Otway, however, and it is thought that the organ was a survivor of that shipwreck… Not too sure about this story: I mean, I didn’t try to play it, but I’m sure salt water isn’t exactly improving the sound of an organ…

Cape Otway Lightstation

Let’s get on to the actual lighthouse:

The lighthouse was built between 1846-1848. Each stone of the building was hand carved by stone masons, and fitted together without any mortar, by locking each stone into surrounding ones.

Hand carved stones – no cement or mortar used to lock them in place!

At the top, there was a curved dome, which carried the actual light, weighing about 4.5 tonne – that is 4500 kg, or if you really must know: nearly 710 stone! (Which reminds me of a story a colleague told me: her son started to learn about weights, and wondered how many “pebbles” were equal to one stone…). Great craftmanship was used in the actual lantern room: with the round valves the amount of air could be regulated so the light would burn with optimal fuel efficiency.

Curved stone roof
Great craftmanship

Visitors could climb up to the lantern room in the top of the lighthouse to admire the view:

Some other buildings

Scattered around the site were several other buildings. A radar station from World War II, that was used to track Japanese submarines:

The antenna could be swept round 360 degrees, while looking out for “blips” in the signal. Any suspicious signals would be passed on by phone or radio to Air Defence Headquarters in Melbourne.

In the bushes surrounding the lighthouse was a (newly built) aboriginal hut:

Note how the rain is lashing down… Whilst the weather was mainly nice, I did have some heavy showers every day during this week. As they were just very short, most of the time I just stayed in the car until the rain stopped before getting out to visit the next attraction along the route.

Lastly, the oldest surviving building – the dwelling and workshop of the assistant keepers and their families, built in 1850:

Assistant keeper’s quarters and workshop

On account of one of the inhabitants, it wasn’t the greatest of accommodations, “on account of the damp coming through the end wall, as the plaster is all hanging with moisture”…

Twelve Apostles

After all the delights at the museum of Cape Otway Lightstation (well worth a visit!), I finally made my way to the Twelve Apostles… The road had moved away from the ocean, and went through lovely rolling hills:

Rolling hills between Cape Otway and Port Campbell

And finally I arrived at the attraction that the Great Ocean Road is so famous for… the Twelve Apostles:

Some of the Twelve Apostles
Some more of the Twelve Apostles

They are – or rather: were… five have collapsed over time – twelve limestone stacks along the coast near Port Campbell. I had hoped to be able to get to the beach, however, when I was there the tide was coming in, so I couldn’t walk round the base of the Apostles. The pictures above are therefore taken from a viewing platform at the top of the cliffs, which doesn’t quite show how majestic these 45 m tall structures are…

Razorback, Loch Ard Gorge, Arch, London Bridge

But the Twelve Apostles aren’t the only limestone stacks along the coast at Port Campbell. And having been there, I’m not yet sure which one is my favourite… Take a look for yourself. To begin with, here is the Razorback:

The edges and bumps along the top of the rock are formed by spray from the ocean below: softer rock is eroded away, leaving the harder areas, which form the current razorback shape. The grooves that are visible at the bottom of the stack, are similarly formed by waves.

Next is Loch Ard Gorge, named after a ship – the Loch Ard – that was shipwrecked nearby.

This time I went down to the beach, to see the rocks and the erosion close up.

After dinner I decided to do 2 more sites – firstly the Arch:

And finally – sunset at London Bridge:

But… London Bridge is fallen down… At least, partly… Until 1990 it was a double spanning bridge that was connected to the mainland. However, unexpectedly the part closest to land collapsed, leaving two visitors stranded on the outer part. They were saved, uninjured, by helicopter not too much later. And needless to say, the viewing platform is now a lot further away and London Bridge itself cannot be accessed any longer.

So far my adventures of this second day driving the Great Ocean Road. The next day I’d see some more great limestone stacks. Perhaps even the best one is left for last…

So: more again next time!

Great Ocean Road – Torquay to Apollo Bay

The second week of my holiday in Australia I drove the Great Ocean Road:

Another spectacular part of this amazing country! Very different (and much colder…) compared to the first holiday week.

Torquay

On Monday I flew from Sydney to Avalon airport, where I hired a car and drove to my first motel in Torquay:

My trusty vehicle for the Great Ocean Road adventure

I had booked motels for every night, but hadn’t exactly planned what I would visit every day… and there is so much to do and see along the Great Ocean Road! So there was some last minute planning to do… water to hand (I was in Australia after all, where everyone seems to carry a bottle of water around all the time), phone and computer, but also my trusty paper map – love a good paper map!

After a big thunderstorm, the weather improved significantly, and we ended up having a lovely evening and sunset:

Note how much the trees along the coast are grown completely bent due to the prevailing wind from the sea (yes, the sea was on the right hand side in that photo).

Start of the Great Ocean Road

The next morning it was grey and drizzly weather. But that couldn’t dampen my spirit for the day: I was going to drive the Great Ocean Road, which I had been much looking forward to.

It would be a week of driving, but probably at least as much stopping – to enjoy the scenery. First stop was therefore already as quick as 5 minutes from Torquay: Bell’s Beach, renowned for surfing. Not that I’m such a keen surfer, or am particularly interested in the sport, but when in Australia, it is almost unavoidable. And it makes for nice pictures…

Bell’s Beach
Surfers at Bell’s Beach

Loveridge Lookout

My next stop was at the Loveridge Lookout. The weather started to brighten up a little, and the views were in one word amazing:

Loveridge Lookout itself was built in 1938 in memory of James Loveridge by his widow Bertha Loveridge. According to a information panel, it was the favourite place of her former husband to look out over the Bass Straight.

During the Second World War the lookout was an observation post for the Volunteer Air Observers Corps. From 1942 to 1945 it was continuously manned, and played an important role in the ground warning strategy of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Great Ocean Road war memorial

The Great Ocean Road is the world’s biggest war memorial. It was built between 1918 and 1932 by the returning soldiers who had fought in the First World War, and dedicated to the many soldiers killed during that war. A memorial arch has been erected between Lorne and Aireys Inlet:

Being from The Netherlands, which remained “neutral” during the First World War, my knowledge of this part of world history isn’t the greatest – the Second World War has made much more of a scar in Dutch society, and therefore that is talked about much more. I certainly had never realised that so many Australians (330,000 according to a plaque at the war memorial) had volunteered to fight in Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, as “when the [British] Empire is at war, so is Australia at war” as the then Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Cook, said. 60,000 men would never return as they got killed, and another 160,000 were wounded, making the total casualty rate more than 64% – very sobering data.

In order to rehabilitate successfully in civilian life again after returning from the grueling experience it was important to find employment. 3,000 of the returning service men found work building the Great Ocean Road. Despite the hard work that was needed (most of the rock had to be hacked away by hand!), the conditions were relatively good, as there was regular pay for working 8 hours per day and half a day on Saturday. They had access to a piano, a gramophone, newspapers and magazines – what more does a man want… Relatively good quality food was also provided and sold for a small fee. In addition, it was an opportunity to again work outside and share comradery.

Teddy’s Lookout

The next stop at Teddy’s Lookout nicely shows how this part of the Great Ocean Road literally curves around the rocky curves of the coast line.

View from Teddy’s Lookout
Great Ocean Road, curving around coast line

Erskine Falls

Inland of the Great Ocean Road is Great Otway National Park , which is known, amongst other things, for many water falls. So I had to visit at least one of them. Be warned, though:

Snakes… ok, we’re in Australia; slippery… yes, we’re near a water fall; but falling trees…?

I’m glad to report that I didn’t see any falling trees… or snakes for that matter… The path was somewhat slippery indeed, and there were in particular a lot, I mean, really an AWFUL LOT of steep steps:

But it was worth it… here is the view from the bottom:

Erskine Falls – some 38m according to a sign

And finally – the lush surroundings (I took plenty time during the climb up to take pictures… I mean, to catch breath taking these steps up again…):

The lush surroundings of the Erskine Falls with many ferns and other greenery

Howard Hitchcock Lookout

Howard Hitchcock was the founder of the “Great Ocean Road Trust” in 1918: a private company that secured a vast amount of money for building the Great Ocean Road.

Road, hewn out of the rocks
Reminder…
View from Hitchcock Lookout

At this lookout it was very clear that the road was literally hewn out of the rocks. And as was the case from every lookout that I stopped at, the view was stunning again…

Last Stop

I really cannot remember where I found the information to stop here, so I cannot remember where exactly this is… it is not one of the usual lookouts that are advertised on most websites. But it is a nice stop nevertheless that got me close to the sea (ocean…? ok, water side).

Apollo Bay

Finally – Apollo Bay where I had booked a motel for the night. The weather had become really nice indeed, so I went for a lovely evening walk along the coast.

After a bit of preparation for the next day, an early night: the next part of the Great Ocean Road would turn inland before passing the Twelve Apostles… something I had heard and read about a lot already, so was looking forward to see with own eyes. But not before I had spent an interesting morning visiting Cape Otway Lightstation… More about all these interesting things in the next blog DV!

Daintree National Park

As you probably already gathered from my previous blog, I’m back in the UK, where it really has been freezing (as opposed to the “freezing” in Australia, which apparently happens already at 10℃): I have had to scrape the car already. And I can freely use the word “sorry” again. As often as I like… Which is getting the very familiar response again: “sorry”… On this island we just don’t sort out who was at fault when bumping into each other (which happens a lot in a busy city like London), we just say “sorry” to each other and get on with our lives. As a Dutch person I had to learn to say “sorry” a lot (yes, I know, we are rather impolite by British standards…), whether I’m really sorry or not, so when I was in Australia I still said “sorry” a lot. Which wasn’t greeted with the same word back, but with a “no worries, mate”… Well – to all the Australians out there: no worries, mates, I didn’t really worry… it was just part of my adaptation into the British society.

Enough rambling, and back to my amazing time in Australia. The other thing I did when in Port Douglas, was visiting the Daintree National Park. Another interesting day. I took a tour with Tony’s Tropical Tours: I can thoroughly recommend them!

Mossman Gorge

Our first stop was at Mossman Gorge, a rainforest located in the southern part of Daintree National Park. As can be expected from a rainforest, it was warm and humid… but again, the flora and fauna was very impressive indeed:

Cauliflory
Native ginger
Bird’s nest fern
Mossman river
(Little) turtle in Mossman river

Cauliflory is a term referring to plants that flower and have their fruit from the main stem, rather than new off shoot (begs the question: how did the humble cauliflower get its name…?). I believe the example above is a fig tree. Native ginger… rather large! And the bird’s nest fern: the brown “signature” on the leaves are the spores, which is how the plant is reproduced.

The ground around Cairns and Port Douglas is very fertile, and there are many large farms growing sugar cane all around.

The sugar cane is made into sugar at Mossman Sugar Mill, which serves an area over 8500 hectares. Sugar cane has to be processed rather quickly after harvesting, and in order to get it transported easily over such vast distances, there are narrow gauge railways connecting the sugar cane fields, and the freshly cut sugar cane gets a train ride to the mill.

Daintree river cruise

Next we did a cruise on the Daintree river:

In search of some wild life… which we found… how about the following:

Yes, indeed… crocodiles… The one on the left, poking his head just above the water, is a fully grown example. The one on the right, sunbathing on the bank, was only a small baby croc. Very impressing to see nonetheless!

And then this lovely flower:

A lovely flower, but it lasts only a day… made me think of Psalm 103:

15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Psalm 103:15-18 (KJV)

The vegetation along the banks is generally just rather nice:

Vegetation along the banks of the Daintree river

The brown spikes at the bottom of the photo are extensions from the trunk of mangrove trees. These extensions anchor themselves in the soil, and help stabilise the tree in the wet, muddy soil at the water’s edge.

Kulki track and lookout

Our next stop was the Kulki track and lookout: the place where the rain forest meets the reef – the only place apparently where 2 World Heritage Areas meet… And indeed, the rainforest goes as far as the beach (see top-left photo)… couldn’t see the reef, but am sure it is in the water there somewhere.

Rain Forest meets Reef
Fan Palm
King Fern
Palm with fruits

Furthermore, lots of palms and ferns in the rainforest. The Fan Palm is endemic to the rainforests in North Queensland, including the Daintree. And the King Fern can grow to a height of about 5 meter when fully mature – the one in the photo isn’t quite that large, but still quite impressive. It also seems to be “one of the most ancient” ferns in the world…

Noah Valley

Noah Valley – our next stop – is a World Heritage listed private property, only accessible to people on our tour. It, again, had some interesting plants:

Buttress Roots
Fishtail Palm

Since the soil of rainforests is generally rather poor, many trees generate really large and wide root systems, known as “buttress roots”. Not only does this give the tree more chance of extracting nutrients from the soil by spreading over a larger area, but it also gives more stability as the roots are generally not very deep. The fishtail palm indeed grows like this – the leaves are seemingly torn off, but this is not the case…

And some spiders…:

And some other crawlers and jumpers:

In the afternoon we went for a nice and refreshing swim in a rainforest stream – look how clear the water is…

Rainforest stream where we went for a refreshing swim…

Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation was so called by James Cook, after his ship scraped a reef and then got stuck at another reef nearby. He called it Cape Tribulation, because “here begun all our troubles”. We visited the beach in the national park:

At the beach our guide found some green ants that apparently can be eaten… Or at least, the stomach is edible, and is said to taste like lemon… Probably not surprisingly, I have politely declined the delicacy…

I scream, you scream, we all scream, for…

On our way back, we went for a nice cold treat – ice cream. From the Daintree Ice Cream Company. Very nice indeed:

Alexandra Lookout

Our last stop was at the Alexandra Lookout where we had great views of the Daintree river Estuary:

And finally – on our way back we were told that this was a special traffic light:

According to our guide, this is the only traffic light north of Cairns… To put it in perspective, from Cairns to Cooktown – which isn’t even the furthest north in Australia, but it is pretty much where all roads end – is about 327 km, or 203 miles…

It would be a fun fact if it was true… On my way back to the airport in Cairns I discovered that there are indeed very, very few traffic lights, but there are some between Cairns and Port Douglas… Very few anyway, so we’ll take it as a “fun fact with a pinch of salt”…

Great Barrier Reef

One of the “must-do’s” when in Northern Queensland, is visiting the Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s largest coral reef system, stretching all the way along the north eastern part of Australia’s coast line. It may look like plant material, however, it actually consists of millions of coral polyps, which are small organisms. Coral reef only grows in warm water – in the tropics – and only under water, but no deeper than about 150 m (ok… that’s about 490 ft for the UK…), as it needs sunlight for its growth. Due to this rather shallow depth, it can be easily seen, both from above the sea, as well as when snorkeling or diving. Apparently, it can be seen from space even, but I didn’t check that…

The reef itself is already rather colourful, and so are the fish living there. Besides, there are sea turtles and reef sharks: much to discover…

Visiting the Great Barrier Reef

There are different ways to visit the Great Barrier Reef: most companies offer a boat ride out to the reef, and then people can jump off the back of the boat for a swim and/or snorkeling. A more diverse way is what I did: take a boat out to the reef, where this particular company has an “activity platform” from where the reef can be seen and/or visited in many different ways.

So, on to a boat, leaving Port Douglas behind…

Activity platform at the reef

As said, an activity often associated with visiting the reef, is snorkeling (photo on the left). I must say – I didn’t do that… guess I’m just rather over-cautious, and hearing about reef sharks and just all sorts of animals creeped me out a bit… so I didn’t gather enough courage. However, what I did do, is look round the “underwater observatory” (a tunnel under water with glass walls), and take one of the “semi-submersible” (middle photo; basically a boat with a deep keel with glass walls). I even splashed the cash on a helicopter ride to see the reef from the air- that was really great fun!

Some fish of the reef

One thing I wouldn’t have been able to do if I had gone snorkeling, is take photos. So I guess that would be another good excuse for staying dry… Still, the photos don’t really justice to the colours, as they are taken through glass, so just imagine everything a lot brighter and even more colourful.

The reef from the sky

And here is the evidence of my helicopter flight. Well, at least if you believe that all pictures shown here are mine (which they are!)… I really liked this view of the reef!

Great Barrier Reef, seen from helicopter

Feeding fish

Just after lunch time they fed the fish. Just a little, as they weren’t pets, so needed to forage for themselves, but enough for the visitors to admire them. Some of the fish were so keen that they nearly jumped out of the water to get their food…

View from semi-submersible

Finally then some photos from insight the semi-sub, as it is also known as. Top photo shows some coral reef – I think the big round flat ones are known as “plate reef” (“bord-rif” for the Dutch). And doesn’t it look like a plate…? And then a few more different fish… Real shame that these photos look so much duller than what I could see through the glass myself. You’ll just have to imagine how it looks like in real life. Or go yourself…

And that ends this day already. It was really great to see this impressive wonder of creation. And if/when I go another time… I promise, I’ll really try and may even do some snorkeling…

Port Douglas

My first holiday week I spent in Port Douglas, very much in the north of Australia:

It really is a very long way north – the distances in this country still dazzle me: it was a 3 hour flight from Sydney to Cairns, and then another 1 hour drive from Cairns further north to Port Douglas… I already had to scale up from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom in terms of distances, but this is a completely different scale altogether! See this site for a nice way to visualise the relative scale… basically, all of Europe fits in Australia…

Another fact about Port Douglas: it lies in the tropics. Remember that from geography lessons? That’s the region between the tropical latitudes (“keerkringen” for the Dutch readers): the Tropic of Cancer (Kreeftskeerkring) in the northern hemisphere and the Tropic of Capricorn (Steenbokskeerkring) in the southern hemisphere. And Port Douglas is further north than the Tropic of Capricorn, so indeed lies in the tropics.

What else do I remember from geography lessons? That the tropics are very warm… and humid… and has tropical rainforests… All of that is true for Port Douglas: it was warm and humid, but I had a hotel with direct access to the swimming pool from my room:

Moreover, the rainforest was only a short drive away, and as an added bonus: the Great Barrier Reef is also close by. So there was lots to explore!

Port Douglas

Port Douglas is currently a small town, mainly living from tourism. Most of the buildings are hotels. B&B’s or holiday resorts – nearly all of them with some form of pool access as the weather is always warm, really warm or very warm. Had I mentioned already that it was warm there…?

It was established in 1877, after gold was found in the nearby Hodgkinson River as the main port for importing necessary goods for the miners and exporting the mined gold. However, when the Kuranda railway was opened, the goods were transported to and from Cairns, bypassing Port Douglas, and Cairns took over as main port. And when a cyclone in 1911 demolished almost all buildings in Port Douglas, there wasn’t much left of this once so thriving port. Until the 1980’s, when the first big holiday resort was built, and tourism started to boom.

The “St Mary’s By The Sea” church was one of the many buildings that was destroyed in the 1911 cyclone. A smaller church was built instead:

And this is the local police station:

I’m not sure this is a historical building, but with the verandas it looks pretty laid-back, right? What certainly is a historical building, is the Old Court House:

It was built in 1879, and is currently the second oldest surviving of similar buildings in Queensland. I didn’t manage to visit it, so can’t tell more about it than what can be found on internet anyway.

I think I’ll leave my visits to the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest for separate posts…

Two Evenings in Sydney

This will be the last post about Sydney (at least, for now): the next posts will be about Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest, and then the Great Ocean Road…

But first things first – in my last weeks that I was staying in Sydney, I went into town for two evenings. I wanted to do that much earlier, but either the weather (they’ve had a lot of rain when I was there) or work didn’t allow me to do so. In the end I decided to ignore both the weather and work, and go anyway. One evening I went to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge illuminations and combined that with visiting the “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park (and shopping for a road map of the Great Ocean Road). The other evening was because of my goodbye dinner from work.

Evening 1

I took the ferry in, so arrived at Circular Quay. To get to Hyde Park from there, I walked through the Botanic Gardens. Here are a few flowers that I didn’t see last time I was there:

The top left is an Aloe – not sure which sort. And amaryllises (top right) grow in people’s front (and presumably also back) gardens. I saw several houses with a row of amaryllises in their front gardens on my way to work, but never had a camera with me, so here is the evidence that they grow outside in Australia.

There is also a nice rose garden in the Botanic Gardens, however, I didn’t manage to see that last time I went. So here are some examples of the many varieties of roses they have there.

As I said, it was “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park: an Asian street food festival. According to the website, Sydneysiders could “embark on a vibrant flavour journey through Asia”. As far as I could see, this was true. Less true, however, was the mention of “balmy nights” on that same website:

Look how everyone is huddling together under umbrellas as it was raining a little. Drizzle, I’d say, but I’ve learned that Sydneysiders don’t distinguish so much between the different types of rain – drizzle, downpour, mist, shower, … For them: it rains, or it does not.

I got myself a nice Japanese teppanyaki – a dish cooked on an iron griddle or plate:

After that lovely dinner, I walked back to Circular Quay to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the dark. I went via George Street (to get my map of the Great Ocean Road), so caught city hall during sun set:

The photo on the top right shows palm trees on Circular Quay that were illuminated by some “foot lights” – doesn’t it look like fire works?

As I don’t have a tripod, and there was no suitable surface to put my camera on, I had to shoot all photos handheld. A flash isn’t going to help here, so the photos are shot with relatively long shutter times: 0.5 sec for the Harbour Bridge – not too bad, but 2.5 sec for the Opera House photo. This means that I had to keep the camera perfectly still for that amount of time. And when examining in particular the Opera House photo closely, it will become clear that I don’t have such a steady hand… as well that I’m not a surgeon… My apologies for this; a lightweight and small tripod has been put on my wish list.

Evening 2

The other evening in Sydney was with my colleagues – we had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the Rocks to celebrate/lament my leaving. Together with one of my colleagues, I took the ferry to Circular Quay:

It still is my favourite way of travelling, by ferry.

Once in the city, we walked past some of the old houses in the Rocks:

to the place where we would all meet: the rooftop bar of the Palisade Hotel…

There was a pub on this site since 1880, but the current building dates from 1915. At the time it opened it doors to the many wharf workers and locals from the Millers Point area, it was the highest building in Sydney. This is by no means the case anymore, but from its rooftop bar it still has very nice views of Sydney, including the harbour:

The photo top left shows the view over Paramatta river to the west, top right is the view of the Observatory with the modern buildings of Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD) behind it, and the bottom photo is of course a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge… wonder how many photos I’ve so far taken of this iconic structure, and how many have made it into this blog…

Finally – a nice sunset over Paramatta river and Anzac bridge (yes, there are other bridges in Sydney…) from the restaurant:

And that really concludes my weeks in Sydney!

Sydney – Taronga Zoo

My last Saturday in Sydney before I was to move out of the apartment I lived in for 8 weeks… how better to spend that day than visiting the iconic zoo in Sydney. Again – a friend and her little son (zoos are definitely better with children) joined me on this rather warm and in particular very humid Saturday – as the photos will show: it was so humid that it was almost a bit misty.

Travel to Taronga Zoo

As Sydney’s zoo is along the harbour, a very nice way to get to the zoo is by ferry from Circular Quay, where the jacaranda’s started to bloom.

The zoo is on a slope, so when arriving by ferry, I was suggested to take the “sky safari” to the top (visible on the middle photo), and start my visit to the zoo from there – that way I would be walking down the hill, rather than up. As my friend came by car, and the car park is near the entrance at the top, this also meant that we could start our “adventure” together.

As far as zoos go, Taronga Zoo is a nice zoo, with the usual suspects, including some Australian animals. But then, I think I may well have seen some kangaroos in zoos in other countries as well, so that isn’t the main reason to fly all the way to the ends of the earth to visit this particular zoo… Here is a selection of the animals anyway:

Taronga is an aboriginal word, meaning beautiful views, and that is what makes this zoo stand out from many other zoos:

Recognise that view…? I think this also shows nicely how humid it was: the view was definitely somewhat hazy.

It was a shame that there were extensive refurbishments going on, which meant that the giraffes were temporarily living in the old elephant enclosure, rather than looking out over the harbour, which they apparently have done ever since 1926…

Taronga zoo was opened in 1916:

As I started my journey from the bottom – wharf – end of the zoo, I ended with the official entrance at the top end:

The original “elephant temple” is also still there, however, given all the refurbishments that are ongoing, I didn’t manage to get a good photo of it. Hence the link to other people’s work… What I thought was very interesting to see there, is how they indeed built a temple-like building, very ornate… However, with just enough space for 2 elephants to basically stand there, heads out of the window, so the visitors would have a good view of them. At the time the zoo was opened, not much was known yet about the welfare of the animals kept in the zoo. Rest assured – there are no elephants in that building anymore – they are now kept in much better accommodation (although not as ornately decorated…).

And that was my last Saturday in Sydney. I have a couple more things from two evenings when I went into Sydney – one rather rainy, one to say goodbye to my colleagues in Sydney… Will combine that into 1 post, I think.

And then over to very different parts of Australia!

Blue Mountains

There was some rain forecast for the Saturday that we, 3 London ladies, planned to go to the Blue Mountains… not great if you’re going to a place where you primarily go for the views. But when we left Sydney, it didn’t look too bad, so we had high hopes that we would be able to see the famous 3 sisters… But alas, this was the view we had:

It so often happens, apparently, that the gift shop sells completely white cards with “Three Sisters in the mist” written on it… so one could say that at least we could see a little bit… Anyway – we just joked about it, took our pictures in front of what I was told to be quite a spectacular sight, and then saw the following happening:

The mist seemed to be clearing…! So we decided to go to the shops nearby first for a browse – perhaps the mist would be cleared by the time we got back…:

The mist had cleared indeed ☺ And here are the famous Three Sisters – a great sight indeed:

Quite impressive, these rugged rocks. Not only the Three Sisters, but all around the valley. As if a very big bulldozer has made a path through the rocks, leaving very straight edges/sides (see photo above Three Sisters). And every so often just a little folly like the Three Sisters. Actually – rather than a bulldozer, how about this for an explanation:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Gen 7:11 (KJV)

I know that the prevailing “scientific” opinion is that this landscape is 100’s of thousands or so years old (may have a couple of zero’s too many or too few), however, this account, of “all the fountains of the great deep” being “broken up” – doesn’t that give a perfect explanation why the rocks look as if they are broken off with these straight, almost vertical, edges…

After taking our pictures, we went to Leura for lunch: a nice little place with a row of Cherry Blossom trees in the middle of the “High Street” (not sure that’s the name of the street, but it is basically the main street in Leura – there isn’t much else).

Other than this, we just had a lovely catch up, so I have not a lot more to share. I would like to go back to the Blue Mountains, though: perhaps in the last few days of my holidays… and explore a couple more places.

Next week – last Saturday in Sydney… already! Finally, Sydney Zoo (was in the planning for the Saturday we went to Featherdale instead). A very iconic place in Sydney… with lovely views of… you’ve guessed it: the harbour with Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera house…

Featherdale

Finally – Australian animals… On a Saturday that initially looked as if it was going to be very windy and rainy, I went to Featherdale with some friends. A very nice place where a lot of Australian animals can be seen. It was probably a good thing that the weather was rather cloudy, as all animals were out, including some that may otherwise only be out and about during the night, but sometimes make exceptions for overcast days.

To begin with – the cuddly koala’s, doing what koala’s do best:

… eating eucalyptus
… sleeping

Eucalyptus has a very low nutritional value, and are even poisonous to most animals. Koala’s have a very low metabolic rate, allowing the food to stay extremely long in the digestive system, which enhances the amount of energy that can be extracted. At the same time, the low metabolic rate means that less energy is “spent” on digestion, which, taken together with the amount they sleep (about 18-22 hours per day!), means they don’t need that much energy, and they can survive on the very poor diet of eucalyptus.

With the koala’s lived a pair of tawny frogmouths:

Not to be confused with tawny owls, which have similar colours, wide eyes and are also nocturnal, however, the frogmouths have a more forward-facing beak to catch insects, whereas the owls have downward-facing beaks with which they tear their prey apart.

Over to another famous Australian animal – the kangaroo:

So, here you go – my first kangaroos… On the right, the joey was drinking from his mum before hopping back into the pouch… shame I wasn’t quick enough to capture that moment.

Let’s take a look at some water birds:

Little black cormorant
Sea gulls
Little penguins
Black-necked Stork
White Heron
Magpie Goose
Pelican

The little black cormorant is not very friendly – at least, when I tried to take this photo, I had to lean over the fence as Mister (or Missis… don’t know, really…) decided to get as close to the fence as possible. But he (or she) didn’t act very friendly when I stuck my hands with camera over the fence… Camera shy perhaps… But even then – no need to make such a fuss!

I’m not entirely sure if the sea gulls were actually part of the animals kept by Featherdale, however, they were there, and I took a picture regardless… Reminded me of fish and chips at Manly… although, I must say – they were just minding their own business here.

Apparently, little penguins can be seen at Manly in the wild, but we didn’t see any on our visit there… And what about these black-necked storks: see how their “knees” are bent the wrong way…!

Look, Dad – they have “witte tijgers” here ☺ For the non-Dutch (and the Dutch who don’t get this family joke): this literally translates to “white tigers”. The issue is that the Dutch word for heron, reiger, is somewhat difficult for (Dutch) toddlers to pronounce, the more so if they haven’t quite mastered the “r” yet… that became a “t”, and so the “reiger” became a “tijger” – a rather different animal altogether…

Like the cormorant, the magpie goose didn’t quite like the attention he/she got from me either… On the other hand: look how aristocratic and important that pelican is walking around!

Here are two other famous Australians:

… the echidna (top photos) and the wombat (bottom photo). The echidna is like a hedgehog: it has spikes, and when it feels threatened, it will roll into a spiky ball. It eats little insects. The wombat is one of those animals that are typically not awake during the day time. However, overcast and cloudy days make them come out, which was good for us. They dig big extensive burrow systems – a little like moles and rabbits. For that reason, they are not farmers’ best friends… Interesting fact: they have backward facing pouch, so that when they dig, they won’t get the dirt into their pouch and onto their young. So many clever things in nature!

Let’s go to some birds now:

Gang-gang cockatoo
Turquoise parrot
Cattle egret
Cassowary
Finch

Like the plants that we keep in our window boxes inside the house, there are also birds that we typically know as pets in cages inside our homes, but that fly freely round in Australia: cockatoos, parrots, finches… The cassowary perhaps not so much – but that’s probably because it is an animal as big as an ostrich… Apparently, it is not advisable to get very close to one if found in the wild: it has very strong legs with which it can kick very hard!

Finally – how about the following “friends”:

Green tree frog
Tiger (?) snake
Bearded dragon

Really getting to the kind of animals I’d rather not meet too closely without a solid piece of glass between them and me… Not sure if they are really that harmful, but even so…

That was a very nice afternoon, filled with seeing all these Australian beauties. Next time – Blue Mountains…

Sydney – Botanic Gardens

No post last week(s), as I’ve been rather busy with work and planning the next holidays… So let’s continue where we left off: bank holiday weekend. On Saturday I visited the Australia Museum and the botanic gardens, including Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. And on Monday I went to Manly… A lot to cover in this post!

Australia Museum

This was the last day the train was running from “my” station before it was closed for updates to the railway system, and all trains were replaced by busses… would take several months, so here is a historic photo:

I first went to see some of the exhibits at the Australia Museum.

They had many Australian animals – all stuffed, though, so wait for pictures of the live versions. What I mainly came to see, was the exhibit on the aboriginal people of Australia:

Aboriginal Australia
They even traded with Indonesia…
Tiwi sculpture, showing cycle of teaching
Tutini (grave posts)

Impressive… the number of different tribal/language groups in Australia before the Europeans came and took over a lot of the land, and basically killed a lot of them.

Different from how I thought all canoes are made (well, except the modern ones, obviously), these are made from the bark of trees that has been bent and assembled to form a boat. Why did I always think they took the stem of a tree (or at least a part of it), hollowed it out, and there was the boat…? They even used these boats to get across the sea to trade with Indonesia!

Wisdom – handed down from Old Man (on top), to his son, to Old Man’s grandson (bottom)… But wisdom also grows through the stages of life: from boy to man to Old Man. A nice symbolic way to show the cycle of teaching.

And finally – the tutini. At the burial ceremony of certain tribes these grave posts were put around the grave. The design represents the live of the deceased, and the number of tutini signifies their status.

At the roof top restaurant I enjoyed a nice lunch (proper Aussie burger… with beetroot…), whilst enjoying some grand views of Sydney:

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

After lunch I went in search of Mrs Macquarie’s Chair – yes, she is the wife of the famous Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Sydney 1810-1821. On the way there, I came past what is known in our family as a “trumpet plant”:

See the flowers? Don’t they look like trumpets? Granddad used to love them… he had many plants in the garden, but they were nowhere near as large as this tree!

And of course… Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House are never far away… A peek through on my way to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair:

Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House… never far away…

And finally then – Mrs Macquarie’s Chair: doesn’t it look extremely comfortable…?

Governor Macquarie got his workmen to carve this seat out of the rocks for his wife Elizabeth. The road leading to this rock-seat is still called Mrs Macquarie Road, and was created purely for her entertainment. She is said to love sitting here and admire the view over the harbour. Of course, no harbour bridge was there yet, nor buildings like the opera house…

Botanic gardens

From Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair I walked back through the botanic gardens. As Sydney has nice weather basically year round, it is not difficult to imagine that the botanic gardens are beautiful! Here is an impression of the many plants, trees and flowers on display:

Guess what number 2 is called? A “bottle brush” (or “tuitenrager” for the Dutch readers) – and doesn’t it look like one indeed!? Lovely azaleas (number 7), and look – there are white clivias too (number 8)…

Number 9 is a Ficus Macrophylla, native to Lord Howe Island, a small island off the east coast of Australia. It is a very interesting tree in that it doesn’t just have one trunk, but many – easily 10 or more, each arisen from an areal root. In 1882, it was recorded that one of the oldest trees on the island covered an area as large as 1 hectare!

Then number 11 – a Wollemi pine. Apparently as rare as a dinosaur… Until 1994 only fossils of the plant were known, but then a bush walker found a stand of them in Wollemi National Park. There are now still only 3 stands of these plants known in the wild.

Earlier I mentioned a grass tree… number 13 is a much larger example. The grass basically grows out of the top of a small stem. And finally – number 14 is a bush of bamboo. There was a fair bit of wind that day, and all that bamboo close to each other makes a lovely sound when it moves in the wind.

I really liked the cactus garden – many interesting varieties of cactuses (cacti…?):

Over to some animals then:

Masked Lapwing
Australian Wood Duck
Garden Skink
Laughing Kookaburra

A Laughing Kookaburra (family of the Kingfishers) does indeed make a funny laughing sound.

Sound of a Laughing Kookaburra

They are quite common in Sydney: I heard them often around where I lived.

And what about some history… Again, governor Macquarie is behind all of this. He built a wall to separate the government domain from the town (left). And on the right the a bridge over the Macquarie Culvert: a drain to channel the water from the Botanic Waters Creek under the road.

And what about these views of Sydney… Central Business District (left) and – you must have guessed already what’s on the right hand site… yep, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House… again…

And finally – the ferry back home… A nice way to end a nice day!

Bank Holiday Monday – Manly

On Monday a friend and I went to Manly.

Manly is reached by ferry from Circular Quay. At Circular Quay there are often street performers entertaining people. This time there were two (presumably) Aboriginal Australians playing the didgeridoo – a wind instrument developed by indigenous Australians:

Didgeridoo players at Circular Quay in Sydney

It makes a very low, humming sound – I don’t find it particularly pleasant.

The boat ride to Manly, of course brings us via the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, before arriving at Manly:

We spent a nice and relaxing afternoon at Manly – fish and chips (although that was less relaxing, as the tourists kept feeding the sea gulls, which then rather aggressively snatched food out of our hands…) and ice cream… wading (pootjebaden for the Dutch readers) in the water along the beach:

Thankfully, I don’t think these jellyfish were poisonous (also, this particular one was dead), but it is one of the hazards in Australia apparently… The photo on the right shows the rock pool at Manly. Apparently built in 1929 when bathing in salty sea water became fashionable – a rock pool provides for that without the issues of currents that could pull you out to the ocean and potentially harmful animals.

So far the botanic gardens, Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and Manly… Next week: Featherdale – finally some Australian animals in real life, albeit in captivity…