Day 125 - Blaxland part II

After the exertions of another morning spent watching the birds

and talking to the wallabies 

with the joey venturing out with his mama - he'd still been in her pouch when my own mother visited in November, only occasionally braving the world and bouncing around the garden like a rubber ball - two months on, though still a bit skittish, he's more curious and bold,

we headed for a drive to historic sights such as Richmond and Windsor (both on the Hawkesbury river, settled by colonialists in the 1790s and some of the earliest after Sydney and Parramatta) 

and to an international sand sculpture competition - this year's theme : The Lost World. 

Hope they were bound together so there's no danger of the sand drying out; the car thermometer touched 49°C (apparently 120°F) - whew...  As Duncan said : when the a/c is cooling you down with air at 29°, you know you're hot

Later, (cousin) Geraldine and her husband Barry served a feast of a dinner, over which we caught up with all their news and sadly disappointed them that we don't really know much about cricket! Meanwhile, when we got home, a local brush-tailed possum was also enjoying supper...

Day 124 - Blaxland, NSW part I

Blaxland is a town in the Blue Mountains, 70km west of Sydney, named for Gregory Blaxland who, along with Williams Lawson and Wentworth, led the exploration that discovered a route over the BM in 1813.  They're said to be "blue" from the eucalyptus resin which rises from the forests of gum trees into a blue mist over the hills. We caught the train on the Blue Mountains Line out of Sydney Central Station on Wednesday morning to stay with Sara's uncle, John, and catch up with the family who emigrated back in 1973.

In the afternoon, we visited Warragamba Dam (supplying water to 3.7m Sydney and BM folk) and its excellent Exhibition Hall with history and facts and figures (for example, its storage lake is four times the size of Sydney Harbour, more than 2.3 million tonnes of sandstone was removed and concrete was mixed on site using 305,000 tonnes of cement and 2.5 million tonnes of sand and gravel - it's big... ), and some great views.

Back at the ranch, John's house overlooks the bush, with a raised terrace overlooking a garden visited by all manner of birdlife

and even neighbourhood wallabies...

who visit for breakfast and dinner (they favour banana skins but will graciously accept half a carrot); the wildlife had obviously checked the thermometer though and kept well away when the needle nudged 40°

Day 123 - day-trip to the Hunter Valley

The forecasts for Tuesday were sunshine but record-breakingly scary temperatures : 41° for Adelaide, 40s° for Melbourne, and a comparatively mild low-30s° for Sydney.  Undeterred, we'd planned a day-trip north-west up to the Hunter Valley to continue our wineries-of-the-world tour and to swell yet further the contents of F&G's new impressive cellar.

Sure enough, a shiny blue morning dawned, and lovely it stayed while we visited some glorious scenery at four vineyard tasting rooms 

and loaded ourselves down with a fair few boxes.

Only complaint of the day : we saw several "wombat crossing" traffic signs but not a sniff of a sighting ...

PS the temperatures were worse than expected : 46° in Adelaide, 43° in Melbourne, 39° in Canberra.  Apparently hottest for 110 years.  Fingers crossed that it calms down.

Day 122 - tourist Sydney part II

The beach or the City? It looked relatively cool so that seemed a sign to hit town. We got off at the Romanesque 1898 Queen Victoria Building (complete with statue of HM outside)

and with its swanky shops and two huge 3D clocks.

Next, up the Sydney Tower Eye 

for great views of the city from 309m

including the cathedral and Anzac war memorial (separated by Hyde Park)

which we visited at ground level later on

along with the town hall

Days 120 and 121 - Mona Vale weekend

A roasting hot, blue-skied weekend : Saturday evening was dinner and a free concert by Tim Finn (briefly of Crowded House fame with brother Neil) at the local 1880-built Newport Arms pub, overlooking Pittwater 

which had also drawn a variety of Sydney youf (mostly turned out in highly questionable split-to-the-thigh, high-glitter outfits and showing a good deal more flesh than the occasion warranted - Australia, be proud of yourself!!)

On Sunday, I woke by chance for the sunrise

and went with Fiona to her yoga class, to engage in some seriously tiring lying down; not to be outdone on the exertion stakes, Duncan went for a walk on the headland.

and later we were both taken for a walk!

Meanwhile, we've obviously exhausted our poor hosts...

Day 119 - Bobbin Head, an unexpected monument and playing a round with some locals

In the Western part of Ku-ring-gai NP is Bobbin Head.  Next to Cowan Creek

runs a boardwalk over mangroves, covering mud dotted with inches-long mangrove "pegs" of new growth, also heavily populated by tiny crabs of varying varieties, colours and shapes, fighting, eating mud, nipping down into their holes. Their eyes on the tops of heads means they're always looking up at you!

The path then climbs through rocks, past native trees and stone.

At one park entrance is a curious memorial : Pte Shirley's personal commemoration to his comrades who fell in the Egyptian campaign in the form of a hand-carved 1:8 size Sphinx, with mini pyramids.

Being a sunny Friday afternoon, our first ever visit to a golf course - merely spectating of course, 

(aka heckling - after all, how hard can it be?!) and with multiple diversions from the local wildlife

Talking of kookaburra, I hadn't appreciated quite how many types of "gum" tree there are; the scribbly gum (Eucalyptus haemastoma) gets its zigzag tracks from hungry moth larvae.

Day 118 - tourist Sydney (almost certainly part I)

The Manly ferry into Circular Quay gives a great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge aka the Clothes-hanger (spot those minuscule figures doing the SHB climb...) and of course the Opera House, next to which we picnicked (including being dive-bombed by hungry/greedy gulls).

Around the corner is the impressive Gothic former Government House (sadly closed for tours til tmrw - but meanwhile we wandered the grounds : look at the size of the fig trees compared to Duncan on the bench!) and looked in at the Botanical Gardens.

As well as its famous beach, Manly has a fine council building and war memorial, with Australian and Aboriginal flags flying.