How to Have an Adventure

This post is a "how to" guide for anyone interested in living life a bit closer to the edge.  Not too close, mind you. Just a little closer.

Step one:

Have a free day.

Step two:

Take a train away from the city, away from all the areas previously explored and traveled.

Step three:

Get out where it looks interesting, have a walk around (in this example, the walk around was in Hornsby), get back on the train and go back to familiar ground.

Step four:

Realize that Anna has you on the wrong train - now going yet further from the city and the familiar.  No matter, it was a free day.  Something interesting is bound to turn up.  And the trains run the other direction also, all we need to do is get out and catch a different one ...

Step five:

As soon as something interesting appears out the window, get off the train.  In this case, it was a walking bridge spotted by Destiny at the Mt. Kuring-gai stop.  So here we 'alit' from the train ...

Step six:

Get your bearings, race across a freeway to see if the walking trails described on the signage are easy to access ... discover they are not and race back across the freeway.  Do the little walking bridge (which is actually a pedestrian overpass across another freeway ...), take a leisurely stroll around the village, find a proper bridge for walking across second freeway and locate the trail head for the "Great North Walk".  A little asphalt trail through the trees, heading down into a valley.  Think Mirror Lake.  But steep down.  A potential 3.8 km or some such distance, piece of cake for us.

Some of the first photos of the walk included the unusual 3 foot tall flowers that hung upside down.  Umbrella like.

Step seven:

When the asphalt trail runs out and you are walking on a muddy track ... just keep going.  And sure enough, the mud quickly turned into rocks and roots, a mountain type path.  Down and up, up and down.  

Step eight:

Realize that you are now committed to coming out the other end.  However, it was noted at the beginning of this trail a sign that indicated a bridge was out 'somewhere' and that through travel to some point was not possible - but since we have no map and no bearings, what did that mean to us? Not much.  Carry on!

The views all around us were spectacular, little waterfalls, rocky creek beds (which we criss-crossed several times), more ups than downs in terms of elevation changes ... the total elevation change from where we started to the valley floor was - a lot.  I will have to do some research later to actually find out more regarding the topographical details.

Step eight:

Be glad for the banana and apple that are in your bag.  Of course we had no water, but it was a moist day and not too hot.  Thank goodness.

Sort of like calling the Chilkoot trail a stroll.

A close up of a shiny gum tree; probably 4 feet in diameter.  

A boardwalk through a salt marsh.  What lives in salt marshes?  The marsh grass was quite flattened in areas.  When Destiny suggested crocodiles, we picked up the pace.  So far our wildlife encounters were frogs (heard but not seen) and a number of birds, including a Lyrebird or two.

Step nine:

We just passed the bridge that was very obviously "out".  At this point, the creek had widened out to a significant river.  And why, oh why, didn't I take a picture of it?  Probably because I was out of puff and it was, according to the next sign, further out in the direction we were headed, than it was to turn back the way we had come.  But the way we had come had been particularly arduous ... so in hopes that forward was perhaps a little more moderate - we plowed on.  

Step ten:

Be aware of how much daylight you have.  This little adventure began around noon, and the sun goes down early in Aus in June.  Under the canopy of this rain forest valley, it was already kind of dark.  So as the hands on my watch approached 4 p.m., we were hoping to get well out and back to civilization before 5.

Step eleven:

Just keep going - and we did find a sign that said "Berowra station 2 km" which I hopefully thought was a train station while Destiny considered that it could be a ranger station.  Two km is a long ways when you're tired of walking uphill (and down again) over and over again on uneven ground.  But, as my friend Mary's words were in my head saying "You can do hard things" we sweated and plodded on.  Well, at least I plodded.  Happily, we could eventually hear traffic, dogs barking and see a couple of buildings in the far distance.  And, as luck would have it, it was a train station!

Step twelve:

All's well that ends well. No tourists were injured in the execution of this adventure.  Some beautiful land was explored, and sadly under photographed.  I'd happily repeat the trek but with some better preparation knowing what to expect.  Of course, then it wouldn't really be so much of an adventure.

Featherdale

Featherdale Wildlife Park was the last stop on our Blue Mountain tour as we came back up to Sydney.  This may be the best reason to visit Australia - a chance to pet a live koala.  He may look like a stuffie, but Don, while sleeping, was very much alive.  His fur feels like a tightly woven high quality short napped wool rug.  He was very patient with all of the tourists.

Featherdale only has animals and birds native to Australia.  It was raining quite seriously while we were here, but it would be a great place to spend a sunnier afternoon - but not on a long weekend.

These little fairy penguins are native to the Australian coast and are very cute.  Mr. Popper, eat your heart out!

This isn't Don - but a koala that has its eyes open is a rare thing.  They eat and sleep more than the average teenager.

Young red kangaroos that were tame enough for petting - very nice.  Watch where you step ...

And - the other half of the Australian coat of arms ... the emu!  She wanted to check out the phone and if it weren't for the fence, she'd have kept on coming.  Her beak was a bit too close for comfort and eye to eye she was a bit intimidating.

I feel like such a proper tourist!

Blue Mountains

On Monday, the last day of the Queen's Birthday long weekend (translated - lots of traffic, tourists and slow downs of every description) - we took a bus tour to the Blue Mountains which are about an hour and a half south west of Sydney (when the travelling is good).  Here, in no particular order, are some of the sights of the day.

A brave little bird on a back path that kept me company for quite some time.  He's about the size of a robin.

The Katoomba Cascades - beautiful and in the photo you can't tell that it was raining quite steadily while this photo was taken.  Most of the day was pretty clear, so we were lucky as it had been forecast to rain all day.

The sandstone formations along the path at Echo Point.

The "Three Sisters" of the Blue Mountains.  Different than Canmore - an apparently there was serious sibling rivalry as there were once Seven Sisters ... you can see in the right side of the photo where the less fortunate sisters fell from their precarious perch.  

A sign I thought could be useful sometime ... although I've yet to see any actual tracks that look like this.

Down nearer the bottom of the Blue Mountains (which, as a geographical entity seemed more like a canyon than mountains - but I only had a small perspective).  The palm type foliage reminds me that I'm not very close to home.

Also near the bottom was a display of the coal mining history of the district.

I don't know what this is called, but it was too pretty not to take a photo of.  Not wild, but a huge big tree/bush of them in a garden area.

Hunter Valley

The views from the tour bus window on the way to Hunter Valley - the wine region closest to Sydney - a bit north up the coast- could be mistaken for a lot of places in Canada.  Unless there were kangaroos in the picture, which sadly, there are not.

The first of three organized wine tastings was at Lindeman's - giving new definition to "six pack".

The final line up of our first tasting - the Tawny (port) on the far left was described as Christmas in a bottle - seemed apt to me!  Of course, being the connoisseur that I am, it all tasted "good"!

Next stop ...

After lunch, some tourist type shopping, we stopped here at this lovely  vineyard with a natural bowl for a viewpoint.

The bus driver asked us to be back at the bus at "ten past two" ... the name of the winery - see below.  Coincidence?

View from Mountain View - the final official winery of the day.  

Something interesting - a single rose bush was traditionally planted at the ends of vineyard rows, and some are still planted today as a nod to that history.  The reason - the roses were more susceptible to bugs and blights, aphids and molds, than the grapes so they served as the "early warning" device of the vintner.  The vineyard's answer to thecanary in the coal mine.

All in all we tasted 31 wines (the tour had promised 20), some cheeses and chutneys ... lovely day.  Of course the sun was down and we were ready for bed by the time we returned to our hotel.  But it was only 6 p.m.  

Odds and Ends

Some things I've noticed -

Kids in school uniforms - obviously all boy schools and all girl schools.  As I don't want to be a creepy old lady, I haven't taken any photos of said children.  Take my word for it, the British school influence is very strong here.  I wonder what Camrosians would think of such an education system.

Obviously the temperatures are relative, but most folks here are wearing stocking caps (aka toques), wool coats, scarves, boots etc.  Seems a bit strange but I expect it's part of marketing as well for the Aussies to buy 'winter' season clothing.

Keep Left!  Tough to get used to this after a life time default of keeping right.  Escalators, sidewalks, doorways ... good thing I'm not doing any driving!  It affects us when we cross streets - we look terribly law abiding but we're really just too scared to cross against the lights because we're not too sure where the traffic may appear from.

On a fun note, we've been "flagging" people everywhere we go, leaving flag pins in coffee shops, giving them to kids.  Three school boys on a bus, probably around 10 years old, were ecstatic that these two women were giving them pins.  "Where'd you get them?" was their first question, followed by much thanks.

Museum

On what has so far been our "rainiest" day, we went to the Australia Museum in downtown Sydney.  It was Friday, expected it to be a calm meditative experience.  Inject several hundred school children into echoy old halls and it was bedlam, pure and simple.  In no particular order, here are some photos:

Aboriginal art - most of it modern day pieces.

A sample of a Victorian period collection - smelled very strongly of naptha (moth balls)!

From the skeleton room - "The Bone Ranger"!

Description above - these drums were 8 - 10 feet tall.  Very impressive.

Ancient aboriginal masks.

I wish the light had been better to caputure this 'roo's expression - he had (has?) true attitude!  He stood near the entranceway to a "hands on" room for children.  Frankly, all of the rooms felt like hands-on rooms for children!

There were a myriad of photo-worthy items that I didn't include - strange beasts from this continent (now extinct), bird collections, geological collections, bug collections, reptiles etc.  A wonderful natural history of the continent, and the world.

It was a lovely place to spend a few hours out of the rain.  Even if one's ears didn't get a rest, the eyes enjoyed the feast.

Beach Day

Yesterday, Thursday June 5 here in Oz, was our first non-convention day.  It was grey and threatening rain, but after having heard the recording on the train for days and days telling us that the line ran to "Bondi Junction" (remember to use Aussie accent) ... we knew it was time to do the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach.  

This is also our last day of "free transit" associated with our Rotary Convention name tags, so we wanted to make sure we covered some interesting territory ...

Bondi Beach - in winter.  There are some intrepid surfers out there (well, intrepid by Aussie standards, the water is nearly 20 C).

The little black dots ... those are surfers.

This was an interesting bit along the walkway.  Zoom in and read about Black Sunday.  It was the surf life savers who were the flag bearers for the Rotary opening and closing ceremonies.

Beautiful walk along the shoreline.  Amazing rock formations eroded by the sea. 

And a wall of morning glories along the way as well.  All of the walk truly stunning.

After a warmup and a dry out time at a coffee shop, we headed for the Circular Quay ferry terminal and made our way across Sydney Harbour to Manly Beach.  And, I expect, on a hot summer day, we'd have seen a number of Manly men.  But alas, in winter, few were in evidence.  Manly is much a 'tourist' type beach, with shops like Banff and other resort towns.  It was sunny while we were here though, and the walk and views were impressive.

A fun mural - on the newspaper building - headlines of the past.

Manly has been there for awhile ... 

And some art too.

Our full day ended with moving our digs to a different hotel - we're in North Sydney now - and some memories of the Chilkoot trail were relived as we were temporarily lost and pulling/carrying all of our luggage for quite some distance in the wrong direction.  Up and down hills.  In the dark.  Happily, it wasn't actually reaining at the time.

I am pleased to say that we now have our geographical bearings and are settled into our new lodgings.  A happy June 5 20th Anniversary to my husband, Bill!  Wish you were here, had a drink in our honour.

That's 8:05 p.m., not the year 2005.  This blog is a bit more up to date than that ;).