Today I got up and booked my onward travel to Melbourne, which is going to be a 7am pickup tomorrow morning from the hostel for a three day/two night tour down to Melbourne, taking in lots of towns and sites along the way. I also booked a YHA hostel for 4 night in Melbourne once I get there, from where I can have a look around, play some poker and organise moving on again. The tour takes in Canberra (including parliment house and other city highlights), Cooma, Jinabyne, the Australian Alps (which we will hike on), Glacial Blue Lake, the peak of Mt Kosciuszko (the highest point in Australia, with a zip wire to go on up there too!), the Lakes Entrance, Ninety Mile Beach, Gippsland Lakes, Bass Strait Beach walk and Wilsons Promontory National Park!!! Then on to Melbourne to collapse and die... :-) Obviously the tour includes meals and dorm accomodation too, it is a pretty good deal. My only fear is that it is only full of young loud muppets like this central YHA place mostly has... but I'm hopeful it will be ok.
After doing that and getting a big bag of fruit for breakfast, I headed out to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to the zoo. I'm a bit zoo'd out really on this trip, but though I'd give it a look anyway. It is a very nice zoo, really well laid out and signed and the animals are in very good enclosures and look healthy and happy!
There were lots of large groups of school kids though, which were pretty annoying after a time. At one point they were all stood watching a huge bear eat a huge rat, which I thought was hilarious! Some of them winced as the bones cracked when the bear was tearing off a limb, but mostly they thought it was coooool... lol! I was pretty shocked to see that to be honest, I thought they'd feed them fruit infront of visitors! The rat was torn into pieces with guts everywhere, and the bear clearly enjoying the feed... and why not!
In the afternoon I went back down to the harbour and went on one of the stunt jet boats into the harbour. This was something I'd planned on doing out in New Zealand as they have one that runs down a river and through a lake, but with the harbour being so scenic, I thought I'd do it here. It was a really good laugh, the boat is seriously impressive and very fast! It has a flattened hull at the back, so when they do the big spins, it flies round really fast, and sprays the boat full of water! I managed to get an outside seat in the back row, from where I assumed I'd get a decent soaking, and was not wrong! The first one was huge and even though I was wearing one of their poncho's it went into my lap and down the front and back of my shirt through the opening in the hood... LMAO! The driver did some crazy braking moves too, sending the front of the boat down into the water and flipping the back round, which filled the boat with water pretty effectively, lol! Money well spent...
Since that I've had a hot shower and chucked some paracetamols down my neck as I have a bit of a cold developing... if it wants to take hold its going to have to pull its finger out though, as I'm going hiking tomorrow, screw you cold!
So... thats Sydney done! I might come back yet... it is a great place and I completely failed to give Matt, who I met at Elephants & Friends, a shout for a schooner... doh!
I'll be offline for a few days, touring on my way to Melbourne... catch you all from there!
Chuurs
Sloggs
Pictures of Sydney on photobucket...
