Exploring Sydney

Sun 18 April
John, Jane, Wilf, Celso, Tristan and I, plus the two dogs (rescued from an aborigianl settlement in the North (with their blessing) where the dog situation was getting out of controll, neutered, chipped and then found homes via the internet) Spot and Mudflap all piled into the car to drive North up the coast to 'the Northern Beaches'. These include loads of small communities (still officially part of Sydney) along the coast with white sand beaches and native bush all around. Some of these areas are really posh, the houses are really expensive - film stars have places round here.
Unfortunately there are very few beaches on which dogs are allowed, but occassionaly they are allowed on grassy strips at the back of beaches and we eventually found one where we could let the dogs have a bit of a run. Wilf and John went swimming in the sea but it was too cold for the rest of us!
We had lunch under a shady tree at a boathouse cafe. The weather is strangely hot for the time of year, around 28 degrees, so it was great sitting around in the shade and having a good chat!
We were given a good tour of the area; there is so much native bush and it seems to be really unspoilt right up to the edge of residential roads; no wonder when there are bush fires so many houses are lost.
Mon 19th
Celso, Tris, Wilf and I went in to town; Wilf's school is having a teacher training day and Jane had to work; we visited Sydney Wildlife World in Darling Harbour which has all sorts of Aussie animals on show in fantastic large enclosures. There were loads of snakes and reptiles to keep Celso fascinated for hours, a huge croc, Koalas, Kangaroos, and all the nocturnal creatures. I think my favourite 'new' (to me) animal was the Bilby - a rabbit eared bandicoot, if I hadn't seen it myself I would have thought it made up! The Wombat and Kangaroo rats are pretty cool too.
After a bite to eat we went next door to the Aquarium; unfortunately the platypus did not make an appearance for us but the sharks, octupus, cuttlefish, sea dragon and dugongs were particularly fantastic.
Finally we finished our central Sydney tour by visiting the Sydney Tower; like the CN Tower in Toronto; Wilf was very nervous going up in the lift but the first to rush to the windows when we finally reached the top. We had fantastic views all around, we could see across to Manly where we had caught the ferry and down to Darling Harbour, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
When we returned to J,J & W's house we took the dogs for a walk in the dark. Here they use graveyards as dog walking places, there are loads of dogs there and the flower pots on the grave stones are filled everyday to give the dogs drinking water... it all seemed very odd to me, and, even stranger, there is also a childrens' playground inside the graveyard area
Tues 20th
Celso, Tris and I went in to town (again), had a look around the shops, went to a Mythical Creatures Exhibition at the Maritime Museum (strangely enough) which explored the basis for the creation of many different mythical creatures from various cultures around the world. Then we went to pick up our hire car and tried to find our way back to J,J & W's house in the north.
Tomorrow we head off out of Sydney.