Australia: Sydney, Canberra, Manly Beach, Blue Mountains
Singapore
Our time on the west coast was over, so we took a flight to Sydney, hopped on a bus to Canberra to visit an old friend and see the Australian capital. We were picked up at the bus station by my friend Zjelko who drove us to his beautiful home where we would be staying with his wife, fantastic kids, and their dog. Zjelko was kind enough to take a couple of days off to drive us around. Canberra is very spread out and hard to get around without a car. We first drove around the center of the city as this is where you find the Parliament building and other government buildings. It all looked very well planned, but a bit sterile, huge beautiful buildings in shuttle colours, long straight boulevards that stretch out before you. We spent a couple of days looking around the city, toured the Parliament, saw the city from a lookout, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and went to a history museum.
One day we went out of the city to the fire-charred areas from the fire in 2003, it was shocking to see the destruction around us where home, forest, wildlife and people were lost. As we drove we saw the deep canyons and mountain sides that were once filled with trees and looked like a big open sore, we did however find out that the main reason for the intensity and the destructiveness was due to trees imported from Europe. The trees that were brought were planted instead of the local trees (Eucalyptus) so that they could have a bit of home (the smell of pine). When the fire started the trees burned very quickly and intensely (unlike the Eucalyptus that can also regenerate and grow even when partially burned). The fire spread very quickly, thus the amount of damage and loss of life. There were probably many other factors but the imported trees made things worst, we did see signs that the local vegetation was starting to recover but this will take many years. We had been enjoying catching up with my old friend and seeing Canberra but the show must go on, it was time to explore Sydney and do some diving, What diving! Yes, there is very good diving in Sydney and there be Dragons!!!
Arriving in Sydney we made our way to the ferries that lay between the Harbor bridge and the Opera and were soon off to Manly Beach (a suburb of Sydney) where we would be staying in Sydney. We chose Manly as it is close to beach, this is where the dive boats leave from and it's easy to get to the city but not right in the middle of the meat grinder (maybe we are getting a bit too old to stay in King's cross with all the other backpackers). We spent some time seeing the sights, the opera, Harbour Bridge, King's Cross by night and much more, but mainly we stayed at Manly enjoying the beach and the local atmosphere.
We dived with Pro Dive Manly, they were excellent and friendly, for those that are sceptial about diving in Sydney don't be, it's great! We dove the following sites: Blue fish point, Blue fish wall, and Old man's hat (this is close to Bondi beach and was the only time we saw Bondi). For those waiting for the "why should I dive Sydney" well on our second dive we saw 4 weedy sea dragons (part of the seahorse family) Weedy sea dragon. I will try to describe one of our dives as it was very special. We went on what is called a dusk dive (just before night falls), this is the time when the day creatures hide for the night and when the night predators come out to feed. After seeing several Wobbegong sharks, giant cuttlefish and lot's of nudibranch, it was when we surfaced we got a surprise. It was like something out of a Star Wars film, Sydney was floating in the clouds, on the one side were dark black clouds with lighting flashing, on the other side the sun was shining with mountainous white cotton balls of clouds and then there was Sydney in the middle floating in the clouds with a golden hue. Amazing is all we could say, so what else did we see; Wobbegong sharks, giant cuttlefish, grey nurse sharks, sail catfish and a lot of nudibranch.
Another event was happening in Sydney that was a must-see, The Gay Mardi Gras, we've seen shows about this event and thought we would go have look and see what it was all about. It took some time but then we found a good spot in the centre of the action so we could see the whole parade. Things started slowly with a few drag queens and leather men and women that were not in the parade walking, soon there were people handing out whistles and condoms to one and all. They started with master of ceremony's followed by the famous Dykes On Bikes, what a show, people were going wild with the whistles and applause. Then came various floats and marching bands, dance routines, fancy dress and more (even a float with caged bondage people). This was a parade for people of every age group and many different nationalities. When we left the parade was over but the party carried on to the next day, for us it was more like trying to find a way back to Manly.
Some days later we were off to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney where we joined a tour to explore the natural beauty of this wild and rugged area. As soon as we came to the first view point we caught our first glimpse of the beautiful mountains and valleys that stretch on for kilometers, the fantastic colours and sounds and even a glimpse of the birds and animals. We drove for miles through long valleys and on the tops of mountains, also driving through many small towns and villages, where we had lunch before moving on.
At one point we came to a old mine where we took a gondola to the bottom of the valley where we walked in a almost tropical forest area, that was very pretty and green. The trip going up was lot's of fun, we jumped in an old mining car and were sent speeding to the top, they were a few screams to be heard but it was good fun. On the way back we stopped in a park were we lay in the grass watching the wallabies and kangaroos as the came out to eat, while the birds screeched in the tree tops. Now for the bad news! When we arrived back in Sydney we found out that if we hurried we could catch the ferry and not have to wait half an hour, so we ran, the bad thing was that the camera was still laying between us on the bus and neither of us noticed the camera was still laying there as we ran out. Shit!! When we got off the ferry we found a pay phone and called the tour company and they said they had found it but we were leaving for Singapore early in the morning. We tried everything but nothing seemed to work, we even asked them to just send the film to us, no joy there either, so no camera and no pictures from the gay parade. The good news was that it was time to buy a digital camera with a underwater case, a Canon IXUS 2, and Singapore is great for shopping !!
In Singapore we once again stayed at the New 7th Story, then it was time to shop, we headed to Lucky Plaza where there was really good deals on electronics. We did not stay long in Singapore but we did head out to Sentosa Island to do some swimming and just relaxing, we also had dinner and drinks with a friend of Jorunn's before we headed off again.
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