Ballskills, Badbird and Ben.

09/04/2012


Tarronga Zoo is a Sydney institution and rightly so, situated across the harbour from the Opera House and the Bridge It offers , not only a world renowned zoo, but also the most stunning outlook  towards the city.

We went over on the dedicated ferry and embarked at the bottom of the hill, a bus takes you to the top, or you can ride up on the Sky Rail, and marvel at the views. We decided to leave the Sky Rail until our return and took the bus up the hill to the entrance.

   Not for the faint hearted, its a long way down.

The map we obtained of the zoo was well laid out, which enabled us to navigate around quite easily and we thought the gorillas, snow leopards and kangaroos we particularly good. Of course the Koalas were special, close up in their enclosures, they looked  very cute, munching on the eucalyptus leaves. They were a lot bigger than I had thought and on their own soil it seemed fitting that they were the centre of attention.

After our  day at the Sydney Show we took a leisurely pace around the extensive grounds. The setting for each group of animals was excellent, showing off each type of species to the best that a zoo could be expected do, given the circumstances.

There is an extensive breeding programme for some of the threatened species and its worth saying that, in my humble opinion, this is the point that nowadays most  zoos are proud of.

One of the  shows on offer is a little trick the elephant keepers play with one of the male bull elephants. They have him stacking tyres and various object, but his party trick is sighting a rugby ball, taking a run and booting it over the fence towards the crowd. A neat trick, which drew plenty of applause, but is this how these noble beasts should be treated? A vexing question.

  anyone for tennis?

As always, the never ending search for food took us to a cafe, which had a terrace overlooking the enclosures and general garden area. Ben suffered a pulled neck muscle after recoiling too quickly from a small peck from a Lorikeet, which had just nibbled a small piece of biscuit from my hand. The big girls blouse, it was only a defensive peck, not a full blown attack.

This poor lady suffered more than a neck spasm, on its next attack,  her hair was used as nest building material.

After a good few hours looking at he chimpanzees and other exhibits, we descended on the Skyrail to the ferry quay for our crossing to Sydney.

 Overall it appears to be a good environment to house the collection of wildlife. Zoo's in my view are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't. Of course the natural world is the best place to see animals, but with the encroachment of man and with the pressures of a global society to produce food and minerals, zoos perform a valuable task in conservation and education.

Another day had come to a close. The days were running out, but a storm was to hit Sydney that would cause chaos and disruption and Simon Cowell was to blame for it!!

Bedazzled, Bedraggled and Brill

08/07/2012


The Sydney Royal  Easter Show is a national institution. We were  very excited and expectant of how this would play out. This massive event is held at the Olympic Park and seemed to have something for everybody.

Once again we were to use our trusty travel passes, this time to catch the train to the venue, a 15 minute journey, but with a difference. Sydney's integrated transport system is a real gem and in my opinion is organised as a public service, not as a way for private business to make a fast buck. As expected the trains ran every 5 minutes to the Olympic Park, meaning no queues, no hassle and a chance to ride on the double decker trains. Taking advantage of no low bridges, twice as many passengers can be moved in this piggy back mode. It was fantastic!!




            

Upon arrival, we purchased our entry tickets at the railway ticket office, again so well organised and designed to avoid any queuing. We arrived fresh and ready for a busy day.

There is a curious institution at the show, i.e." The Showbag," . This strange phenomena is provided by the many sponsors of the event they are purchased and are a kind of low value goody bag. The locals make a big show of collecting as many as possible and its amusing to see all the kids weighed down with their carrier bags.


    Just a small section of the show.

The key to enjoying the whole day is good planning and we had a good plan, designed by Ben, to maximise our time and ensure we saw everything. Within two minutes we were struggling with the enormous size of the task. So we prioritised and chose, the woodchopping, the livestock exhibits, but we started with  the Shetland pony racing followed by the motorcycle stunt spectacular, just to add a little class to the start of our day.


The stunt motorcycle display was very good, breathtaking tricks and pure adrenalin. The Shetland Pony racing was by contrast a more sedate affair, but the kids looked sweet as they battled each other around the track.




The woodchopping is a major event and draws participant from the whole of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. It is a major event and is the climax to a season of events held throughout the year. It even has its own dedicated arena and has been at the show for over 100 years, now that's a sport with traditions!!

               go to it boys, axes at the ready, chop!!!

It brought home to us the outdoor/outback feel and it was by no means confined to male participants. The Jack and Jill broad saw competition proved that the pioneer spirit was still alive and kicking in both sexes.


  Go girl go.



As at all shows of this type the fast food on offer was extensive providing many opportunities for snackettes.
Among our favourites was the cheese dog on a stick. Pure rubbish, but so tasty. For lunch Pauline and myself had the worst fish and chips you could have imagined, pure mush. This cause great amusement to Ben, who could not believe that with so much on offer, we has succeeded in finding the worst food outlet on the show ground.

The livestock displays were terrific, cattle, fowl, pig, sheep and horse were all on view, hundreds upon hundreds of them. Australia prides itself on its outdoor way of life and this show confirmed that stereotypes do have a basis in fact. Australians love their way of life as roughneck types. Nothing to deride, well done Australia you did us proud, what a great day.

As the day came to an end the hot day saw the thunder clouds bubble up and we retreated indoors to view one of the many exhibitions of country craft and cake making. The heavens opened and a tremendous thunderstorm ripped the sky apart. The planned firework display gave way to mother nature who did not let us down, forked lightening and thunderclaps straight from Thor's hammer.

As we had dashed inside out of the rain, we had noticed a large tent like structure with the sign Hollywood Horror Show. We could not resist, we had to go inside.

As we entered the dark, we notice two teenage girls hanging back. Pauline took them under her wing, her mothering instinct took over, just as Freddie Kruger dashed out to meet us. Screams and panic ensued, Anna recoiled in horror and grabbed Ben for assistance, Pauline dashed off with the two girls.

How the attraction works is like this, you wander through a series of interconnected rooms, each one set  as a scene from a well known horror film. Out from a secret hiding place will appear the main character, who with the aid of a sophisticated lighting system, i.e. strobe lights, fog and sound effects, will come towards you in a threatening manner. With the darkness all enveloping the atmosphere is tremendous and makes you run from one room to another. In the resultant panic, as we fled one particular scary encounter, I looked around to see Pauline thrashing around on the floor with one of the girls on top of her. In their panic, both had tripped each other and were on the ground with a man, carrying a chain saw, attempting to attack them. I had stomach cramps from the laughter. Anna had also injured herself, running into a wall, while fleeing Hannibal  Lechter, but we survived and had tears of laughter in our eyes as we eventually  ran out into the night. To the two girls, thank you, your contribution was terrific and to the people who ran and performed the show, even more thanks. Great entertainment.

We returned to the city centre again with no queues or hassle, another great day out and one which we will always remember. Well done to the Royal Sydney Easter Show.

Bread bins, Baskets and Big Seats

07/04/2012

Well we were starting the last week of our visit to the Land Down Under and we were feeling a little tired. The plan today was to relax and visit the local flea market in Surry Hills. It was nice to just wander around the area that Ben and Anna have come to call home. A great mix of shops, restaurants and housing, Surry Hills seems to be the ideal place to live and hang out in.

The main two spine roads, which dissect the district, are Crown and Bourke Streets. Off of these, in a kind of grid pattern are inter connecting streets. It all works to produce a very relaxed atmosphere, which has an Australian feel, but tempered with a mix of different ethnic nuances.

After a leisurely breakfast we ambled up to the Flea Market held in the Shannon Reserve, which is intersected by Crown Street and Collins Street and takes place on the first Saturday of ever month. Its a mixture of second hand stalls, recycled goods and handmade artefacts.




What more junk would we be tempted to buy? It offered the perfect place to purchase a bargain, or that's what Ben and Anna intimated. As we rummaged around the stalls, the thoughts of taking any of the goods home filled me with horror, but not some of our party. Diving in and out of the stalls like a whirlwind, Anna purchased, in double quick time, an  enamelled bread bin, an old style thermos flask and a wicker shopping basket. It reminded me of the teams being let loose on Bargain Hunt.

 

It was a pleasurable experience and as always, it only served to fire up our hunger pangs. We deposited ourselves across the road in a very nice cafe / bookshop. The menu  was extensive , varied and reasonably priced.

A little snackette, healthy options for Pauline, waffles and fruit. It only confirmed what a nice area this was.

We had decided, that evening, to go to the cinema to see " The Hunger Games " at the Moore Park Complex. Only ten minutes walk from their home, the park complex contains a large grassed area on which the Sydney Cricket ground is located, plus Sydney Football Ground and Fox studios.

 The entertainment centre contains numerous bars and restaurants and the cinema multiplex. The cinema was very much like any other in the world, but it had enormous seats.

  

The film was good and we enjoyed the experience, but, one thing about Australia still confounds me, namely, everything closes earlier than in Europe. It was about 10.00pm when we came out of the cinema and all the places were closing, very strange and this applies to most parts of Sydney.

As we walked back across the park Ben alerted us to a resident possum. Ben's attempts at wildlife photography had been quite good, but his discovery of a floodlight attached to the camera only served to blind anyone he pointed the camera at and also scared off the wildlife.

 Blinded by the light, but still cute............

Another day had ended, tomorrow the Royal Sydney Show was to be taken in....whatever we expected, the show did not disappoint!!!!!!

Birthday, Bridge and Bushwacked

06/04/2012


Pauline's birthday arrived and the day dawned with a clear blue sky and after opening her presents and cards we headed off into the city to catch the bus to Spit Bridge and partake in a 8km walk to Manly along the cliff top walk.

Sounds simple, we were to picnic on the way, have an evening meal in Manly and catch the ferry back to Sydney to catch the city skyline when it was dark.

Oh..... how plans can go wrong. Firstly we missed the bus to Manly by only a few minutes and the next one was a 45 minute wait. Ben seemed a little miffed and went into "father mode", i.e. shouldering all the disappointment for the whole group. I recognise this because I have operated in this mode. It proves that genetic behaviours always surface, sorry about that  Ben. He did act in a decisive manner and basically made us get into a taxi and demanded the driver take us to Spit Bridge. A slightly tense start, but the day, which started with a little tension, would only get much better.

 Spit Bridge, in all its splendour.

The walk was terrific and alternated between temperate rain forest, cliff top scrub, small beaches and inlets, all very interesting.

We had our picnic and sunbathed, plus we ended up paddling and swimming in the warm waters of the bay.

No sharks were seen, but I did touch an octopus when putting my feet down after swimming. Yes it was Anna, definitely not seaweed !!

This was not the only wildlife were were to encounter at close quarters, but more, in detail, later.We all had a  nice rest, wished Pauline more birthday wishes and decided to press on with the walk.

          a view of the walk through a forest section.

As the walk progressed the blister on my little toe started to cause a bit of discomfort, but I switched to some flip flops and this proved to be a good move, in that I could now walk without the searing pain I had kept hidden from my co- walkers.

 Ben and Anna, plus Pauline, have an obsession about eating fruit when you walk. Strange, I know!

The cliff side forest has small clearings now and then which allow the resident reptiles to heat up their bodies. We encountered a two foot Dragon Lizard. To help me to manoeuvre him into position I asked Ben to throw me his apple core. His throw was reminiscent of Quentin Crisp throwing a baseball. It missed my outstretched hands and landed between my feet. At that moment a metre long Dragon Lizard dashed out of the undergrowth and snatched the apple core from under my legs. Needless to say I avoid this full frontal attack and with the deftness of a principle boy dancer at The Royal Ballet,  managed to keep my feet and take a photo all in one graceful movement, well that's how I remember it.

Notice the neck of the beast, bright red, sure sign of an aggressive attack mode !!!

The walk after this was uneventful and took in some terrific views over the headland and out into the Pacific.
Ancient rocks with Aboriginal carvings were in evidence and animals and insects could be seen in these carvings from thousands of years ago.

It was teatime as we entered Manly and as I've previously said, the town does have a buzz about it. We found a good restaurant with a good mixed menu and after a great meal we had a little walk around and headed for the ferry back to Sydney.

The sight of Sydney, with all is lights twinkling, was without doubt one of the highlights of our trip and its always good to ride on the Manly Ferry!!







Great  time and a great birthday, happy birthday Pauline.

Battleship, Blister and Bronze.

05/04/2012.



Back in Sydney after our travels, it was a case of , " what will we do today ". As I've said before the harbour area around Sydney is huge. Not only the part around Circular Quays, which is dominated by the Opera House and the Bridge, but other equally fascinating areas are there to be explored.

So today it was to be Darling Harbour and its associated shops and amenities. Armed with our travel cards, which allowed us to travel on buses and trains at a very reasonable price, we set off for the city centre, some 10 mins ride away.



 In my normal life I don't ride on buses, but this integrated system was fine.

The clear blue sky made everything seem so vibrant. The monorail which goes around the harbour area and back up into the city only added to the more modern theme. Our first thoughts of Darling Harbour were positive with the modern glass front office buildings providing an almost futuristic backdrop.

The surrounding area has a multitude of shops, bars and cafes and also hosts a number of museums and attractions. When the weather is not so good the Maritime Museum and the Sealife Centre seem to be good choices. Sitting in the sun sipping a cold beer and people watching appealed to us this fine day.

As in any big city, the diverse cultures of the indigenous population, plus visitors, makes for a treasure trove of taking points and observations. Its fascinating to note that by and large, we deal with our children in the same way when they play up a little and that Japanese people do love to take photos of everything, even when it seems there is no logical purpose.

We had arranged to meet Ben for lunch, he seemed to want to keep tabs on us,  it was a little endearing in a nice sort of way and it was a pleasure to see him, even with his customary two fingered salute to his father..charming 

 Typical Ben gesture of greeting....

We decided to lunch in the Victoria Arcade, a very nice shopping and eating venue, just up into the city from Darling Harbour. 

The little snackette complete, we promised Ben to behave and set out to purchase something from the arcade. A host of high class shops with overpriced items drew no dollars from ourselves, but all of a sudden some bronze cast figures by Pete Smit caught our eye.

 

 we decided on the Kangaroo and it now resides in our lounge at home.

The amount of walking and sightseeing we had done had taken its toll of my little toe and sadly I have to report that a huge blister had appeared. Fighting the searing pain was one thing, but the prospect of a 10 kilometre walk tomorrow filled me with dismay. How was I to cope with the ridicule of Ben aided by the supportive cries of " man up " from Anna....., but that evening events took place that added a slight air of friction!

It was Pauline's birthday the next day and Ben and Anna had booked us into an Argentinian restaurant that  evening. The meal, as always, was tremendous and the service first class, but an incident was to occur on our walk home. We were quite close to home, walking through a back street, when a small black kitten seemed to take a shine to Anna, maybe because when it sniffed around myself and Pauline, we shooed it away. Safe to say it followed us to the door. Upon opening the front door said kitten ran in and made itself at home. Being practical, I pointed out that the kitten, who had by now, had ran upstairs and  looking to stay, was not a viable option and that some small child was probably crying for her kitten, we eventually showed it the door. Anna, I'm sorry, forgive me, but it had to go. The next day we saw posters regarding the kitten confirming someone had taken it  in  and was appealing to the owners to contact them. Job sorted!!!  

   said kitten.

Berry, Backtrack and Bed

      

04/04/2012.


Well, our last day in the Jervis Bay area dawned , bright and beautiful as ever. What a tremendous time we had had with the interaction with the local and the wildlife. This is a beautiful part of the world with an old time feel that is not forced, but is a genuine part of the make up of the area.

Bye, Bye Beaches and Birds




We were to drive back to Sydney along the Pacific Highway, a part " A" road, part motorway, which snaked in and out of the coast all the way back to the city.










As always we were to stop in Berry for a last browse around and lunch. We might be accused of bulling up the town, maybe, but we know what we like.

 



Two photos that sum up the place, just off the main road in the park, near to the train station and the main street. Thanks for the memories Berry.



Berry's award winning traffic cops, missed me this time cobber's !! Did at least 5kph over the limit, just outside town.




Driving along the Pacific Highway was memorable for the views and it was with trepidation that we approached the outskirts of the city. Ben and Anna seemed to have concerns about our ability to follow a map and just wing it. Today if you don't have an I Phone app that has sat nav and gps etc then you can't find your way around. On our way out, with Ben driving, I had left a trail to follow on the way home



Nothing could be simpler, " H " stands for HOME.

The next sign, which I needed to identify, was the road which goes under the runway of Sydney airport. The flyover was easy to miss if empty, but with a big aeroplane crossing it, we knew we were on the right track.

  we were on the right track, thank goodness !!!

We were on the last stretch and with Moore Park on our right we and at the very last second, we veered to the left and by luck, more than management , we were only a few streets away from home.

The Homestead

Our road trips to Jervis Bay and the Blue Mountains were over. We could not have asked for more, stunning views, tremendous accommodations and great company. We saw just a small part of this great country. Thank you Australia.

From now and until the end of our trip Sydney was to be our playground, let the fun begin ...........