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Published: November 10th 2007
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Being sick of Sydney and not being a big fan of cities anyway, on Monday I caught the train to Heathcote about an hour outside of the city. The Royal National Park is the second-oldest in the world, established in 1879. There are several good entry points but I had to settle for the ones by train stations, the two best of which are at Heathcote and Engadine because the trails start from right beside the stations. Unfortunately today was a bad day for birds. I'm not sure which was more at fault, the high winds or the driving rain, but whichever it was the birds were rather sensibly staying under cover. I did find a few good ones, such as variegated wrens, which are like the superb blue wrens but a little more variegated and perhaps a little less superb. They were also a little more reluctant to be photographed than their stuffed cousin in the Australian museum (see photo two entries back). Another very nice wee bird is the origma. It is found in a very small area of sandstone country completely within the borders of New South Wales (a fact of which NSW birders are very proud!). Its
also called the rock warbler but its much bigger than regular warblers, almost the size of a New Zealand robin. I saw my first one while waiting out a particularly severe bout of rain under a handy rock overhang, under which the origma also decided to take shelter.
The next day I tried the trails that run from Engadine station. It had been fine and sunny when I left Sydney but as soon as the train pulled into Engadine the heavens opened and the rain started absolutely hammering down. I'm really not having much luck with the weather so far. Again few birds, surprise surprise, but I did have a brief encounter with a swamp wallaby, only my second Australian mammal of the trip.
That evening I caught an overnight bus to Melbourne. The choices were between an overnight train with sleepers for something like $220, the same train with regular seating for $110, or the bus for $80. The bus won out. I don't know which eastern European country the driver was from (lets just call him Dimitriov) but English was obviously not a language he was overly familiar with. His attempts at instructions over the intercom
system just resulted in people scratching their heads in bewilderment and hoping they didn't miss anything vitally important. Its funny because Australia seems to specialise in using announcement-people who either don't speak English well or who have such thick incomprehensible accents that they can barely be understood.
In Melbourne I found a place called All Nations Backpackers, five minutes down the road from the train and bus station which is quite handy (apart for the trams and trains going past the building at all hours!), and which has free use of the weights gym across the road (yay for me). Its also just across an intersection from Batman Park, for which there is no sign. How can you have a place called Batman Park and not have a sign for tourists to take photos of? Its just inconsiderate. And then about five minutes further on from Batman Park is the Melbourne Aquarium! Of course, Melbournites being much nicer than the jerks who live in Sydney, the good people at the Melbourne Aquarium let me come into their fine establishment for free. And it really is an awesome aquarium, even if it is on three levels with a series of
winding corridors that confused me as to exactly where I was supposed to be going. Best bits were the Creepy Creatures exhibit with all sorts of beasties like coconut crabs, Christmas Island crabs, redbacks, giant millipedes, etc; the mangrove pool with about twenty elephantfish cruising round in it; the southern giant crabs; and the ocean tank with its hugely fat nurse sharks and enormous stingrays. Well worth a visit. There's an Antarctic penguin exhibit opening some time in the future, with the birds coming from Kelly Tarlton's in Auckland. When the staff were over in New Zealand checking out Kelly's they also stopped in "my" aquarium in Christchurch, and according to the chap I was talking to, it was their favourite aquarium they had been to.
After the Aquarium I headed over to the Botanic Gardens. The birds there aren't as friendly as the ones in Sydney's Gardens but I found a few nice ones, as well as a coot being hassled by an eel.
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Peter Ericsson
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imperfection
I C U R starting to realize the world is an imperfect place full of imperfect people. Don't let it get you down, keep your face to the sunshine and there is no place for darkness! Remember, there is always the silverlining to look for......