Harbouring Good Intentions

A SYDNEY EXPERIENCE

Friday dawned, and after a wakeful night in a strange bed, was up at 7.30am Sydney time and ready for action, well pancakes anyway.

The decision was made to head local and do a coastal walk around part of the Sydney Harbour National Park area. We headed to a place called Rose Bay to start, with a view of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house in the distance. The day was hot and the path undulating, but we stopped at the bays along the way, small but perfectly formed and with great views.

A sandman built and a monster drawn in the sand, plus my name, we walked further round the bay to Nielsen's Park, and had lunch in the little cafe/restaurant there, some nice fish and chips (Barramundi).

After lunch we went back, for a cuppa and some time to chill, we headed out again to see if we could find some of the cockatiels in the local park.




Found some Little Corellas and one white

cockatiel and a few trees full of Fruit bats or Flying foxes.

We headed back to the house to collect Darren & Jos and set off again to find some food, a pizza restaurant with paper tablecloths for drawing on worked well with a little one in tow.
Trying hard to settle into the timezone, though started drifting at 9.30pm I did manage to stay up until midnight chatting. Not great when I have discussed heading to the parkrun, which starts at 7am.

Slept for a couple of hours then woke and didn't get back off to sleep again, so Saturday saw me up a and out at 6.20 am in the dark heading to a parkrun that I am completely unfit for.

A small field of 77 runners heading off in the dark with the sun coming up, and some undulating scenery on a two lap run. I finished 71st out of 77 with a time of 46.56, not great but seeing it's my first for some time, in fact first run for a while, it was ok. Heading for a cuppa at the post race cafe I started sorting the finish tokens. Just can't keep out of a volunteer role eh?

Back to the house, I had a shower and got ready for the next adventure....a walk along the coast from Coogee to Bondi beach.

It was still fairly hot, though the clouds joined us occasionally, so sunscreen definitely needed.





The walk led us along the coastal path from Coogee, via Gordon's Bay, Clovelly (with a drink stop),A diversion through the graveyard at Waverley, on to Bronte and Tamarama and finally round to Bondi.

Some excellent rock formations on the way, and plenty of surfers out on the waves, though not so many at Bondi as we saw on the way back yesterday.
We had some lunch at Bondi and then caught a bus to the Circular Quay where we headed to see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour bridge. Definitely worth seeing up close and personal.

A brief foray into the Botanical Gardens and we saw some impressive trees and few birds including parakeets
(at last 😀 )

Then we headed back to the bus, via the Guylian chocolate shop for a refuel stop and back to the house.

A supper of Quesadillas and we were set for the evening. Headed off to bed reasonably early and slept well for the first time.








Clocks changed overnight, so now only a 9 hour time difference from home, but my clock said it was 8.15 when I woke, so I think that had taken it into account already, so really 9.15 in which case I had about 10 hours sleep.
Today is Easter Sunday, we were heading to meet friends of Sue & Darren for a trip out around the harbour on their boat.
We headed to the pontoon at Rose Bay to meet them, boarded the boat (very inelegantly I must

admit) then set off across the harbour, past the Opera House and under the Harbour Bridge (where we could see people on one of the walks across the top).

We headed to a small cove and anchored up for the day.Yvette & Martyn had caught some fresh crabs yesterday and cooked them up for lunch, which we had together with some fresh bread that Sue had made, some crackers and plenty of chilled wine.

After several hours of chatting, eating and drinking we headed back to the pontoon just as the sun was starting to set. Some lovely views of the Bridge and the Opera house against the setting sun made for a lovely end to the day. (Apart from having to get off the boat, which caused me a minor panic attack moment)

A lovely home made veggie lasagne for dinner, but I think I was the only one awake enough to enjoy it to the full. Last one standing this evening as I wanted to get my blog finished before heading to bed. An early flight in the morning beckons.

Goodbye to Sydney and Hello to the Gold Coast.
Let the Games begin