Sydney, as everybody knows, is famous for its harbour, and the waterside location of The Rocks and Circular Quay make up the very heart of the city. it is from here that we embark, the next morning, for a ferry around the harbour, stopping at Taronga Zoo (with a superb collection of birds, koalas, echidnas, platypus among other non-native species) and then onto the beach community of Manly. Here, you can see the shark nets placed at strategic intervals to keep the unwanted predators away from the shore, although not everybody seems to be swimming within their bounds. Our exploration of the town takes us away from the harbour and down to Manly beach, waves lapping its shore and looking oh-so-Australian. The beach is busy, for it's a hot and sunny Spring day, and over the crowds flitter our first glances of the sulphur-crested cockatoos, a truly lovely sight. Returning to the ferry wharf, we notice many people dressed in suits and ball gowns, along with plenty of fascinators - but of course! This is the day of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's Grand National, and the whole country seems to have taken the day off to eat fancy meals, drink copious amounts of alcohol, and watch the racing unfold live on TV. It's clearly an all-day affair, and there is much cheering and shouting coming from the plentiful bars.
The next morning is quite the contrast - the sky is thick with clouds, and there's a persistent rain in the air. We brave the weather for the delights of Sydney's waterside botanic gardens, a wonderful oasis of peaceful green space and beautiful flowers. Back home they're heading slowly towards winter, whilst here the days are getting longer and hotter, and the garden is showing off fantastic dahlias, foxgloves and abundant roses. Even better, another piece of native birdlife - a laughing kookaburra - lands on the lawn right in front of us, the only one we see in our time in Australia. As the rain thickens, we walk from the gardens to Hyde Park, past St Mary's Cathedral and on to the Australian Museum, the perfect place to shelter, enjoy some lunch, and take a look around. I instantly like this museum - it has a big old-fashioned gallery, in which it is housing an exhibition called "200 Treasures," bringing together its greatest artefacts such as prehistoric pottery, Polynesian masks and ancient fossils. Upstairs, meanwhile, there are huge dinosaur skeletons, a room dedicated to the Pacific people, and a "surviving Australia" section, including information on how to not be eaten on a deadly continent where just about everything can kill you. The rain still hasn't stopped when we leave, so it's a quick march to a beautiful old galleried building called the Queen Victoria Building (QVB, the locals call it) in which sumptuous but unpretentious shops offer an old-world experience. Here, I get whimsical for home - the Christmas decorations are up, the lights and tinsel are dancing all around us, and there's an enormous six-ton Christmas tree in the centre of the building. At the end of a busy second day, we arrive back at Circular Quay and hop aboard a vessel for an evening dinner cruise around the harbour, taking in the stunning Harbour Bridge and Opera House by night. I enjoy a ravioli starter, kale-stuffed chicken, and chocolate raspberry cake, washed down with a glass of champagne and a good local beer - it's all a sure reminder that we're on our honeymoon, and celebrating with the best that Sydney can offer.
Australia is famous for its unique wildlife, and the following morning we are picked up by a cheerful and burly fellow called John, who stuffs us into his 4x4 and takes us out of the city and into the Southern highlands for a ten-hour wildlife tour. John's a typical characterful Australian, and he's well-travelled - only this May he was driving with friends across Dartmoor. We arrive, 90 minutes later, in a little town called Berrima, once a boom-town owing to its location as a day's travel by stage-coach from Sydney. Nowadays its population sits at only 400, but it retains several of its old buildings, including a grand courthouse, and a pub, said to be the oldest continuously licensed establishment in the country. We stop for tea in a little cafe, and are given Lamington Cake, named after an old governor. The story goes that a local woman made the cake for Lamington's arrival, but he was otherwise detained and was three days late in getting to her. Not wanting to waste the cake, which was going to go dry, the woman covered it in chocolate to keep it moist. This, however, meant that the governor would get chocolate all over his fingers, so to counter this, the woman rolled the cake in desiccated coconut, thus inventing a local delicacy. After cake, it's out to spot wildlife - we see plenty of wild kangaroos but no koalas, emus or platypus are to be found. Nevertheless, it's a great feeling to be out of the city and in the bush, and as night falls, we grab our torches and begin a search for wombats and wallabies by night. It takes a while, but soon we are rewarded with great troops of kangaroos, at one point watching an enthralling boxing match take place between two of them. Wombats, too, finally emerge - little round balls of fluff that I find surprisingly large, shuffling around in the shadows, and occasionally wondering straight across the lights of our torches. By the time we hit the pillows back in Sydney, it's nearly midnight and we are totally exhausted.
On our final day in Sydney we walk to the nearby Darling Harbour, a vibrant part of town with many shops and eateries, as well as other attractions such as a zoo, aquarium and shopping centre. It's a pleasure to stroll the water here and watch as boats of all shapes and sizes drift in and out of berth, and there's a nice mix of tourists and professional locals, on their way to the high rise offices for a day's work (and what a view this must be from your office.) We're in Darling Harbour to catch an ocean-going Princes Cruises vessel, which will take us under the Harbour Bridge, past the opera house, Tarronga and Manly, and out into the Pacific to look for whales. I'm skeptical, not wanting to get my hopes up that we'll see anything on what is one of the last voyages of the season, for the whales' migrations south are beginning to end for the year, and it's an awfully big expanse of blue. Our marine biologist, however, seems more positive, and after a little while searching, we are rewarded with what must be the greatest wildlife experience of my life - the sighting of mother and calf humpbacks. Our operator works on an ethical basis - no spooking of stressing the creatures, no sonar or radar to track them, just an experienced eye with a pair of binoculars. The pilot shuts off the engine and we watch the occasional blow of water from the deep. Our biologist knows that the calf has to come up for air more regularly than its mother, but when she appears she's enormous and beautiful, treating us to jumps and breaches over a captivating hour. It's a first, and possibly once-in-a-lifetime moment for me, and I'm a little emotional - it's a sight I never expected to see.
We dine that evening at Darling Harbour, before taking one final stroll around the water front, passing under the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge (I have decided this is my favourite landmark of all.) There's nowhere quite like this - nowhere so well-known yet so far away, and we shall dearly miss being here. Sydney Harbour provides a magnificent farewell after four magical days, and we're feeling a little sullen to move on so quickly. Nonetheless, we know we'll be back - and tomorrow, all being well, everything around us will be very different indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment