Blue Mountains, Australia Part 1

We liked our time in Sydney, but we really enjoyed our time in the Blue Mountains. That included the 1.5-2 hour drive to get there.

We rented a car and off we went. Notice the steering wheel is on the right side of the car! B can drive anywhere!

With speeds like this it felt like we were flying. We seldom travel at anything but slow city traffic speeds.

We left pretty early in the morning so on our arrival at our hotel is was still quite chilly. That morning the  low was 6 or 7 C (42.8 - 44.6 F). Brrrrrrrr!

The rhododendrons were in bloom in the mountains. Ah, pretty. There are several rhododendron festivals in November each year.

Our hotel was the Echoes Boutique Hotel in Katoomba. It is a really small place but really pretty. Note: you can see there isn't much parking. Since we arrived early the parking lot was "empty" so we left the car and walked every where we went. This included into town for dinner etc. Also, the OPAL card worked here too so we took advantage of the bus system one time.

 Our view? From our room we could see cliff edges, mountains, and the rain forest of Jamison Valley.

A pano shot off the balcony.

The Blue Mountains National Park is a World Heritage site.

According to the literature, the Blue Mountains appear to be shrouded in an extremely blue haze. We agree.

Why? Experts were brought in to figure this out in 1955. The Department of Physics at the University of Sydney explained that "the haze which appears to surround any distinct object is due to an optical phenomenon called Rayleigh Scattering." This causes light rays hitting small particles to scatter in various directions. The atmosphere always contains particles like dust, water droplets and even air molecules. The many eucalyptus trees release oil droplets into the atmosphere as well. Our eyes receive the blue scattered rays of sunlight to reflect the object itself. For this reason, things appear blue.

The plateau was created 170 million years ago when the rocky earth was pushed upward. Over time, weather and rivers carved out the valley and gorges. Sandstone is relatively resistant to erosion but shale and coals under the sandstone were much softer. Eventually, sandstone pieces broke off leaving sheer cliffs.

There were interesting trees at Echoes Point: mountain blue gum.  Famous for their white tree trunks and being a member of the eucalyptus. As the sunshine hits them the bark looks like sterling silver. I couldn't quite capture this with a camera. Very pretty!

It was very windy most of the time we were in the mountains. Here's a short video of the wind. Reminder, if you are viewing this on a small hand held device you may not be able to see the video.

Sydney, Australia Part 5

There are just a couple of final items.

Australian dollars are similar to those found in Singapore. They are part plastic and have clear windows in the bills.

In this shot, I am focused on the hotel Pringle's can, shooting through the clear window on the bill. I used the AUD$50.

By the way, because I moved the Pringles can in order to make this fabulous shot, the hotel charged us for mini-bar items. It turns out the mini-bar is weighted and wired and if you move something, it appears on your bill. Yes, they removed the items from the bill when we told them we didn't take anything.

Saw these somewhere. A friend says they are actually quite good. She thought she even had a bag at home. (She's from Australia and she just returned to Brisbane this weekend so I'm losing another friend.)

Sydney, Australia Part 4- The Taronga Zoo

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You will be redirected if you've bookmarked the original site (missing the s on https://..._)

The Taronga Zoo
The zoo is on a steep hillside and it makes sense to start at the top and work your way down if you can. You can climb up, take the bus, or ride a cable car. We bought a ferry/cable combo ticket to take us from Darling Harbor to the dock at the zoo (with a stop or 2 along the way to pick up additional passengers). The ticket includes the ferry return to Darling Harbor. Here's the Captain Cook express ferry to the zoo!

I suppose the ferry arrivals are timed to give all passengers time to ride the cable cars up the hill but the line is long if you are the last to make it up to the cable car boarding area. Once at the top the cars pass over a section of the zoo for aerial views. Note: You can arrive on the other side of the zoo via a long road trip and there is a large parking area. This was more fun! And we got another chance to see the harbor.

Stairs to the cable car.

Our car mates (they were from Columbia).

Traveling across the top of the zoo.

In 2016, the zoo celebrated 100 years of operation. There are 4000 animals including over 350 species. One of the species is the platypus.

Did we see one? Nope. The exhibit allows the animals access to off-exhibit space. Naturally, they were in the off-exhibit space at the time we were there. There was this great poster!

I am used to seeing geese and pigeons and house sparrows and starlings and even sea gulls at zoos but this was a new one! Australian white ibis in the elephant exhibit area. Australian white ibis outside the food court and even INSIDE the food court. Staffers tried to shoo the birds out when they got on the tables!

Apparently, in the early 1970s a group of captive ibis was released on the Taronga Zoo grounds and they found it was a nice place to live.

There were several nice aviaries. A few birds: First are the king parrots, second are topkot pigeons, third is a red jungle fowl.

There is a large African savannah hoof stock area. We saw some widely known  fauna like kangaroo, wallaby, emu, and the Tasmanian devil, but we also saw less known Aussie region critters like the bilby, quoll, quokka, long-nosed potoroo, and black-footed tree-rat.

Tasmanian devil. Neat exhibit!

The bilby: This is the Prince George Bilby exhibit. It's a fairly new exhibit to commemorate the birth of Prince George of Cambridge who was born on 22 July, 2013. Why the bilby? Don't know. Notice the metal bilby sculptures on the stone! There were a lot of these metal animal sculptures on the zoo grounds. I loved them.

 An actual live bilby.

Eastern quoll. The quoll belongs to a group of carnivorous marsupials called dasyurids. Now these guys are found only in Tasmania. The spotted "rocks" are the quolls!

Quokka. One of the first Aussie mammals seen by Europeans. They thought it was a giant rat. I have to agree it does look like a HUGE rat!

Here's an actual rat- the black-footed tree-rat. Fairly attractive as rats go.

Ever seen a Himalayan tahr? I don't remember seeing one of these before, but maybe I have. They are found at the Akron Zoo in Ohio, but I haven't visited that zoo for at least 14 years.  The tahr is fairly closely related to the wild goat.

In an area filled with reptiles, there were more metal sculptures. These were educational. Along with signage discussing the differences between turtles and tortoises, there were metal sculptures of each on rock work around the signs.

I really liked the metal sculptures!

Here's another.

You may have noticed that the koala was not included on the above list of widely known critters found in this part of the world. The reason is simple. We didn't really see any at the zoo. The koala area is a photo op only. For a fee, you can enter the outdoor koala area and stand next to a tree with a koala and have your photo taken. If you don't want the photo (or don't want to pay the fee) it's nearly impossible to actually see one. I managed to catch a glimpse of one in a tree by looking through a crack in a gate. It must be a huge money maker for the zoo.

They did have a komodo dragon exhibit so that was nice to see something from "home."

Next, the "Lemur Forest." If you remember our photos from a zoo in The Netherlands, human visitors entered the lemur area with no barriers and free-ranging animals. At Taronga, the lemur exhibit is tightly controlled. You are led in a small group through the walk-through exhibit by a zoo staff member. We didn't wait in line to enter the Lemur Forest.

View of Sydney from the zoo.

An interesting statement on plastics in the waste stream.

Very interesting sculpture on zoo grounds. I hope a lot of people take a moment to let this sink in.

All in all, a nice zoo. One GREAT thing? The zoo map has coordinates on it and things are labeled and indexed per the coordinates. There are signposts with copies of the map showing the coordinates. Makes moving through the zoo easier!

Sydney, Australia Part 3

In the middle of our time in Sydney we left town and headed to the Blue Mountains. After a couple of days in the mountains we returned to Sydney for the rest of our stay in Australia. I'll publish the posts on the Blue Mountains after I publish the complete set on Sydney itself.

After the time in the mountains, we returned to Sydney.

The car GPS routed us back into Sydney a different direction than when we left so we crossed a different bridge on re-entry.

Back in Darling Harbor late one afternoon we visited the Australian National Maritime Museum which showcases Australia's relationship to the sea. To really explore this museum you can't arrive late in the afternoon. We did have time enough to explore some of the "free entry" areas, but that was it. There are ships docked outside and that probably would have been fun to explore, even with the extra entry fee:

1) HM Bark Endeavour- replica of Captain Cook's famous ship
2) Iron hulled Barque James Craig (1874)
3)HMAS Onslaw, oberon class submarine
4)HMAS Vampire, daring class destroyer
5)HMAS Advance, patrol boat

Oh, well. Maybe next visit!

We always enjoy paintings of the sea and life on the sea so still enjoyed our visit. We also got to see an exhibit of the works of photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953). Pretty soon it was closing time.

We might have to go back to see an exhibit coming next March. It's called Pompeii Rescue. The exhibit is about one of the first recorded maritime rescue missions in AD79 following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (Italy).Sounded fascinating.

QVB
The Queen Victoria Building takes up an entire city block and was across from our hotel. It is the city's "most sumptuous shopping complex."

We ate lunch there one day and wandered over there a couple of times. Built in 1898, it was a monument to the long reigning monarch. Built during tough economic times it was planned specifically to employ many out of work craftsmen. Originally a concert hall, it's also been a city library as well as many other things. There was a massive remodel in the 1930s.

There was a HUGE Christmas tree in the center of this place. It contained 82,000 Swarovski crystals. Click on the link to see a short video of how they put this tree together. We purchased our 2016 Swarovski ornament at the shop here!

Here is a video of the tree being put together. It was so pretty! Please watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZviSrLxLA&feature=youtu.be

Sydney, Australia -Part 2

The ferry and water taxi system here is very efficient. We took a ferry from Darling Harbor to Circular Quay to get an overview of the harbor. We didn't have time for a full-blown harbor tour but wanted to see a few of the iconic sites including the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Circular Quay is one of Sydney's major focal points. It's a commuting hub as well as a recreation space.

It was a beautiful day! Not too hot yet.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge crosses the harbor at one of the narrowest points. Completed in 1932 at a cost of $20  million AUD, this bridge is an icon. Partly due to the size but also because it links various parts of the city. It also boosted employment during the Depression.

We didn't do it, but you can join a climbing group and scale the bridge itself! The spots to the right of the flags are people! You can also climb the stairs of the eastern stone pylon to a lookout point.

The world famous (I'm quoting from a tour book) Sydney Opera House was inspired by palm fronds. You can see it in the distance in the wide shot of the bridge above, but here is a closeup.

 Two more views on our trip from Darling Harbor to Circular Quay.

Near Circular Quay there is a weekend market in an area called The Rocks. Sydney's first European settlement was on this spot. This was really interesting so we spent quite some time here. We met a lady who dyes her own Australian wool yarns. She also works with silk yarns. I had already purchased the suitcase restricting quota of yarn so I couldn't purchase any of these yarns, but so pretty. I don't believe we took any photos at the market but I have the yarn lady's business card!

The next morning we left Sydney for a couple of days in the Blue Mountains. We then returned to Sydney to spend a few more days before returning home.