August 2009!!

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What a month!! and Spring is officially here!
The flowers are starting to bloom, the evening sea breeze is now warm and you can smell jasmine in the air - ahhhhh. Although winter is not hard to take (especially after Canadian winters!) it’s still a relief to feel the warmth again and to have the days getting longer.

After a month of complete and utter gluttony in Canada, I faced the City 2 Surf running race on August 9th. I decided to test my theory that if you hadn’t run for a long time, you could shock your body and finish the run before it knew enough to start hurting. I now believe the theory has some merit - I ran the whole race, even up the dreaded heartbreak hill, and had a great time! My race time was only 7 minutes longer than last year and it was a gorgeous sunny day so we recovered in the sunshine, on Bondi beach, with the other 75,000 participants. Maybe I’ll do some training next year though....

One beautiful spring day in August we decided to take a drive up the Northern Beaches to see what we could find. Up from Manly, along the coast, there are many beaches - the Northern Beaches - like Freshwater, Collaroy (where I first landed), Dee Why, Narrabeen, Newport, Whale Beach... and many more. We stopped at a few for a look and a snack, then decided to head up to the Barrenjoey lighthouse at Palm Beach. Palm Beach is where they film the ‘famous’ Australian soap opera/drama Home and Away and it is a bit of an exclusive place. But, like most beaches around here, there’s no problem freely accessing beautiful beach views and nature walks. Palm Beach itself is beautiful (although I’m partial to Manly) and there is a walk up the Barrenjoey head to the lighthouse. It’s steep but not very long and from the top you get some gorgeous views - both North over the Hawkesbury River and South down the coast. After our exercise we returned home for a party and the initiation of Anj’s new bbq!! The next day we did a rollerblading/running session up at North Head with recovery in the sun at Collins Flats. There are rumours of development of this hideaway beach that I really hope don’t ever come true! It’s my favourite secluded little beach complete with shells, waterfall, jump rock, calm water for snorkelling - and it’s only a 10 minute walk from home.

In August we finally got to use our generous Christmas present from Matt’s Mom and did the Sydney Bridge Climb! It’s a real tourist attraction and I was really excited to have a 360 degree view of Sydney. We chose the climb in the late afternoon so, after our hour of training and gearing up, we climbed up in the day and down at night. You aren’t allowed to bring your own camera but you can buy the ones they take. The history of the construction of the bridge is really interesting so I bought a book that includes photos from the 1930s. I find the stories and history of Sydney and, in particular The Rocks, fascinating. Afterwards we celebrated with pizza and a few beers at the Australian Hotel. What a fantastic day!

After the Bridge Climb, we each received coupons to go into and up the Pylon. You enter the Pylon off the bridge pedestrian walkway and as you climb up the stairs there are photos and displays and you come out the top to an open air viewing platform. The day we picked was perfect for photos - blue sky, sunshine and yachts in the very busy harbour.

Jervis Bay
Well what a weekend this turned out to be!! Here I thought the most exciting thing was going to be the Australian Fur Seals!
When we got back from Canada, I found an email from the Manly Dive Centre about a trip to Jervis Bay (2.5 hours south of Sydney) to dive with Australian Fur Seals. Unfortunately, their trip was the same weekend as the City2Surf so Matt said he would book us a weekend down there at the end of August to do it on our own.

We stayed at a cute little B&B in Huskisson (Jervis Bay) which had an off-season getaway package including champagne, a nice dinner out and a dolphin & whale watching tour. We scheduled our seal dive for the Saturday morning and Matt bought me an underwater camera case so I was super excited ... if a wee bit anxious. I had wanted to dive with these seals ever since I saw a TV program about them on the South coast of Australia. They are known to be very curious and active so if you keep them entertained by swirling around, they will play with you! There are reportedly 400 seals which hang out in Jervis Bay from about July to November at the base of the cliffs at Steamers Head - only accessible by water. For more info on the Australian Fur Seals in Jervis Bay :www.whalecruises.com.au/seals.html.

You aren’t guaranteed to see them and you never know if they will be interested enough to slide off their rocks but we were optimistic!
We ended up diving with just one other local diver - almost a private charter! The weather was overcast, windy and a bit rainy but it didn’t really matter for us. The boat ride out to the colony was about 45 minutes and then we came to this sea cave. At first it looks like just rocks that go into a grotto, until you look closer, when you can see all the seals laying on the rocks and in the crevices. When they heard the boat, they all started to shuffle over and slide down the rocks into the water. As they waited for us to get our dive gear on, they swam around, scratching and grabbing their flippers as if to say “Come on in!” The water was cold but I didn’t feel a thing - I was too busy giggling and in awe and gasping in my regulator. On land they look so awkward but in the water they are so graceful. As soon as we got in, they were surrounding us - swimming and swirling and turning around. They have big round eyes and like to keep an eye on you as they swoop in to check you out. I knew that you had to keep them interested to keep them around so I spent the whole time swimming around and playing. There must have been 25 of them and the local diver said that’s the most he’s ever seen! How lucky we were!! Matt got some great video footage (I’ll try and put it on this site but may have to YouTube it).
I absolutely did not want to leave and it was a 12/10 dive for sure - my favourite of all time I think!!
It was then time for surface interval decompression and a light lunch before heading over to the next site. The sun came out and we did a second dive at ‘The Docks’. We saw some sharks, a moray eel, angel fish and some coral but I was starting to feel the cold and was ready for my ‘jumper’. After getting into warm clothes and sorting out the diving stuff it was straight to the RSL for a cider in the sun, overlooking Jervis Bay. What a fantastic experience!! We couldn’t believe more people weren’t down here since it’s so close to Sydney but then again, maybe that’s why it’s so nice.
After a little rest we got dressed up and walked down for a beautiful dinner of oysters, calamari, prawns...ummmm - spoiled!!! It was unusually warm so we took a walk down to the beach to ‘look for shells’....and shells I found!!
Most of you know by now what was inside a particular shell box ....an engagement ring!!! Details are not for this blog but it was a magical night and was certainly the only thing that could have been more thrilling than the seal dive!
The next day we had a fantastic breakfast cooked for us before exploring Booderee National Park. There is a pretty view from the lighthouse ruins and the park has award winning (Whitest Beach in the World!) white sand beaches and turquoise water. It’s like a tropical getaway only hours from Sydney. We definitely want to go back to do some hiking and camping.

We returned to Huskisson and wandered down for our dolphin & whale watching tour. It was a beautiful sunny day but a little chilly with the wind so relaxing on the deck was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We were lucky to see two types of whales - we watched several humpback whales and then on our return found some Southern Right whales. Of course my camera wasn’t ready when one breached completely out of the water right in front of us! I did manage a photo of two tails so that’s something. A pod of dolphins escorted us back into Jervis Bay so it was a great day!

We missed the pod of killer whales (orcas) by 2 weeks. Around here, where there are seals there are sharks (but we don’t talk about that) and killer whales (it always reminds me of that awful national geographic film clip of the killer whale tossing the poor little seal in the air and killing it...sorry, thought I’d share)

Instead of heading right back into Sydney, we detoured through Kangaroo Valley. The area is really pretty country side with lots of little towns and farm fresh produce. We stopped at the Friendship Inn Hotel (old Aussie pub) for some dinner and drinks beside the fireplace.

Last weekend we went to a wedding in Broke (Hunter Valley) and toured back through wineries, champagne houses and olive stores through Pokolbin. The Hunter also has lots of fresh fruit and veggies - oranges, lemons, macadamia, etc so we stopped at a roadside stand to load up for the week.

And now it’s September ... already. We are enjoying engagement parties and planning a wedding!!! Whohooo!

This just in...on Wednesday, September 23 we had a crazy dust storm which turned the sky yellow/red at 4am! It was so creepy and weird - like Armageddon!! It seemed like a bush fire but didn't smell like smoke and from my bedroom window, I couldn't even see the water! Turned out to be a dust storm of red earth from the west. The pictures are pretty crazy and it was gone by 3pm that day. Check out the cool pictures from the Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-dust-storm-health-threat-passes-20090924-g35l.html

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