There were also kangaroos (gray, red, and albino), koalas, emu, crocodiles,
parrots, pelicans, Tasmanian devils, snakes, and many others. Visitors
were allowed to go into the pens with the gray roos and have their picture
taken with a koala. The emu stands almost seven feet tall and is
being raised for meat in some parts of the world. (We tasted both
emu and kangaroo one evening for dinner.) The sound the Emu makes
is so deep that is felt almost as much as heard.
Driving through a continuous chain of towns, we arrived at the Blue
Mountains. In the park we could see across the gorge at a point
called the three sisters, three pinnacles of rock leading out from a cliff.
Rock climbers on one of the pinnacles gave us some idea of their impressive
size. Nearby an aboriginal man, named "Black Jack", was happy to
have his picture taken with the visitors and play his didjeridu, perhaps
the worlds oldest wind instrument. The sound of it echoed across
the park and off of the canyon walls.
At the Imax theater we saw an impressive film taken in the gorge from vantage points that would have taken weeks to reach. Part of the film concentrated on the discovery of a group of ancient pine trees thought to have been extinct for over 40,000 years. Forty of these mature trees have been found and work is in progress to save and propagate more of them. This specie of plant covered much of the earth at one time.
We stopped for lunch at a nearby picture book town called Leura. The main street was a double row of small shops and restaurants. We ate in a rustic little place with a spring snap closer on the screen door and an assorted set of mismatched wooden chairs and tables. The sandwiches were large and delicious. The tour guide chose the same place so we talked about our lives. He had served in the Swedish navy before emigrating to Australia 30 years ago. He is an independent tour guide and is thinking of retiring again to do something totally different.
There was a nursing home at the end of the street named the Ritz.
Sharon and I went down to check it out and talked with one of the workers
who was doing some garden work outside the entrance. She had a wonderful
British/Aussi accent.
After lunch we went back to another point on the gorge and some of
us went for a ride on "the worlds steepest railroad". Cars on a track
were lowered by cable down the side of the gorge, sometimes at an angle
of 52 degrees. The cars went through a natural cavern in the canyon
wall, and the trip was a bit scary at times. The original use for
the train was to haul coal up from a small mine at the lower level.
The platform at the bottom was still quite a distance above the canyon
floor, but it gave us a different perspective of the canyon. From
the platform we could look down onto the top of fern trees that were about
thirty to forty feet across at their tops.
On the way back to Sydney we drove through the Olympic Village.
The stadium is completed and is already in use. Most of the rest
of the buildings are six months ahead of schedule. They are a little
worried about moving all the people in and out of the village and will
run tests on the transportation system during the events in the stadium
to see if all the bugs are out. One way the Olympic committee is
trying to save building extra hotels is to anchor 5 or 6 large cruise ships
in the harbor.
Bondi (pronounced bond-eye) beach is one of the most popular swimming
and surfing beaches in the world. Late on Friday afternoon we jumped
onto a bus and rode out to Bondi to get our feet wet. It had been
cloudy and breezy all day so we knew that swimming was probably beyond
our capabilities. The waves were cresting at somewhere between ten
and twelve feet with a dandy undertow so our assumptions were right on.
It was still fun to walk the surf, and we both got a little wetter than
planned! (By the way, Fiji and Australia and the only places we have
been where nearly everyone pronounces "Rodi" correctly!)
This link should take you to a map of Sydney if you want a better picture of where all these places are. The link comes from one of the Olympic 2000 sites. If you click on various places you will get more information and pictures of that area. There are a lot of links in the map even if it doesn't look like it.
Saturday, our last full day, started out cloudy but ended bright and
sunny. We started out walking at 9:30 and crossed downtown Sydney,
through Hyde Park and across the Domain, to the NSW Art Museum.
One display held the works of school students from around New South Wales.
There was to have been a aboriginal performance at noon, but they didn't
show up. The guard said that in their culture the saying goes "We've
been around for over 20,000 years, what's the hurry!?"
In the afternoon we walked through the Botanical Gardens to the opera
house, a Sydney landmark. The city was busy, and all the seats were
sold out for the opera so we did not attend (I'm not sure we would have
anyway). One of the members of the group was a classical composer
(some of the group gave him the name of "Outback Jack" due to the clothes
he wore). He managed to get one of the last seats available, in the
front row, and was delighted with the performance.
Walking through Circular Quay (pronounced key), we browsed through
the shops and open air markets of an area called "The Rocks". After
lunch at a sidewalk Italian cafe back at Circular Quay, we just sat in
the warm sun watching people and looking out over the harbor. Later
we took the Rocket boat back to Darling Harbor to spend the remainder of
the afternoon taking it easy while people watching. After a late
dinner at the "Golden Harbor", a Chinese restaurant behind the hotel, we
walked back to the harbor to watch the laser show again. Neither
of us cared much for the idea of having to leave Sydney in the morning.
As you may be able to tell by now we found Sydney to be one of the
best cities we have ever visited!
Gene and Sharon
