Hi from Sydney!
We’ve been having flaming good time in Oz so far! Having met
up with Sarah’s Mum and Dad on Thursday we’ve been ‘knocking ourselves out’
with loads of sightseeing in and around Sydney
(guess who’s been setting the faster pace...!)
We’re staying over in Manly – which is a surf beach and
suburb to the North of the city. (As an aside, Manly apparently got it’s name
‘cos when Captain Cook and the gang arrived in the eighteenth century, the
Aboriginals that greeted the party looked very, erm, manly! So this has given
us the perfect excuse to pull lots of silly butch poses, and for Phil to feel
full of testosterone whilst visiting e.g. the manly flower shop and the manly
launderette!)
Manly keepy-uppy
Mum and Dad are staying in the centre of town – so this has
meant lots of trips across the harbour on the Manly ferry to meet up – a real
bonus as the ferry trip provides awesome sights of all the iconic sights – the
opera house, the bridge etc. In fact we’re getting a bit too used to it now and
Phil actually commented today that with the bridge on one side, and the music
place on the other – it’s not really that
different from Newcastle – if only
they had some brown ale at these fancy bars…
In between ferry trips, we’ve managed to get a good taste of
the city itself – strolling around the historic Rocks area and visiting Paddington
market, going up the harbour bridge for some spectacular views (see an almost complete 360 set of ‘panos’ from Phil in the Sydney gallery…),
walking in the botanical gardens (where Dad ‘made friends’ with a cockatoo and
has the scars to prove it!) – and we even got to the Opera house!
John makes a friend, while the guy behind prays he glued his wig on properly...
We went to see Carmen there on Friday night – it’s really a
very beautiful building and was a fantastic evening, despite the fact that the
lead singer – Carmen herself – was on holiday, and her understudy had lost her
voice too! But of course the show must go on – so we had the understudy acting
out the part –and lip-synching to a visiting singer from Bucharest,
who stood to the side of the stage! A bonza effort from the Opera Sheilas for
sure, and definitely pretty unique!
Also fairly unique was watching the lights go off for ‘Earth
Hour’ for 60 minutes on Saturday – we’re not sure if this happened at home too
– but the idea was for everyone to switch their lights off at 8pm (noon at home
so it probably wouldn’t make much difference?!) as part of a global campaign to
raise awareness of the need to conserve power reserves. Most people seemed to
be joining in – and the harbour did look quite different – though we were
relieved to find that the Manly ferry kept its lights on and was able to find
its way back home again!
The weather has been perfect – really sunny and in the
high-20s. So hot in fact that Phil has been confusing the sun-kissed locals
with his shade-seeking behaviour on the beach!
We spent an afternoon over in Manly and a day at Bondi (we
caught the bendy bondi bus!). Both beaches are gorgeous – and actually less
commercialized than we’d expected. And as we’ve been trying out the local
seafood, we can announce that the award for best fish and chips goes to Bondi –
though it was a close run thing and we might just arrange a re-match when we
come back to Sydney in a couple of week’s time…
Yesterday we all headed out of the city for a day up in the Blue
Mountains, west of Sydney.
Again, this is typically literal name – the mountains actually do look blue due
to the haze coming from the Eucalyptus trees that grow here! We had a lovely
walk following a path that Charles Darwin apparently took when the Beagle
landed here – which took us for an hour or so down a fairly gentle path - before delivering us at the Wentworth Falls
– a spectacular waterfall which appears out of nowhere and plummets into a
massive valley of canyons filled with endless Eucalyptus. We took a lot of
photos at this point! (see Blue Mountains gallery…).
There was also plenty of wildlife to spot – herons and cockatoos for Dad to
point his binoculars at, and giant spiders to scare sarah’s Mum with!
Later on we caught a bus (actually a School Bus – driven by
a retired chap named Bob – or Rob – or Ron – he wasn’t fussy and seemed more
interested in chatting to lost tourists than picking up school children!) – to
Katoomba – which is a charming little mountain town with lots of secondhand
bookshops, vintage clothes etc. – and is also the gateway to the Three Sisters
– a massive stone formation overlooking the canyons. According to Dreamtime
legend, the sisters were turned into stone by a witch doctor who wished to
protect them from an evil uncle - but
sadly could never be turned back because the uncle instead killed the doctor,
who was the only one who knew how to undo the spell…bummer!
Tomorrow we’re ‘going Tropo’ - catching the train up to sweaty Brisbane,
and the start of our trip up to Fraser
Island. Then it’s on to Melbourne
to visit out friends Martin and Nicola and our next update.
Until then, lots of love,
Sarah and Phil x
