A great day in Sydney
Because I had a dinner scheduled in central Sydney with some friends from an online travel community, TheTravelzine, I decided to make a day of wandering around the city. I took a morning bus to Manly, then the ferry to Circular Quay. From there, I walked around the point, under the Harbour Bridge, and around Darling Harbour, and back across town to Hyde Park to cool off. It was hot, but a lovely clear day. On the way, I stopped for a beer at Sydney's oldest pub in The Rocks area, the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. It's been in continuous service since 1841! Of course, the Superbowl was playing on the TV in the corner, which somewhat detracted from the atmosphere; no one really understands US football anyway. I stopped in at the Sydney Aquarium, a comprehensive look at the denizens of watery Australia. The walk-through glass tunnels in the shark tank were especially frightful. I wished Jack were there to gape at the big boys swimming around. Several tourists (including me) were clustered around the bluebottle information board to find out about these pesky, painful jellyfish. They are prevalent on the ocean beaches when the nor'easters are blowing in the summer. There are lots more wonderful walks in the Sydney area and I'll be ready for another one. On of my Australian friends is walking from Sydney to Melbourne, albeit in short stints, with his bushwalking club. Sounds like fun!

Beaches, beaches, beaches
The kids and I have decided we need to make a list of all the beaches we've tested so far, and make a ranking system for ho-hum through wow. We hit the biggest wow yesterday at Balmoral, and sadly, I didn't haul my camera! It's a great swimming beach full of families enjoying a day out on Sundays especially. There are so many choices I don't know how we'll work our way through them. On Saturday, we had hoped to try to go to a couple of beaches in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park which are reputed to be some fine swimming, but because of fire danger, all tracks within the park are closed. Mona Vale beach was an ok second choice, with lots of good tide pools. Bradley's Head beach had terrific views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, but the swimming was ho-hum because boaters back their craft up to the beach, anchor, and wade ashore with picnic stuff. We've tried a couple of other inner harbour beaches, but they were second-rate. For the surf, though, our Warriewood Beach, just five minutes' walk away, is hard to beat.

The boys of summer, Australia style
I am starting to recognize the local kids on our Warriewood Beach, and now that it's heading toward the end of school, it's getting poignant. They come running down to the beach as soon as school is out, boogie boards or surfboards under their arms. Their boardies, slung over narrow hips, are ragged at the hems and the hair skimming their eyebrows is sun-bleached. If they are wearing rashies, it's obvious they won't make another season, they are so worn out. Some still sport the tribal designs of neon-colored zinc sunblock in varying designs on forehead, cheek and nose, but they're probably past sunburn this late in the season. Pushing and shoving, calling to each other, they race to the ocean as if it will be the last run.


Elvina Bay bushwalk
Although it was really hot, last week I decided to take a bushwalk in Ku-ring-gai, not knowing that tracks could have been closed for fire danger. I took a small ferry from Church Point to Elvina Bay, a lovely little cove in the Hawkesbury system. From there, the track went steeply up through a small rainforest ravine to the top of the hills, an upland gum forest. On the side of the trail were a couple of gravestones marking the site of burials in 1847 & 1867, though I couldn't make out the names. There were fabulous birds, blooming banksia, and drowsy cicadas and a side track leading to a flat rock terrace with some aboriginal rock carvings. The emu was more than life-size! The walk back down into the cooler water-side zone was much more pleasant than the four-kilometer killer slog uphill through the sparse forest on top. To catch the ferry back to Church Point, I put out a rolled-up flag into a holder at the ferry dock; the ferryman could see it as he went by the bay and clipped in to retrieve me. There are lovely homes along the foreshore; owners use wheelbarrows and hand pulleys to get supplies from their boats in the bay up the hills to their homes. Hard work.

Why is Tracy on the chair?

The wildlife chronicles continue: the huge resident spider was spotted making a run from under the refrig to under the dishwasher. Bigger than a small mouse, the darned thing is fast too! I'm not sure being on the chair was any protection, but it felt right to Tracy. The golden orb spider who thought she owned the area around the laundry lines has finally given up, though, and moved to the other side of the garden. Her web was easily two feet across and not easily broken, even with wet laundry.

##30##