Sat 1st May
Today we drove up and through Melbourne, straight through to the other side, along a Freeway that ducks into a tunnel to bypass the CBD. All very efficient and sooooo empty. We made our way out to Geelong and found a motel, did our washing, visited a shopping centre and basically did nothing much.
Sun - Wed
We dawdled along the coast taking stops here and there to watch the birds, surfers or just the waves. We took a wander up the river at Anglesea and then at 2pm made our way to the Howden (my cousin) holiday home where Kate (my cousin's half sister) had been staying for the weekend. And here we have been staying in this gorgeous house which looks out into a natural bush garden. We put out some seed and have sat watching birds (Corellas, cockatoos, rosellas, tits, Cookaburras and finches) and nightly possum visitors. Celso has been fishing; Tristan and I have been getting quite good at ping pong, monopoly and Yahtzee; and each evening, after a home cooked supper, we watch a 'classic' dvd! It has been great to be in the same place for a little while. The only day we really did much was on Tuesday when we drove West along the Great Ocean Road to Port Cambell to see the 12 Apostles (some famous rock stacks in the sea), Loch Ard Gorge (the beach where the only two survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck washed up), and a Blow Hole that wasn't blowing (where the bodies of the other shipwrecked souls ended up). It rained on and off for most of that day and we were glad to stop off at Kangaroobie (the farm of a sort of cousin of the Burman's, Matt was a teenager when I was here 20 years ago but now he is the farmer and has 3 boys of his own!) where we ate a bowl of hot soup with the 60 or so kids that are staying there on 'camp' (they run a sort of farm/country activity centre for town kids). Of course the sun came out as soon as we started to head back East along the coast back to Anglesea.
We have been having great fun listening to 70's, 80's and 90's hits from the extensive LP collection in the house, as well as a great classical selection. We got up this morning to Vivaldi's 4 seasons with the great crackle of the old LP and record player! Young kids don't know what they missed.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Friday, 30 April 2010
Down into East Victoria
Mon
We drove South out of the Blue Mountains through a patchwork of native bush between large tracts of farmland. We saw more of the wonderful birdlife, the magpies, galahs, and, the most enormous eagle I have ever seen, sitting in a tree by the edge of the road, but it soared off magestically before we managed to extract the camera. We drove through tiny little towns full of arty farty craft shops and cafes, one of which served us a very good fry up brunch!
From Goulburn we turned East to the coast and we stopped outside Bateman's bay in a little town called Nelligen where there is a river meeting the Bateman's bay estuary and people catching loads of fish. We left Celso fishing and Tris and I drove up the coast a bit to Pebbly Beach where we were told the kangaroos lie around on the beach... and they did! We drove down to the beach on a winding gravel road through the bush and arrived in a car park that was filled with various parrots (or parrot like birds - Celso will kill me for being so inprecise about the species), Rosellas (the blue cheeked kind), King Parrots, a Wattle Bird, a crested bronzewings pigeon, Rainbow Lorikeet, and long billed cockatoos. Tris and I were overwhelmed by both the numbers and by their boldness, then we went down onto the beach and watched the kangaroos grazing at their leisure as the sun went down. When we returned we found Celso still fishing, he had caught a few but they were all below the legal keep length so he had released them (or that is his story for having nothing to show us!).
We stayed the night in the local pub, we were the only patrons and the bar was closed early as it had no customers - the whole place was like a ghost town after the buzz and hustle and bustle of the long weekend.
Tues
Having missed Pebbly beach and all the birds yesterday, we had to take Celso down to see. There weren't as many birds but the kangaroos were still laying about, they look like Roman emperors lazing around on recliners.
Then we drove south down the coast, taking loads of little side roads to drive through small towns and native bush, however sometimes we were taken through some horrid modern built up areas that went right down to the sea with tiny plots and evidence of more and more bush being chopped down. We stopped in a tiny town called Cobargo to look through the craft shops and eat a pie (the Aussies are huge on their meat pies). Then we turned in land to go to Bombala (the platypus capital of Australia) where, apparently, over 90% of the rivers and streams in the region have platypus residents. We arrived around 4:30pm and rushed out to the 'platypus reserve' but were not to be granted a sighting, apparently they don't come out if it is windy! We were treated to a great sunset over the river though!
Wed
Celso and I got up at the crack of dawn to go down to the river again, fabulous sunrise but no platypus - again. We returned to the hotel dejected, but decided that we wouldn't wait any more and we would continue our journey south. The road south took us for about an hour through pristine bush without any sign of settlement and we passed only about 3 cars on our way into. We stopped off in loads of places, first at the MacKenzie river to take a walk through the rainforest. The Eucalyptus forest with its hanging down leaves that let the sunlight dapple through onto the ground allowing ferns and other low shrubs to grow just suddenly gives way to another type of tree. These have horizontal leaves that block out much more of the light and the air was noticably more humid. Later we stopped at huge tree lined rivers where Celso would cast a line; to look at various parrots, birds or plants that took our fancy; to look out over the sand dunes and the beaches. We finally reached Lake Tyers, a tidal lake near Marlo on the South East Coast of Victoria (where the Snowy River meets the sea), but the tide was out so Celso's fishing ambitions were shot, and then went on to Lakes Entrance where after some more failed fishing attempts we found a cabin to stay in for the night.
Thurs
Today our journey took us West along the South Coast to go to Wilson's Promontory. We stopped to take a walk through a wetland reserve, but it was completely dry and we saw nothing save some magpies and we heard some baby birds from amongst the reeds. On a bit further we were shocked but delighted to see an Echidna on the side of the road and we stopped to take a look. He had his nose stuck in the sand with loads of ants fleeing for their lives, but he looked up as we approached and then decided it was best to bury himself until all we could see was the spines on his back, suprisingly he seemed to be very well camouflaged. We were also intrigued by some Emus just off the edge of the road that fled into a pine forest as we tried to sneak up on them. We had another day of driving and loads of small stops. We stopped quite early in a little town called Foster as the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
Friday 30th May
This was just a great day. We drove out to Wilson's Prom, slowly the farmland turned to native forest separated by strips of grassland; the common grass, filled with clumps of spikey waist high grasses; we went down to the end of the road at Tidal River to get some info having stopped along the way to photograph herds of wild emu. Then we went for a walk along the grasslands; there were enormous quantities of poo! We were trying to work out which went with which animal! There was sloppy, like a cow pat, we concluded that it was from the emus; huge, round, rabbit like droppings (just bigger), we think that was kangaroo; and then torpedo shaped grass eater - we thought that it was Wombat!!! There was also detective work to be done with loads of bleached bones, and then of course there were the kangaroos and emus to be avoided as they suddenly appeared amongst the tall grasses. So brilliant to see the kangaroos on their terms, jumping along, so graceful, so incredibly strong.
After lunch we drove across to Philip Island. We found a really dirty, manky, ill looking Wombat munching grass on the edge of the road, however we are not sure whether he really was ill as he ran off quickly enough as we approached. Then we went on our way to Philip Island to visit a Koala reserve where we actually managed to spot a few of the cuddly critters at last - absolutely gorgeous. We also spotted some Wallabies, I don't even know what the difference is between a Kanga and a Wallaby. I'll have to do some research.
At 5:15pm we made our way down to the beach to sit and watch the fairy penguins come in to their nests for the night. It was absolutely incredible as about 20 of them waddled right past us, about 2 feet away. They appeared out of the surf and then waited for reinforcements. When their numbers were sufficient they set off up the beach at a fast waddle to make it to the dunes. Sadly we weren't allowed to take cameras down onto the beach as the penguins are protected and get really frightened by flash photography. It was doubly sad not to have our camera as there was the most incredible moon rise, about a half hour after sunset there was a red glow in the Eastern sky and then the moon rose, really fast, huge and blood red. I suppose it may have been an eclipse of the moon (or if not a very nearly one) as I know the moon goes red due to refraction of sunlight through the earth's atmosphere when it is in the shadow of the earth. The little fairy penguins have a good pair of lungs on them, they screamed and gurgled when they got up into the sanddunes and near to their burrows; we think they were calling for their mates, and then, once together, they did some more load squawking as they rubbed around each other. It was a breathtakingly amazing experience.
We drove South out of the Blue Mountains through a patchwork of native bush between large tracts of farmland. We saw more of the wonderful birdlife, the magpies, galahs, and, the most enormous eagle I have ever seen, sitting in a tree by the edge of the road, but it soared off magestically before we managed to extract the camera. We drove through tiny little towns full of arty farty craft shops and cafes, one of which served us a very good fry up brunch!
From Goulburn we turned East to the coast and we stopped outside Bateman's bay in a little town called Nelligen where there is a river meeting the Bateman's bay estuary and people catching loads of fish. We left Celso fishing and Tris and I drove up the coast a bit to Pebbly Beach where we were told the kangaroos lie around on the beach... and they did! We drove down to the beach on a winding gravel road through the bush and arrived in a car park that was filled with various parrots (or parrot like birds - Celso will kill me for being so inprecise about the species), Rosellas (the blue cheeked kind), King Parrots, a Wattle Bird, a crested bronzewings pigeon, Rainbow Lorikeet, and long billed cockatoos. Tris and I were overwhelmed by both the numbers and by their boldness, then we went down onto the beach and watched the kangaroos grazing at their leisure as the sun went down. When we returned we found Celso still fishing, he had caught a few but they were all below the legal keep length so he had released them (or that is his story for having nothing to show us!).
We stayed the night in the local pub, we were the only patrons and the bar was closed early as it had no customers - the whole place was like a ghost town after the buzz and hustle and bustle of the long weekend.
Tues
Having missed Pebbly beach and all the birds yesterday, we had to take Celso down to see. There weren't as many birds but the kangaroos were still laying about, they look like Roman emperors lazing around on recliners.
Then we drove south down the coast, taking loads of little side roads to drive through small towns and native bush, however sometimes we were taken through some horrid modern built up areas that went right down to the sea with tiny plots and evidence of more and more bush being chopped down. We stopped in a tiny town called Cobargo to look through the craft shops and eat a pie (the Aussies are huge on their meat pies). Then we turned in land to go to Bombala (the platypus capital of Australia) where, apparently, over 90% of the rivers and streams in the region have platypus residents. We arrived around 4:30pm and rushed out to the 'platypus reserve' but were not to be granted a sighting, apparently they don't come out if it is windy! We were treated to a great sunset over the river though!
Wed
Celso and I got up at the crack of dawn to go down to the river again, fabulous sunrise but no platypus - again. We returned to the hotel dejected, but decided that we wouldn't wait any more and we would continue our journey south. The road south took us for about an hour through pristine bush without any sign of settlement and we passed only about 3 cars on our way into. We stopped off in loads of places, first at the MacKenzie river to take a walk through the rainforest. The Eucalyptus forest with its hanging down leaves that let the sunlight dapple through onto the ground allowing ferns and other low shrubs to grow just suddenly gives way to another type of tree. These have horizontal leaves that block out much more of the light and the air was noticably more humid. Later we stopped at huge tree lined rivers where Celso would cast a line; to look at various parrots, birds or plants that took our fancy; to look out over the sand dunes and the beaches. We finally reached Lake Tyers, a tidal lake near Marlo on the South East Coast of Victoria (where the Snowy River meets the sea), but the tide was out so Celso's fishing ambitions were shot, and then went on to Lakes Entrance where after some more failed fishing attempts we found a cabin to stay in for the night.
Thurs
Today our journey took us West along the South Coast to go to Wilson's Promontory. We stopped to take a walk through a wetland reserve, but it was completely dry and we saw nothing save some magpies and we heard some baby birds from amongst the reeds. On a bit further we were shocked but delighted to see an Echidna on the side of the road and we stopped to take a look. He had his nose stuck in the sand with loads of ants fleeing for their lives, but he looked up as we approached and then decided it was best to bury himself until all we could see was the spines on his back, suprisingly he seemed to be very well camouflaged. We were also intrigued by some Emus just off the edge of the road that fled into a pine forest as we tried to sneak up on them. We had another day of driving and loads of small stops. We stopped quite early in a little town called Foster as the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
Friday 30th May
This was just a great day. We drove out to Wilson's Prom, slowly the farmland turned to native forest separated by strips of grassland; the common grass, filled with clumps of spikey waist high grasses; we went down to the end of the road at Tidal River to get some info having stopped along the way to photograph herds of wild emu. Then we went for a walk along the grasslands; there were enormous quantities of poo! We were trying to work out which went with which animal! There was sloppy, like a cow pat, we concluded that it was from the emus; huge, round, rabbit like droppings (just bigger), we think that was kangaroo; and then torpedo shaped grass eater - we thought that it was Wombat!!! There was also detective work to be done with loads of bleached bones, and then of course there were the kangaroos and emus to be avoided as they suddenly appeared amongst the tall grasses. So brilliant to see the kangaroos on their terms, jumping along, so graceful, so incredibly strong.
After lunch we drove across to Philip Island. We found a really dirty, manky, ill looking Wombat munching grass on the edge of the road, however we are not sure whether he really was ill as he ran off quickly enough as we approached. Then we went on our way to Philip Island to visit a Koala reserve where we actually managed to spot a few of the cuddly critters at last - absolutely gorgeous. We also spotted some Wallabies, I don't even know what the difference is between a Kanga and a Wallaby. I'll have to do some research.
At 5:15pm we made our way down to the beach to sit and watch the fairy penguins come in to their nests for the night. It was absolutely incredible as about 20 of them waddled right past us, about 2 feet away. They appeared out of the surf and then waited for reinforcements. When their numbers were sufficient they set off up the beach at a fast waddle to make it to the dunes. Sadly we weren't allowed to take cameras down onto the beach as the penguins are protected and get really frightened by flash photography. It was doubly sad not to have our camera as there was the most incredible moon rise, about a half hour after sunset there was a red glow in the Eastern sky and then the moon rose, really fast, huge and blood red. I suppose it may have been an eclipse of the moon (or if not a very nearly one) as I know the moon goes red due to refraction of sunlight through the earth's atmosphere when it is in the shadow of the earth. The little fairy penguins have a good pair of lungs on them, they screamed and gurgled when they got up into the sanddunes and near to their burrows; we think they were calling for their mates, and then, once together, they did some more load squawking as they rubbed around each other. It was a breathtakingly amazing experience.
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Blue Mountains 2
Fri 23
Last night we went to see the Three Sisters in the dark. These are some famous pointy rocks that form part of an aboriginal story. A father of three girls was the head of his tribe, another tribe was coming to attack them, so in order to protect his girls he turned them to stone; unfortunately the father was killed and noone else knew how to turn the girls back and so they are still rocks. They are lit up and look quite spectacular.
In the morning we went to visit 'Scenic World', this is a company that bought up the site of an old coal mine. When the mine was still in use people used to pay the miners to use their coal truck which pulled the coal up a 45 degree (average) slope to the top of the cliff on a railway track; this company bought up the mine area when it closed and updated the the railway carriages to transport people in a little more safety and comfort. The ride down is a little scary; the average slope is 45 degrees but it doesn't start out that steep and then you seem to drop over a vertical edge; the carriages are held by a single wire and even at the bottom you are still on a wooden, rickety platform still about 20ft above the fern forest below. In the valley a boardwalk has been built through the bush so that the numbers of people who visit do not damage the area, it also means that instead of walking at ground level you are walking up in the leafy area and it all looks so different from that height. We were lucky enough to spot a couple of Lyre birds scratching in the undergrowth below the boardwalk. At the end of the walk we went back up the cliff in a cable car which gave fantastic views across the valley below.
We then drove on a bit to the North West and stopped in the town of Blackheath. Here there is access to the North part of the Blue Mountains National Park and though it looks very similar to the Southern part the cliffs seem to have a different 'glow' in the sunshine! We took a small walk around the cliff top and then went to find a motel (we needed to find accomodation early as this weekend is Anzac weekend), we found one on the edge of town and unloaded our gear before driving the 50km to the Jenolan Caves. Fabulous limestone caves, the one we went through was the first in the world to ever be lit by electric light just a year after the electric light was invented. It also still has a working long life light bulb that was installed in 1953! Afterwards our guide told us that if we went down to the lake it was about the right time (5:30pm and light fading fast) to see a platypus (if we were lucky). Celso spotted the beak of one and we all saw lots of splashing but it disappeared under a rock and then up a drainage tunnel and we didn't get another glimpse. Now I really, really want to see one - we decided to return another day to try and get another look.
Sat 24
Tristan was given his longed for lie in (he's a real teenager now!) and we didn't leave the motel until after 11am. We made our way to Lithgow and then after a brief stop for directions and a map we made our way out to the Glowworm Tunnel. This involved a 30km drive along a graded dirt road through first gum trees, then harvested pine forest, then protected pine and then protected virgin bush to a part of an abandoned railway track that has been saved and now serves as a walking track. We decided to do a 3hr round trip that followed the railway through a tunnel now inhabited by glowworms (hence the name) and then down and round the edge of the mountain, returning back to near the tunnel via an old coach track. We had been told that we were likely to see Koalas out here but we didn't spot one. Probably they were out there but we just didn't spot them, in fact we saw very few signs of life at all. A male Lyre bird, a tiny skink, a blue tongued skink, some butterflies and, right near the end of our walk as the sky clouded over and it started to get quite dark, some black cockatoos and other birds.
As we returned to the car the skies opened and the rain pelted down. It meant that our drive back was less dusty but a little more hazardous on the dirt road as it makes the surface very slippy. We spotted 5 or 6 kangaroos on our journey; so different from seeing them in captivity because they were bounding along; so graceful, so easy.
We had a pub supper and then rented a video 'District 9' - violent but so original, about refugee aliens told in a documentary style, worth a watch.
Sun 25th (Anzac day)
Held up briefly by the marching veterans, we made our way to Oberon and found a motel, did laundry, wrote emails and then went back to Jenolan Caves. We went and toured a cave and then went to sit out by the platypus lake. Wrong day... too many people here making too much noise, so much for public holidays, we didn't see a thing in the 90 mins we waited about. Our only view of wildlife today was the sad sight of a dead Kangaroo and a dead Wombat on the road.
Last night we went to see the Three Sisters in the dark. These are some famous pointy rocks that form part of an aboriginal story. A father of three girls was the head of his tribe, another tribe was coming to attack them, so in order to protect his girls he turned them to stone; unfortunately the father was killed and noone else knew how to turn the girls back and so they are still rocks. They are lit up and look quite spectacular.
In the morning we went to visit 'Scenic World', this is a company that bought up the site of an old coal mine. When the mine was still in use people used to pay the miners to use their coal truck which pulled the coal up a 45 degree (average) slope to the top of the cliff on a railway track; this company bought up the mine area when it closed and updated the the railway carriages to transport people in a little more safety and comfort. The ride down is a little scary; the average slope is 45 degrees but it doesn't start out that steep and then you seem to drop over a vertical edge; the carriages are held by a single wire and even at the bottom you are still on a wooden, rickety platform still about 20ft above the fern forest below. In the valley a boardwalk has been built through the bush so that the numbers of people who visit do not damage the area, it also means that instead of walking at ground level you are walking up in the leafy area and it all looks so different from that height. We were lucky enough to spot a couple of Lyre birds scratching in the undergrowth below the boardwalk. At the end of the walk we went back up the cliff in a cable car which gave fantastic views across the valley below.
We then drove on a bit to the North West and stopped in the town of Blackheath. Here there is access to the North part of the Blue Mountains National Park and though it looks very similar to the Southern part the cliffs seem to have a different 'glow' in the sunshine! We took a small walk around the cliff top and then went to find a motel (we needed to find accomodation early as this weekend is Anzac weekend), we found one on the edge of town and unloaded our gear before driving the 50km to the Jenolan Caves. Fabulous limestone caves, the one we went through was the first in the world to ever be lit by electric light just a year after the electric light was invented. It also still has a working long life light bulb that was installed in 1953! Afterwards our guide told us that if we went down to the lake it was about the right time (5:30pm and light fading fast) to see a platypus (if we were lucky). Celso spotted the beak of one and we all saw lots of splashing but it disappeared under a rock and then up a drainage tunnel and we didn't get another glimpse. Now I really, really want to see one - we decided to return another day to try and get another look.
Sat 24
Tristan was given his longed for lie in (he's a real teenager now!) and we didn't leave the motel until after 11am. We made our way to Lithgow and then after a brief stop for directions and a map we made our way out to the Glowworm Tunnel. This involved a 30km drive along a graded dirt road through first gum trees, then harvested pine forest, then protected pine and then protected virgin bush to a part of an abandoned railway track that has been saved and now serves as a walking track. We decided to do a 3hr round trip that followed the railway through a tunnel now inhabited by glowworms (hence the name) and then down and round the edge of the mountain, returning back to near the tunnel via an old coach track. We had been told that we were likely to see Koalas out here but we didn't spot one. Probably they were out there but we just didn't spot them, in fact we saw very few signs of life at all. A male Lyre bird, a tiny skink, a blue tongued skink, some butterflies and, right near the end of our walk as the sky clouded over and it started to get quite dark, some black cockatoos and other birds.
As we returned to the car the skies opened and the rain pelted down. It meant that our drive back was less dusty but a little more hazardous on the dirt road as it makes the surface very slippy. We spotted 5 or 6 kangaroos on our journey; so different from seeing them in captivity because they were bounding along; so graceful, so easy.
We had a pub supper and then rented a video 'District 9' - violent but so original, about refugee aliens told in a documentary style, worth a watch.
Sun 25th (Anzac day)
Held up briefly by the marching veterans, we made our way to Oberon and found a motel, did laundry, wrote emails and then went back to Jenolan Caves. We went and toured a cave and then went to sit out by the platypus lake. Wrong day... too many people here making too much noise, so much for public holidays, we didn't see a thing in the 90 mins we waited about. Our only view of wildlife today was the sad sight of a dead Kangaroo and a dead Wombat on the road.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Blue Mountains
Wed 21
We took a walk with Jane and the dogs down to the local reserve (basically a park) with a beach on the harbour, a brief walk along the beach was followed by us standing in the shade whilst the dogs bolted around. 10am and already so hot.
By 11am all our farewells were said and we packed up the car and made our way (with some difficulty due to a complete lack of signage) out westwards to the Blue Mountains. We were suprised just how close they are and within 2 hours we had stopped at Glenbrook to visit the Information Centre.
We bought a couple of very large scale ordnance survey maps and then took our first trip into the Blue Mountains National Park. A half hour drive along a rough road took us into the bush and to a dead end at the start of the Red Hands Track. Here we took a circular path through the bush visiting a couple of aboriginal sites along the way. It was clear that we were the only people to have passed that way that day because we kept on walking into spider webs across the track, and for the whole hour and a half that we walked we only saw two other people.
The Red Hands Cave hand paintings are dated to be between 40,000 and 10,000 years old and the grooves in the rocks where axes were sharpened have a similar date though I don't know what techniques you can use to date grooves. Each hand painted represents a different person who visited the cave and there were clearly two different techniques used. The first was the spraying of the red ochre paint over the hand, the second was to paint the cave wall red first and then spray a white paint.
The bush was strangely silent except for the occasional screech of a bird, hardly any of which we saw; it was a very calming, peaceful, daydreamy sort of a walk with unusual and unfamiliar plants all around - beautiful.
On our way back towards the park entrance we took a small detour to a campsite known to often have kangaroo visitors but we didn't find any. Instead there were loads of birds, cockatoos, kookaburras, rosellas, ducks and magpies. The cockatoos came abegging when they saw we had apples and ripped our offerings apart to get at the seeds.
Finally, just before we left the park we took a short walk down to Jellybean Pool, a waterhole that is just as I imagine a waterhole to be; jagged sandstone cliffs with a waterfall and a pool surrounded by the scraggy native bush. A quintessential waterhole.
It starts to get dark early here now, around 5:30pm so we decided to go and find somewhere to stay and found a motel a few miles further up the road.
Thurs 22
We drove to Wentworth Falls and stopped to have a full fry up breakfast before heading out to do 'Darwin's walk' - the walk that Charles Darwin did when he visited here; unfortunately the path was closed due to landslides so we just had to go to the end of the walk in the car and be amazed by the views over a sheer drop to the forest below and the sandstone cliffs in the distance. The photos could never do the place justice - just magnificent. We walked for about an hour to get to the falls along a thin path that wound its way along the side of the cliffs (probably about 30m down from the top) and into cave areas. Once we had crossed the top of the falls it all got too scary for me as the path went out onto these really thin ledges, and, although there was a fence at the edge, my vertigo would not permit me to pass that way. Tristan said it made his knees a bit wobbly too and so we turned back!
On our return journey we saw some rarer black cockatoos but failed to get a photo of them, they are beautiful birds with red flashes on their wings.
We drove further West to visit Sublime Point Lookout past houses perched on the edge of the cliffs. The lookout had more fantastic views from a rock that just seemed perched out in the middle of it all. The was a fantastic large boulder with intricate weathering on it that I wouldn't have believed was natural unless I had seen it myself (see the photos); unfortunately some people have decided to carve their names in it (a modern form of the red hands?)
Next we took a walk down into Lyre Bird Dell and to visit the Pool of Siloam on a circuit through a gulley near Leura. More fantastic bush and rocks and waterfalls and bird screeching!
By 3pm we had checked into the local YHA hostel; we did some shopping; cooked an early supper and then made our way to the local cinema that shows a film about the area on an enormous IMAX type screen. Within the Blue Mountain park they have found 40 adult specimens of a tree thought to have been extinct for over 65 million years since the time of the dinosaurs. It is a type of pine but has fronds like a fern and its bark is made up of a sea of buds. The film was full of amazing images from helicopters and from a pair of canyoners, people that abseil down waterfalls and into cave systems in the park, fantastic places to go, just not the right method of getting there!
Celso and Tris then decided that they needed to stay at the cinema to watch 'Clash of the Titans', and so I was able to return to the YHA, write this and load my photos!
We took a walk with Jane and the dogs down to the local reserve (basically a park) with a beach on the harbour, a brief walk along the beach was followed by us standing in the shade whilst the dogs bolted around. 10am and already so hot.
By 11am all our farewells were said and we packed up the car and made our way (with some difficulty due to a complete lack of signage) out westwards to the Blue Mountains. We were suprised just how close they are and within 2 hours we had stopped at Glenbrook to visit the Information Centre.
We bought a couple of very large scale ordnance survey maps and then took our first trip into the Blue Mountains National Park. A half hour drive along a rough road took us into the bush and to a dead end at the start of the Red Hands Track. Here we took a circular path through the bush visiting a couple of aboriginal sites along the way. It was clear that we were the only people to have passed that way that day because we kept on walking into spider webs across the track, and for the whole hour and a half that we walked we only saw two other people.
The Red Hands Cave hand paintings are dated to be between 40,000 and 10,000 years old and the grooves in the rocks where axes were sharpened have a similar date though I don't know what techniques you can use to date grooves. Each hand painted represents a different person who visited the cave and there were clearly two different techniques used. The first was the spraying of the red ochre paint over the hand, the second was to paint the cave wall red first and then spray a white paint.
The bush was strangely silent except for the occasional screech of a bird, hardly any of which we saw; it was a very calming, peaceful, daydreamy sort of a walk with unusual and unfamiliar plants all around - beautiful.
On our way back towards the park entrance we took a small detour to a campsite known to often have kangaroo visitors but we didn't find any. Instead there were loads of birds, cockatoos, kookaburras, rosellas, ducks and magpies. The cockatoos came abegging when they saw we had apples and ripped our offerings apart to get at the seeds.
Finally, just before we left the park we took a short walk down to Jellybean Pool, a waterhole that is just as I imagine a waterhole to be; jagged sandstone cliffs with a waterfall and a pool surrounded by the scraggy native bush. A quintessential waterhole.
It starts to get dark early here now, around 5:30pm so we decided to go and find somewhere to stay and found a motel a few miles further up the road.
Thurs 22
We drove to Wentworth Falls and stopped to have a full fry up breakfast before heading out to do 'Darwin's walk' - the walk that Charles Darwin did when he visited here; unfortunately the path was closed due to landslides so we just had to go to the end of the walk in the car and be amazed by the views over a sheer drop to the forest below and the sandstone cliffs in the distance. The photos could never do the place justice - just magnificent. We walked for about an hour to get to the falls along a thin path that wound its way along the side of the cliffs (probably about 30m down from the top) and into cave areas. Once we had crossed the top of the falls it all got too scary for me as the path went out onto these really thin ledges, and, although there was a fence at the edge, my vertigo would not permit me to pass that way. Tristan said it made his knees a bit wobbly too and so we turned back!
On our return journey we saw some rarer black cockatoos but failed to get a photo of them, they are beautiful birds with red flashes on their wings.
We drove further West to visit Sublime Point Lookout past houses perched on the edge of the cliffs. The lookout had more fantastic views from a rock that just seemed perched out in the middle of it all. The was a fantastic large boulder with intricate weathering on it that I wouldn't have believed was natural unless I had seen it myself (see the photos); unfortunately some people have decided to carve their names in it (a modern form of the red hands?)
Next we took a walk down into Lyre Bird Dell and to visit the Pool of Siloam on a circuit through a gulley near Leura. More fantastic bush and rocks and waterfalls and bird screeching!
By 3pm we had checked into the local YHA hostel; we did some shopping; cooked an early supper and then made our way to the local cinema that shows a film about the area on an enormous IMAX type screen. Within the Blue Mountain park they have found 40 adult specimens of a tree thought to have been extinct for over 65 million years since the time of the dinosaurs. It is a type of pine but has fronds like a fern and its bark is made up of a sea of buds. The film was full of amazing images from helicopters and from a pair of canyoners, people that abseil down waterfalls and into cave systems in the park, fantastic places to go, just not the right method of getting there!
Celso and Tris then decided that they needed to stay at the cinema to watch 'Clash of the Titans', and so I was able to return to the YHA, write this and load my photos!
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
To Sydney, Australia
Friday 16th April
Our plane took off at 8.15am and we had beautiful views from the East across to the West Coast as we flew over the mountains. We had fantastic views of the glaciers and then said our farewells to NZ as we crossed over the West Coast to the Tasman sea that was covered in a blanket of fluffy white clouds, above which we could see miles through the clear blue. Different from what is going on in the UK with the Icelandic eruption!
We descended through cloud into a grey and misty Sydney but had great views of the harbour, the harbour bridge and the Opera House as we came in to land.
The airport exit was very long and tedious with each person having their bags checked and no proper queuing system which meant that people, frustratingly, pushed in ahead of others who had been waiting for ages.
Anyway... we eventually emerged to meet Jane and Wilf (8 yr old son) and then we were whisked through Sydney and over the Harbour Bridge up to the Northern Suburb of Balgowlah, just next to Manly on the Northern edge of Sydney harbour.
For those of you who don't know John, Jane and Wilf; I first met John about 25 years ago when he briefly dated my sister Katie at Uni, then later I rented a room in Brixton from John and his brother, and later Jane moved in; anyway we have been mates ever since. They have moved back here after 7 years in the UK; they lived here before when I lived in the 1990s, and they love it though they miss the UK too!
Our first iconic Aussie sighting was a Kookaburra on a neighbour's TV ariel, then
Jane took us on a tour of Manly, North Head and the beaches there; amazingly there are Water Dragons (a type of lizard) that live on the rocks which are separated from the sea by a walkway.
John got home from work around 6:30pm and we had a Pork Roast (something that Tris has had a craving for for months!), roast potatoes and all the trimmings. But the two hour time change and our early start to catch the flight soon caught up with us and we had to retire!
Sat 17th
Celso, Tris and I went to 'do' central Sydney. As we left the house we found a Blue Tongued Skink in the front garden and then took a 20 min walk along the waterfront down to Manly to catch the ferry. There were some amazing spiders, with very full larders, amazing views and exotic plants to grab the attention at every turn.
The ferry took us across the harbour past Sandy beaches, rocky peninsulas and virgin bush (reserves), then round a corner and views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
We wandered around Circular Quay for a while, there was an aboriginal group playing their music with a digeridoo, loads of people out and about (it is the last w/e of the holidays like in the UK), boats coming and going and views across the harbour. We took a look around the Sydney Opera House; I don't wish to spoil anybody's perception of the place but from close up; it looks a little grotty, rough cement surfaces and staining on the walls. However, from a distance it is a magnificent edifice and we took looks from all perspectives!
We found a free bus to take us along to Darling Harbour (who has ever heard of a free bus in the middle of a big city - but here there is one) and went to have some lunch overlooking more hustle and bustle and glistening, twinkling water. We pottered through the shops, watched a video about how one company makes hats from rabbit skin and found a shop selling English sweets and gladly tucked in to some Aniseed Balls that have been sorely missed!
As we returned to Manly on the ferry the sun was setting, casting a beautiful glow over the Opera House and the water - gorgeous.
In the evening a few of John and Jane's friends came round and we were treated to fab food and company and then we watched the footy; Man City v Man U, not that they are my team but I'd prefer the reds to win the title rather than those London Blues. Well done Tottenham!
Our plane took off at 8.15am and we had beautiful views from the East across to the West Coast as we flew over the mountains. We had fantastic views of the glaciers and then said our farewells to NZ as we crossed over the West Coast to the Tasman sea that was covered in a blanket of fluffy white clouds, above which we could see miles through the clear blue. Different from what is going on in the UK with the Icelandic eruption!
We descended through cloud into a grey and misty Sydney but had great views of the harbour, the harbour bridge and the Opera House as we came in to land.
The airport exit was very long and tedious with each person having their bags checked and no proper queuing system which meant that people, frustratingly, pushed in ahead of others who had been waiting for ages.
Anyway... we eventually emerged to meet Jane and Wilf (8 yr old son) and then we were whisked through Sydney and over the Harbour Bridge up to the Northern Suburb of Balgowlah, just next to Manly on the Northern edge of Sydney harbour.
For those of you who don't know John, Jane and Wilf; I first met John about 25 years ago when he briefly dated my sister Katie at Uni, then later I rented a room in Brixton from John and his brother, and later Jane moved in; anyway we have been mates ever since. They have moved back here after 7 years in the UK; they lived here before when I lived in the 1990s, and they love it though they miss the UK too!
Our first iconic Aussie sighting was a Kookaburra on a neighbour's TV ariel, then
Jane took us on a tour of Manly, North Head and the beaches there; amazingly there are Water Dragons (a type of lizard) that live on the rocks which are separated from the sea by a walkway.
John got home from work around 6:30pm and we had a Pork Roast (something that Tris has had a craving for for months!), roast potatoes and all the trimmings. But the two hour time change and our early start to catch the flight soon caught up with us and we had to retire!
Sat 17th
Celso, Tris and I went to 'do' central Sydney. As we left the house we found a Blue Tongued Skink in the front garden and then took a 20 min walk along the waterfront down to Manly to catch the ferry. There were some amazing spiders, with very full larders, amazing views and exotic plants to grab the attention at every turn.
The ferry took us across the harbour past Sandy beaches, rocky peninsulas and virgin bush (reserves), then round a corner and views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
We wandered around Circular Quay for a while, there was an aboriginal group playing their music with a digeridoo, loads of people out and about (it is the last w/e of the holidays like in the UK), boats coming and going and views across the harbour. We took a look around the Sydney Opera House; I don't wish to spoil anybody's perception of the place but from close up; it looks a little grotty, rough cement surfaces and staining on the walls. However, from a distance it is a magnificent edifice and we took looks from all perspectives!
We found a free bus to take us along to Darling Harbour (who has ever heard of a free bus in the middle of a big city - but here there is one) and went to have some lunch overlooking more hustle and bustle and glistening, twinkling water. We pottered through the shops, watched a video about how one company makes hats from rabbit skin and found a shop selling English sweets and gladly tucked in to some Aniseed Balls that have been sorely missed!
As we returned to Manly on the ferry the sun was setting, casting a beautiful glow over the Opera House and the water - gorgeous.
In the evening a few of John and Jane's friends came round and we were treated to fab food and company and then we watched the footy; Man City v Man U, not that they are my team but I'd prefer the reds to win the title rather than those London Blues. Well done Tottenham!
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Last week in NZ
Sat
We drove from Te Anau in the West all the way across to the East coast to the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin in order to take a look at an Albatros colony only to be foiled by the department of conservation who had closed the breeding colony for some reason. We managed to take a look around the information centre and were lucky enough to see a couple of birds flying past but we missed out on the up close encounter with birds on the nest or young ones strengthening their wings.
As we drove from West to East the natural NZ gave way to the agricultural NZ, fields and fields and fields, cows, sheep, cows and more sheep, occassionally a Llama or a filed of crops but mainly cows and sheep.
As we went North to Timaru from Dunedin we passed through some areas that could have been in the UK, except for a few NZ trees. We reached Timaru around 6pm and rang Rob and Alice (my uncle and aunt) and then found our way up to their house about 15mins out of town. We had a great evening, good food, good company and their team playing rugby on the TV!
On Sunday we helped look after Izzie, my cousin Harry's one year old daughter and then went round to Sam's farm (another cousin) to watch him weaning the cattle on horseback and meet his wife, son and daughter. Later in the early evening we had a big family meal with Harry, Tash and Izzie, Sam, Sarah, Cooper and Zoey and also Rob and Alice and us. We had a belated 1st birthday cake for Zoey, more good food, good company and fun.
On Monday Celso, Tris and I set off to 'do' the Mackenzie Basin, Mount Cook and the big Lakes in the region. The Mackenzie basin is so dry, everything is dusty and brown in colour but their are fantastic views, autumn colours, lakes and mountains to amaze all around. Lots of Lord of the Rings' middle earth scenes were filmed around here; it's the grandeaur and enormity of everything, big wide open spaces with mountains on all sides; incredible.
We drove up alongside Lake Pukaki to the base of Mount Cook and took a walk up to a spot that overlooks the glacier. At first I didn't even recognise the glacier, it is nothing like the glimmering white glaciers at Franz Joseph and Fox; this is a grey, stone covered glacier that just looks like a pile of rubble until you look closely. It has glimpses of white at the face and in the lake at the end there are enormous glaciers floating. We were planning to spend the night at the end of Lake Pukaki to see Mount Cook at the end of the lake at sunrise; but the wind came up the van started to rock and we decided to go and seek shelter in Twizle where we had a barbecue and finished off all our food.
On Tuesday we drove back to Timaru over loads of wooden tressel bridges crossing the rivers; most nearly dry but some with crystal clear waters. We also passed a series of dams. Aviemore dam is the one of the earliest ones built in NZ and it still produces nearly 1/5th of the electricity in the country. From Timaru we sent our largest parcel yet back to the UK; 7kg; full of goodies from our trip, and then we spent a few hours cleaning out the van, packing and getting ready to go to Christchurch tomorrow.
On Wednesday we drove up to Christchurch and returned the van, then went to our hotel and lazed around before going out to have a look around.
On Thursday we had an enormous lie in; I didn't realise we were all so tired, and then walked across Hagley Park into the town, stopped at a cafe next to the Avon river and watched the canoes and the gondolas travelling up and down. We wandered around the shops and then returned to our hotel to chill out before our early start to the airport and Australia tomorrow.
We drove from Te Anau in the West all the way across to the East coast to the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin in order to take a look at an Albatros colony only to be foiled by the department of conservation who had closed the breeding colony for some reason. We managed to take a look around the information centre and were lucky enough to see a couple of birds flying past but we missed out on the up close encounter with birds on the nest or young ones strengthening their wings.
As we drove from West to East the natural NZ gave way to the agricultural NZ, fields and fields and fields, cows, sheep, cows and more sheep, occassionally a Llama or a filed of crops but mainly cows and sheep.
As we went North to Timaru from Dunedin we passed through some areas that could have been in the UK, except for a few NZ trees. We reached Timaru around 6pm and rang Rob and Alice (my uncle and aunt) and then found our way up to their house about 15mins out of town. We had a great evening, good food, good company and their team playing rugby on the TV!
On Sunday we helped look after Izzie, my cousin Harry's one year old daughter and then went round to Sam's farm (another cousin) to watch him weaning the cattle on horseback and meet his wife, son and daughter. Later in the early evening we had a big family meal with Harry, Tash and Izzie, Sam, Sarah, Cooper and Zoey and also Rob and Alice and us. We had a belated 1st birthday cake for Zoey, more good food, good company and fun.
On Monday Celso, Tris and I set off to 'do' the Mackenzie Basin, Mount Cook and the big Lakes in the region. The Mackenzie basin is so dry, everything is dusty and brown in colour but their are fantastic views, autumn colours, lakes and mountains to amaze all around. Lots of Lord of the Rings' middle earth scenes were filmed around here; it's the grandeaur and enormity of everything, big wide open spaces with mountains on all sides; incredible.
We drove up alongside Lake Pukaki to the base of Mount Cook and took a walk up to a spot that overlooks the glacier. At first I didn't even recognise the glacier, it is nothing like the glimmering white glaciers at Franz Joseph and Fox; this is a grey, stone covered glacier that just looks like a pile of rubble until you look closely. It has glimpses of white at the face and in the lake at the end there are enormous glaciers floating. We were planning to spend the night at the end of Lake Pukaki to see Mount Cook at the end of the lake at sunrise; but the wind came up the van started to rock and we decided to go and seek shelter in Twizle where we had a barbecue and finished off all our food.
On Tuesday we drove back to Timaru over loads of wooden tressel bridges crossing the rivers; most nearly dry but some with crystal clear waters. We also passed a series of dams. Aviemore dam is the one of the earliest ones built in NZ and it still produces nearly 1/5th of the electricity in the country. From Timaru we sent our largest parcel yet back to the UK; 7kg; full of goodies from our trip, and then we spent a few hours cleaning out the van, packing and getting ready to go to Christchurch tomorrow.
On Wednesday we drove up to Christchurch and returned the van, then went to our hotel and lazed around before going out to have a look around.
On Thursday we had an enormous lie in; I didn't realise we were all so tired, and then walked across Hagley Park into the town, stopped at a cafe next to the Avon river and watched the canoes and the gondolas travelling up and down. We wandered around the shops and then returned to our hotel to chill out before our early start to the airport and Australia tomorrow.
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