Superb Sydney

---

After two days at sea we arrive in Sydney. In my humble opinion it is one of the most beautiful ports in the world. Some facts about Sydney; Sydney has over100 beaches.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the longest steel arch bridges in the world, spanning about 1650 feet, which is especially impressive considering it was built in the 1930s.

Sydney Harbour is also the world’s largest natural harbor. The harbor has a single entrance and covers an area of 11 miles. Due to its size, many animals and ocean creatures call Sydney Harbour home, including grey nurse sharks, weedy seadragons, Australian fur seals, bottlenose dolphins, and green sea turtles.



We set the alarm for 6 am to watch as we manoeuvre towards the Opera House and Bridge. It is still dark but there is a red/orange hue over the skyline as the sun comes up. The pilot navigates around lots of small islands until we drop anchor with Taronga Zoo to one side and the iconic Opera House and Bridge ahead. We have to spend the first day using tenders to get ashore on the first day because the cruise terminal is occupied and we can’t get under the Bridge. We are told they book the berths 5 years in advance so clearly it is difficult to get two days alongside.



The tenders start running at 08:30 on a surprisingly choppy harbour. There is a tender test to pass before you are allowed to use the boats. You have to take a step over two lines 45 cm apart without assistance. We manage easily. We see one guest having a furious melt down and using some very ‘salty’ language walking away from the test area and assume he has been told he can’t use the tenders. But the wisdom of the test is shown as many still have difficulty at the point they have to transfer between the ship and the little boat.



We get ashore at Man of War Steps immediately to the east of the Opera House and traditional scene for Australian Forces to leave the country to fight for Queen and Empire. It is a two minute walk to Circular Quay, the hub for public ferry, train, tram and bus transport around the city.



The ferry for Tarango Zoo leaves after a few minutes and there is a ten minute sail to the Zoo dock. There then follows a two minute bus ride (buses and ferries appear to be coordinated !!!) to the upper Zoo entrance. Once inside the entire walk will be downhill to the return ferry.



The Zoo has a single spinal footpath marked with green circles with numerous side routes that return you to the main spine. It means you see as much or as little as you want without having to double back on yourself.



Talks are also provided at specific enclosures. We listen to the presentation on dingos. I have always thought of them as pretty much just feral dogs, but it transpires they are as different from dogs as wolves are. Unsurprisingly they do not make good pets, but equally unsurprisingly people still try.



We walk through the various enclosures. (I miss out the ‘ordinary house’ which displays the various insects and spiders that live in many Australian homes.) The marsupial area is disappointing only in that the kangaroos are just lying down looking at the visitors rather than leaping about for our entertainment.



All in all a very good zoo with many breeding programmes and reintroduction projects detailed on signs adjacent to many displays. But it is hot and humid and I am getting tired so we return to the ship.



Now, Ian and I like playing scrabble but the ship has only two sets which never seem to be available. We have determined to buy a set and know of two games shops within walking distance (30 - 40 minutes walking according to Google) and Ian is happy to go and get one, so over to him….



I start walking to the nearest shop, a mere 30 minutes in the heat. When I get to the address there is a clothes shop in the premises. ‘Oh the games shop closed down’ says a member of staff. I thank them (and think some very naughty words).



I walk on to the second shop which it transpires is in a very insalubrious part of town. Many massage parlours, ‘adult shops’ and dodgy looking grubby stairways leading to ‘gentlemen’s clubs with live girls’. I feel I am in danger of catching something simply by walking in the area. But nevertheless I eventually find the second shop, up a dodgy looking grubby stairway. At the top is a modern pleasant place selling all sorts of Pokémon and modern sci fi type games. Not a scrabble set in sight. I ask and they look confused and talk to me slowly as if I am a relic from prehistory. No they don’t have anything like that. They suggest the first shop and explain it didn’t close just moved two streets over from its original location, about five minutes walk from where it was. (I think some even naughtier words!)



So off I go again retracing my steps to the first location and find the shop. This time, joy of joys, they have the much desired scrabble set and I quickly buy it before the rush on scrabble sets starts.



On the way back to the ship I buy numerous packets of Tim Tam biscuits. Australian chocolate biscuits which my children adore and are prohibitively expensive in the UK. So suitably weighed down I finish my two hour walk through Sydney. No trouble meeting my steps target that day.



Day two arrives and it is thankfully cooler, even a little overcast. We are now moored adjacent to Circular Key in the heart of the city. We walk the five minutes to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We have been here before but they are stunningly beautiful and have lovely views over the harbour. They are a rest cure in all respects. As well as plants with informative plaques (one of the huge trees is described as a weed, think about that, it is quite difficult to handle as a thought) there are also various historical displays. This is the very point where the first settlers arrived in Australia and contains the first area cleared for European crops. (Which largely failed.)



Australia and the Colonial British have a poor history in dealing with the aboriginal people. But it is noticeable that the tenor of the historic displays is almost desperate in their attempt to apologise to the original people. It seems to me much wrong was done, but by people who were living in their own time and according to their own standards. I also doubt the Aborigines were compete paragons of absolute virtue as the displays seem to suggest. Anyway it is interesting to see how attitudes have changed.



We see the rare Wallomi Pine, a tree fed on by dinosaurs and long thought extinct until a small grove of them was discovered 60 miles north west of Sydney. They now seem to be in every garden we visit (always described as rare) and you can buy, them on line, true honestly.



We gaze in wonder at the first bridge ever built in Australia, a small affair crossing a stream in the middle of the Park. Built so that Mrs Macquarie, the governor’s wife, could drive her carriage from the Governors House to her favourite viewing point (where a seat was carved into a large rock for her to sit), just the sort of vital infrastructure project a budding colony needs . Indeed the name Macquarie is on a great many things here, Macquarie Point, Street, Avenue, Road, Wall, Bank etc etc, you get the idea.



The final best description I can give to these gardens is to say, imagine the best public gardens you have ever seen, in a perfect state of repair, historically interesting, great views and weather. Just about perfect. (Rhapsody over.)



At 10pm (22:00 hrs for us nautical types) we reverse from our berth and set passage (another nautical term) for Melbourne. The Bridge, Opera House and City are all lit up and look gorgeous. We both love Sydney and can only hope that one day we will return.

---