Blue Mountains

Road trip! We rented a car for a drive into the blue mountains today, as if we hadn't had enough of driving on the wrong side of the road yet.

The mountain range is about 200 kms west of Sydney. Technically it's a plateau, not a mountain range at all. They're not terribly impressive by BC standards, but interesting in their own right.

Made of limestone and sandstone, the rolling hills reach just over 1200m high. A popular tourist stop is Echo Point in Katoomba, a lookout over the three sisters and into the valley below. Apparently the name comes from the blue hue in the air caused by oils from the eucalyptus trees.

We also went on hike, looking for wombats and platypus. Though we didn't see any platypus, we did see a bunch of wombats. Unfortunately they were all roadkill.

Below are a few pics from the lookout and from the walk.

DragonSlayer had his work cut out for him. 

The lizards were everywhere.

The death stare of a tortoise.

Cunningham's Skink. 

DragonSlayer and the Skink face off.

Panorama of the three sisters.

There Be Dragons!

The Sydney harbour is flanked by two headlands, both of which contain large parks. Today's jaunt included a walk through Shelly Point and the Sydney Harbor Reserve through to North Head.

Shelly Point. Manly Beach is far left.

Pano stitch software, my new friend.

The point is also home to a colony of water dragons, we were lucky to meet this one, actually, he wasn't shy at all and probably a dozen German tourists got to snap his pic too.

Eidechse! Eidechse!

We also met these two as well. I think they are spotted tree monitors, but I really don't know.

I'm the size of a crocodile! 

Actually, I'm only 20cm, but don't I look big? (And fat?)

The lizards are protected. Which is a good thing, because just up the hill from the point is a walking track that visits some of the old battlements from WW2. Someone might get carried away and think they're a Dragonslayer.

Bang, Bang!

SP wants this painted on our truck. (C/O Jeff Easley)

Six months in prison, Dragon Slayer

Over the top of the hill was our last stop, the North Head (aka DragonStone). It was a bit of a cloudy day, but you can see the entire entrance to the Sydney Harbour, the South Head and the city in the distance. 

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More fun with the pano stitcher software.

Tomorrow we get attacked by cockatoos. And no, the world didn't end on Dec 20th.

-E

Sydney Bridge

SP and I have both come down with a bit of a cold. That, and the grey weather in Sydney, meant that we were limited on activities today. We decided that we would walk around Sydney and take a look at this bridge everyone is so proud of.

A good pic of the bridge (from this site)

My pic of the bridge (what can I say, I have a cold.)

While walking over the bridge we had an in depth discussion of how high a bridge needs to be in order to ensure death if you were to leap from it. (Purely from a scientific point of view, though I'm sure this is a perfectly normal conversation for two throat lozenge toting vancouverites stuck in a grey day while on vacation down under.)

The view from the bridge

For interest sake, the world record for successful high diving (which means you not only lived but you managed to extract yourself from the water unaided) is 53m or 172 ft.

Sizeable railings, aka "suicide guards"

In contrast, the Sydney Harbour Bridge deck is 82 m tall. And for the Vancouverites in the audience, the Burrard Street Bridge is 28 m tall whereas the Lionsgate is 61 m tall.

The Burrard Street Bridge (c/o wikipedia)

If you jump from 5 meters, you hit the water at ~36 km/h. (This is strong enough to possibly break bones or give you a concussion. This is also the tallest height for public swimmimg diving boards in BC.) From 10 m it's ~ 50 km/h. 28 m = 84 km/h. 82 m = 144 km/h. That's a lot of kinetic energy to dissipate in the water.

A bench in the middle of the bridge, for contemplation, perhaps.

Though some people have survived terminal velocity (anything above 450m of free fall, depending) the reality is that jumping from the Burrard Street Bridge is somewhat likely to kill you, whereas jumping from the Sydney Harbour Bridge almost certainly will.

The view from the bridge of the harbour.

You can also "climb the bridge" as part of a guided walk.

You are clipped in, however, JIC.

I'm sure you all really wanted to know this.

-E

Close to Perth

Perth is a bonus city for us. We had no specific reason to come here, it just happened that we were going to have a layover anyways, so we decided to spend a few days here instead.

Unfortunately we were having so much fun that we never did look into what to do while we were here. So today we mostly wandered around somewhat aimlessly.

Our first stop was at the tiny University of Notre Dame, Australia. At first glance you might think it was a satellite school of Notre Dame in Indiana USA, but they're separate.

Keeping with the trend, we then hopped on the train, and visited the huge University of Western Australia. It's very pretty and looks a little like Stanford. It's often ranked as one of the top 100 universities in the world (but not for comp sci.)

Somewhere along the way we decided it would be a great idea to walk from UWA into Perth itself. On the far side of the campus is Kings Park, and beyond that, Perth CBD. No sweat. For interest sake, Kings Park is the largest inner city park in the world, at 4 sq kms.

Inside the Botanical Garden.

A laughing kookaburra.

Baob tree, 750 yrs old.

We didn't make it. After the park and about 10 kms of walking we called it a day and returned to Fremantle. But we got pretty close.

As close to Perth as we're going to get.

Tomorrow we're off to Rottnest Island (literally translates to Rats Nest Island in Dutch). Should be fun.


-E

Mandu Mandu Gorge

One of the differences between Australia and New Zealand seems to be that in NZ, nothing will hurt you, but in OZ, it's like everything is out to get you.

Termites don't bite, but ants do.

Today, which was windy and not great for snorkeling, was the perfect opportunity to put that to the test. We decided to hike a river gorge in 32'C heat, knowing that there are snakes and extra curious dingos around (and perhaps other things we just didn't know of.)

Pilbara Death Adder C/O this guy

The Mandu Mandu Gorge is a dried up riverbed and the hike follows the gorge upstream before heading up to a view point over looking the ocean below.

Despite best efforts, the only wildlife that bothered us were the flies. Up your nose, in your ears, the pesky things would even go under your sunglasses to try to get to your eyes. Even the wind didn't stop them.

Midpoint

The view from the top was pretty nice though.

Viewpoint

So far, the naval base and driving the road have been the best places to spot wildlife. Yesterday we saw a 3 foot lizard, and here are the emus that visit our hotel every afternoon. We also have lots of kangaroos around too (especially at night).

A monitor crossing the two lane highway.

Wild emus.

Kangaroo outside our hotel room, more on them later.

Tomorrow we're hoping to get some snorkeling in. (For the kitesurfers in the audience, the wind hit 40 knots today).

-E

Is it wild life or feral life?

What kind of wildlife lives on a beach? Birds. Lots of birds. But on today's long beach hike we also met one of the other residents.

It started with SP taking the lead as we tramped down Karikari beach. With the waves crashing at our side, we trudged along for about four kms.

Our aim was to reach a rehabilitated bird sanctuary located below Karikari estates vineyard. A collection of swamps, lakes, rivers and lots of sand dunes. We knew the sanctuary would also included a number of estuaries. As we got closer to our destination, we realized that we would need to ford a harrowing river in order to carry on.

Though we searched upstream for a dry crossing, it turned out that we would have to get wet. Thankfully, all of us crossed the mighty three inch deep creek successfully. 

Forging on, we finally arrive at the main event, the outlet of the Wairahoraho river. It's a lot deeper than the first river, maybe 5 inches, so we decide to put safety first and call this the turn around point. It's time for lunch.

Before you know it, SM discovers a foot print in the sand. A giant bird print. We follow the prints for awhile, as it wanders around the estuary. The prints are close together, almost like the bird waddles. On speculation, SM think it's an albatross, I think it's a duck and SP thinks it's a dragon, but we really have no idea. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the bird, all we saw were prints. (Photo below.)

There are a few small birds, enjoying the estuary. Oyster catchers and dotterals mostly. Running around on their spindly legs the birds are too skittish for me to get a decent picture. Besides, now that we have spent over a week up here, they are also pretty regular sightings.

At this point we were somewhat disappointed. What was supposed to be a beautiful estuary teaming with life, was really a lot of sand, a trickle of water and some sorry looking shrubs.

We settle on a somewhat grassy dune for lunch and watched the river meander to the sea. The sad looking grasses, exposed to the ocean and the wind, struggle to stay rooted. With the weather, river and dunes constantly changing, it's a wonder anything grows here at all. Lunch is  quiet. SP and I sit listening to the waves and SM is poking around looking for shells. 

And wouldn't you know it, just when things were dullest, SP spots something moving in the water. Following the thalweg upstream is a huge animal. It turns and huffs itself up onto the river bank, shaking water from it's coat. It's big enough to ride (not that you would). After a second it's trotting off into the shrub, tail wagging. It was a boar. Totally dumbstruck, I didn't get a picture. But I can tell you, it looked like this (except it wasn't riding a bike, and it was very much alive):

A book we found at the library. Hunting boar is common up here.

Dragonduckatross prints

Endless sand dunes

The estuary.