"THERE HAS BEEN A CONFIRMED SHARK SIGHTING"

Scheduled overnight train journey to Sydney takes 11 hours, typically it took 12 hours. Arrived at Central Train Station at 8 in the morning with no accommodation booked, although we did have a few places in mind. Ended up picking the Ambassador Hostel at Kings Cross 'cos they offered to come and pick us up. True to form, had to change accommodation after one night when we were awakened by the deafening sound of a workies hammer tool vibrating through the walls. The inside of the building next door is being demolished!!! anyway the hostel is a bit grubby and too expensive at 80 AU$ a night. Found a place nearby at Potts Point called the Macleay Lodge for 70 AU$ per night, reduced to 50 if you stay for a week. Fine by us!!!!!!







Like most tourists arriving in Sydney, we headed straight for the Opera House. Our first view of this iconic structure was from Mrs MacQuaries Point, quite a sight, although strangely, not as white as we expected.
From there, we walked around Farm Cove to get a close up view, taking lots of pics of the Opera House, and the equally impressive Harbour Bridge.
The capital of New South Wales seems more scenic than Melbourne with so many dramatic open views, plus it is even hotter here, very bright, humid, and no flies pestering you.

On our second day we took in a couple of museums, the Art Gallery of NSW followed by the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour. The latter was especially good with excellent displays in a great setting. Eileen in particular loved the temporary exhibition about OTZI, a 5,000 year old preserved frozen body found in the Tyrol region in the European Alps.







We were fortunate to be in Sydney on 26th January, this is Australia Day, when Australians celebrate the landing of the first European settlers on the East Coast. It was on this date in 1788 that a fleet of English ships landed at Sydney Cove, forming the first settlement on the continent. Something tells me however, that the Aboriginal peoples will not be in much of a celebratory mood.

Sydneysiders had lots of events laid on for their big day, most of which was centred in or near the harbour area. We made our way to the Opera House to see the traditional flottilla of vessels sailing under the Harbour Bridge. It was a marvellous sight watching every type of boat imaginable passing by, as thousands of people lined various viewpoints around Sydney Harbour. Locals and tourists alike were out in force, lots of Australian flags in evidence, painted faces, silly hats, etc.
After the parade of boats it was time to find a place in one of the many parks to tuck into our picnic. We found a good spot in the Botanic Gardens with a view of the water. The gardens in Sydney are every bit as impressive as Melbourne, and unlike Glasgow, all the tropical plants/flowers/trees are outside, not housed within a large glass dome. The Botanic Gardens are also home to colonies of large bats, which you can see hanging upside down from branches with their wings wrapped around them like Dracula with his cape. These Grey Headed Flying Foxes were in for the shock of their lives when an Australian Airforce jet made a low fly past as part of the celebrations. The ear busting noise from the plane had thousands of them fleeing from the trees, and the sky was black with bats above the gardens, luckily for us, we were down at the low end. We would've freaked out if they were directly above us screeching.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Australia Museum, it wasn't so great. As far as we were concerned they failed to make the most of such a large building. Glad it was only half price entrance on Australia Day. The best exhibit was the temporary Face To Face photographic display of Gorillas who had been rescued after their parents had been butchered in the wild.
On our way to Hyde Park to watch one of the free concerts, we walked along one of the roads closed off for the day, which was lined with classic cars. When it was getting dark most people headed to Darling Harbour to watch the finale, which included a parade of tall ships, and a firework display. All in All, a great day.









A day tripper pass costs 16AU$, and allows travel on ferries, trains, buses, so we hopped on the ferry after purchasing one. A half hour trip took us to Manly on the north east of Port Jackson. It seemed an upmarket location with a great beach, and sunbathing is what we had in mind. No sooner had we picked a good spot, laid out our towels, and splashed on factor 30 when we heard a lifeguard give this announcement over the tannoy system,
"THERE HAS BEEN A CONFIRMED SHARK SIGHTING, We Strongly Advise Everyone To Leave The Water"!!!!

Strewth !!!!

It was weird seeing everyone making their way out of water at the same time, Well!!! except for a few brave, foolish, or deaf individuals who never budged.
Absolutely no way we were going for a swim before an all clear signal was given. We ended up walking round to Shelly Beach, a small sheltered cove before we decided to brave the sea, which was a lot colder than we expected. After that disconcerting announcement I spent most of my time looking for a fin protruding out of the water, Never saw One!!!!!!!!

It was late in the day when we arrived back at Circular Quay on the ferry, but we wanted to make good use of our Day Ticket, so boarded another ferry travelling West up the Parramatta River. Sydney must have more waterfront homes than anywhere else on the planet. There are so many bays, headlands, and inlets with great properties. I bet they still cost a fortune, even with them being so numerous. Hundreds of commuters were on the ferry, but when it reached the last stop, only us two were on board. On the return journey not a soul got on at any of the stops, so we had a Sydney Ferry completely to ourselves.






Our hotel room was like an oven, so we moved to the Springfield Lodge, although a bit more expensive, it was nicer, and more importantly cooler!!!! due to the large ceiling fan, which sounded like we had a helicopter in our room. No sooner had we moved when the weather took a turn for the worse, it has rained every day since. A few unseasonal storms causing local flooding, lightning strikes, and damage to buildings. It is still hot, right enough.









Surely a trip to Sydney is not complete unless you visit Bondi Beach, so we caught a train to Bondi Junction, then hopped on the 333 Bendy Bus to the beach. A return ticket from Kings X costing AU$7.20
It was much like we imagined, great beach, lots of sunbathers, and surfers. It is the first time I've been on a bus with 6 dudes carrying surf boards. It seems to us however, that most of them spend all their time falling off them rather than actually surfing above the water.
On our second visit to Bondi, we walked along a marvellous 5KM coastal path to Coogee, luckily for us, the rain held off until we reached our destination, where we ate our sarnies in a shelter.



Sydney has lots of great locations worth visiting, museums, parks, waterfronts, shops, and beaches. We found a good shortcut to most of them. The McElhone Stairs, all 112 of them, took us down to Woolloomooloo Bay, then it was a nice walk through the Domain Park or Botanic Gardens to the majority of places we visited. At the wharfside there is a famous little food stall called Harrys Cafe de Wheels. It has sat on this location since 1945 selling pies with mushy peas, and mash on top. Lots of big names have sampled their food like Richard Branston, Kevin Costner, Brooke Shields, Rolf Harris, Eileen & Johnny. I remember seeing Billy Connolly eating at Harrys on his TV show as he toured Australia. That's another TV program or Movie we want to see on our return with connections to our trip.
The Beach for Phi Phi Islands, The Killing Fields for Cambodia, Tombraider for Angkor Wat(some scenes anyway), The Quiet American for Hoi An in Vietnam, Ned Kelly etc.





Ready to move on after two weeks in Sydney, so we've arranged our transport north to Cairns. We bought a Greyhound Coach Pass for AU$298 each, and flight tickets from Cairns back to Brisbane for AU$99 each. Also arranged some trips, costly, but good deals when compared to the numerous others on offer. Our next stop will be Newcastle.

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