#68 Exploring Sydney

Traveling to Australia from the East Coast of the USA takes quite an effort. As we traveled westward, I felt like I had a decent chance of falling asleep during those hours that my mind expected as night time. The 5:00 pm flight from Reagan National Airport to LAX went smoothly. The nonstop flight (fourteen hours!) from LAX to Sydney arrives bright and early in the next calendar day. Then the flight attendants on Qantas came around and distributed pajamas. They want to do everything possible to make you comfortable for sleep.

With some good luck we were allowed to check in early at our Darling Harbor Hotel in downtown Sydney. We fought the urge to lay down and sleep. We had a grand plan to take a train to one of Sydney’s western suburbs to visit the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary on day one. We took a light rail directly to the Central Train Station. Tapping on and off with your credit card makes this very easy to travelers. On several occasions, other passengers went out of their way to help the confused visitors find their way. With assistance, found the correct train leaving from Central Station to the western suburbs. At The Blacktown stop, we found the E bus that brought us right to the location of the wildlife park.

The Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary is touted to be home to the largest private collection of native Australian species. We quickly were feeding the joeys with the cups of feed that they provide. We also spotted an enormous a cassowary. This huge, flightless bird is closely related to the ostrich and he had a big blue head.

Several varieties of Koalas can be seen sleeping in the trees and the much-anticipated Koala encounter was photographed. They are known to sleep 20 out of 24 hours in a day so we felt lucky to see some with their eyes open. We also saw a wombat, wallabies, emus, dingoes and adorable little penguins. We discovered the echidna, which I had neither seen nor heard of before. The echidna falls into the category of mammals called Monotremes.

Monotremes are one of the three groups of living mammals, along with placentals and marsupials. They are a type of mammal that lays eggs. Monotreme include only three species, the duck-billed platypus, and two echidna species. They look similar to porcupines in the US and not unlike the Kiwi birds we saw later on our trip in New Zealand.

The collection of birds was astonishing with various parrots, emus, kookaburras, and more. I’m sure true birders would not really approve of spotting the birds in captivity, but a grand effort is made at the Sanctuary to educate the public, rescue injured animals, and to preach conservation. At their little snack bar, I managed to have my first Australian flat white: expresso with micro-foamed milk.

At the end of our visit we had to reverse our commute: bus, train, then light rail to our hotel. After a hot shower, we walked to a pub at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel overlooking Darling Harbor. This was a pretty successful first day in Australia and we pushed to start adjusting our internal clocks. We had even bigger plans for the next day.

We planned to do the famous and scenic coastal walk in the eastern suburbs from Bondi Beach to Coogee. Cloudy skies and a light spritz was not going to deter us. We took an Uber (the app works here no problem) to the northern starting point of the walk at Bondi. The interwebs tell me that Bondi is an Aboriginal word meaning “water breaking over rocks.”

We admired the Bondi Icebergs swimming club, one of Sydney’s most Instagrammed locations, overlooking the Bondi Beach. Multiple flights of stairs up and down follow the craggy coastline as we made the 2.2 mile trek. We passed by Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Waverly Cemetery, Clovelly Beach, Gordon’s Bay, and finally ended at the town of Coogee. Waverley Cemetery was established in 1877 and contains the graves of many famous Australians. By the time we reached Coogee, we were wet, thirsty, and hungry.

We found ample refreshments at the Coogee Pavilion, which was packed on a Sunday afternoon. In the bar area, we could link to the all-digital ordering system. Although we had taken a small amount of Australian cash out from an ATM, we could find almost no place that would actually take payment for goods or services in cash. The restaurant was a great site where we could meet another Uber driver for the ride back to town.

We had special plans on Sunday evening to meet the parents of one of our daughter’s dear friends. This was quite a treat. We enjoyed hearing the stories of their families’ emigration from Scotland and Italy to Tasmania and Melbourne. We are quite accustomed to our family stories of escaping persecution in Eastern Europe and coming to America. Australians tell a far different story. The tales of long sea voyages through the Suez Canal were entirely new and fascinating to us.

We enjoyed a delightful dinner at the French Bistro Cafe Moncur in the Edgecliff neighborhood of Sydney. Maybe we even started tasting some of the Hunter Valley wines. We planned to visit the Hunter Valley three days later.

On Monday, we had booked a bike tour with Bonza Bike Tours located in The Rocks area of Sydney near the Circular Quay Ferry Terminal. The four-hour tour took us through the Rocks and Harbour front area. As the site of the original warehouse sites of the original Sydney colonization, the area has art installations, outdoor cafes and preserved buildings converted to stores and condos.

We were able to go both under and onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge on our bikes. The tour around and to Darling Harbor and back around through the heart of the city was rigorous. We took conventional bikes and had to manage a few hills. The way through Hyde Park and the grounds of the Art Museum of New South Wales passed through centuries old trees and protected city greenery. The bike tour is a great way to see the city.

We had to walk our bikes through the waterfront path of the botanical garden. The end point places one right in front of the majestic Sydney Opera House. The tiled roofs look entirely different up close. The area was being set-up for a large outdoor event celebrating Australia Day on January 26th.

With sore seats and a sense of accomplishment, we made our way back to our hotel at Darling Harbor. That rest and shower felt great before our little evening excursion. We had chosen to go to Cafe Sydney, located on the fifth floor of the Old Customs House directly across the street from the Circular Quay Ferry terminal.

Café Sydney has a sleek and open design that features stunning views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The food and service matched the quality of the views. I started with a beautifully arranged salad of burrata, charred runner bean, asparagus, garden pea, and balsamic dressing. Then tasted the local seafood with Humpty Doo barramundi, oyster mushroom, chive mayonnaise, mushroom crumb, and nasturtium. The fish went really well with a Hunter Valley Semillon from the extensive wine list. We loved this restaurant.

On Tuesday morning we made our way back to the Ferry terminal at Circular Quay. We discovered later that there was a closer stop at Bongaroo, much closer to our hotel in the Darling Harbor. We grabbed an F3 Ferry to Cockatoo Island. The ride just happens to take you right past the majestic Sydney opera House and the stately Harbor Bridge. These were postcard moments.

This isolated island in Sydney Harbor has been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. As with all of the land in Australia, started out as a fishing colony for the native people. When the first British colonizers found the island they determined that it would be a useful place to place the prisoners who they deemed the worst of the worst.

They made the first prisoners quarry the limestone of the island and build themselves prison dormitories. The prison complex ruins that remains testifies to the harsh conditions endured by the prisoners. The men were crammed into a small space and locked in with no plumbing facilities. The sanitary conditions were horrid and described in historical accounts one can hear on the self guided tour recording.

The awful prison facilities were used decades later as a “school” for wayward girls. The girls were judged and treated far more harshly than boys, who were given a second chance. An area of the island functioned as a boy’s school where the boys learned sailing skills.

The deep harbor access was used as an area to build and repair ships. During World War II, the island served as the primary repair site for allied aircraft damaged in the Pacific Theatre. These functions are well documented with pictures and first-hand accounts.

In an “oh so Australian” sort of way, there is a campground on the island where people can reserve tents. This is not glamping. A few of the nicer buildings and homes on the island function as holiday lodgings that people can rent. I suppose if you didn’t think about the suffering that went on a few hundred yards away, you might be able to enjoy yourself there.

The self-guided tour takes about an hour or two depending on what is open that day. One of the tunnels used for transport and air-raid protection was closed during our visit. The outing can absolutely be done on your own by taking the public ferry from Circular Quay or Bongaroo. The whole vibe reminded me of visiting Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay, but even more barbaric.

Later that afternoon, collected our bags and embarked on the Viking Mars cruise ship that we would take down the coast of Australia, to Tasmania, and then to New Zealand. Fortunately, we passed our unexpected covid nasal swab. Our first full day, the ship would remain docked at the port in Sydney and we would go visit our first vineyard. Stay tuned…

#69 Reflection: When You Don’t Like Someone

#67 Happy Birthday to my Book