Australia: Sydney Part 2

On Sunday of our trip we met up with a fellow HMB alum, Lynn (who writes facedowns) and we went to dim sum. How cool is it that we can travel the world and still find HMB friends? Pretty darn cool!

Next we took another ferry out to Bondi Beach, where we planned on doing a "short" cliff walk. By short, we were under the impression it would be a 1.5km walk... easy peasy. We were pretty tired from several days of walking and being on our feet, so this was supposed to be one short little jaunt we squeezed in before calling it a day.

Overlooking our starting point, Cogee Beach

First of all, no walk involving tons of stairs and steep inclines can be considered easy peasy. Easy Peasy is a stroll around a paved flat park, or walking through the climate controlled mall. However, we're both in somewhat ok shape and it was so breathtakingly gorgeous that we didn't notice the distance we were walking at first.

Random cove

 I would have wanted to swim in each little cove we discovered, except it was windy and cold.

Another cove

The sunlight and the ocean and the clouds seemed to be playing together. I think Mark stopped for a picture every five steps.

Being near the ocean, hearing the waves, and smelling the sea filled my soul. I guess a you can never really take the California beach out of the girl.

Creepy but cool old graveyard

We decided this would not be such a bad place to be put to rest. It was creepy, but really cool.

The last of the light fading away

After about two hours, we confirmed that we were completely wrong about the distance. As the sun started setting, we put away the camera and picked up the pace. Luckily the last of the path was well lit because we (stupidly) were not carrying our headlamps.

When I got home I mapped our route, and discovered our 1.5m walk was over 6km (nearly 4 miles!) Typically that distance would have been just fine, except it was super steep in many places, had a ton of stairs, and we had prepared for easy peasy, not moderate hike! Ahwell. It helped keep the cheeseburgers and gelato in check.

The next day we had a really big day planned. We spent the morning in Featherdale Wildlife Park and the afternoon at the Blue Mountains. In retrospect, we should have split those into two separate days.

The Featherdale Wildlife Park promised me a chance to meet and pet a koala bear, and they did not under deliver! We got to pet koalas, feed and pet kangaroos, watch a penguin talk/keeper feed, hold a snake and an owl, and see all kinds of neat birds and native animals. It was not like a zoo-- these animals were all tame and more like pets than anything. I think I have about 300 pictures so you can check those out in our Picasa albums if you're so inclined. Here are the highlights:

baby koala... aww! 

I'm REALLY excited about the baby koala... can you tell?

Adult koala

Our feed cups were cake cones filled with yummy green stuff

My possee 

Will accept pets for food!

This dingo thinks it's Sundog. 

 Koala climbing with the cool bird song in the background

There were lots of different kinds of owls... most were impossible to get a good picture of but still very cool!

After the wildlife park we continued our way by train up to the blue mountains. Rail travel is awesome, when it's not amtrak.

Once at the Blue Mountains we walked out to Echo Point. I was disappointed to learn that the hike I had hoped to do was nearly a six hour hike and we didn't have enough daylight for it. Mark and I were also reaching a point of exhaustion on our trip. So we just decided to do another "easy" cliff walk that was far from easy but still really cool.

View from Echo Point

 All that haze isn't smog.. it's oil from the eucalyptus groves. No wonder I felt so sick! (I'm allergic)

But the views were so worth it.

This video was part of our hike. Again, a far cry from an easy sidewalk stroll, but not too bad. And we had lovely birdsong to keep us entertained!

Tuesday was our last day in Sydney. We stopped by the Royal Botanic Gardens, listened to some buskers, did some shopping, and rode around on ferries.

Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens 

Another adorable ferry

We just didn't get tired of riding around ferries and enjoying the harbor views!

Can you believe this is a ferry dock? 

We spent our last evening in Watson's Bay and exploring a little of the Sydney Harbor National Park.

Another cliff walk.. this one actually was short and easy!

And so, after 10 exhausting but wonderful days, we spent our last Australian sunset eating gelato in the park. It doesn't get much better than that, folks!