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Maria Island, Tasmania

I had wanted to do this tour but it was not available the days I was in Hobart. As I would be traveling to Coles Bay up the East coast of Tasmania I did not realize it was directly on the way. I met a new friend Beth on the Bruny Island tour and we decided to roam the island together. I had a car and an accommodation but much further than the island. We set out early to be on the first ferry.

You can camp in the islands or just visit. There are no cars on the island.

You know the day will be great when you see a wombat right away… And Cape Barron geese.

Painted Cliffs

We made our way down the trail to Painted Cliffs. Since it was already low tide it was the perfect time. In high tide it is inaccessible. These variations are caused by ground water moving through the sandstone and leaving behind iron oxides which stain the rocks.

Mussels, other mollusks, and a brown algae called Neptune’s necklace.

The purple blobs are sea anemones. During low tide, the retract their spines.

Darlington

The little area that had outbuildings about the history.

Reservoir circuit

On the way to the reservoir we saw many wildlife.

A wallaby resting to the right of the tree.

Bishop and Clerk trail

This trail climbed towards a slope and had the most spectacular views.

Fossil Cliffs

When there were inland seas, many organisms like mollusks were abundant. The fossils are evident in the rocks. Those was when Australia’s broke away from Pangaea as a land mass known as Gondwana.

More wildlife

The 12 apostles which were buildings now in ruins. The wombats love it here.

At the port waiting for the ferry to go to the bed and breakfast I am staying in Swansea.

Wagner’s cottages in Swansea is beautiful. We picked up a scallop pie for dinner.

This is by far one of my favourite trips.

Bruny Island, Tasmania

I took a small day tour to Bruny Island to see the sites and sample some food. It was by far the best tour I’ve done. It is with Tassie Tours and the tour guide was fun and really worked at getting everyone talking amongst themselves and playing nationality games. The one Frenchman onboard was the designated DJ. Fun!

It is only accessible by ferry and we waited our turn to drive into the ferry.

On the island we stopped to get a good view of the scenery. Beautiful!

Our first food so was Get Shucked, an Oyster bar. They have their own Oyster catch across the road so these are as fresh as can be. Literally just from the sea.

These are the freshest I’ve ever tasted.

Next was a cheese shop.

Next we stopped at the neck. It is a tiny step of land that connects the South part of the island to the North. It is not much wider than the highway. Here is a penguin nesting ground.

The last original aborigine on the island.

Next was a berry farm. They make homemade ice cream!

We took a bush walk and found some wallabies!

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had amazing views. I ate smoked salmon roll which is the freshest and lightest I’ve tasted. The cascade beer has no preservatives and is so clear. It is bottled here in Tasmania.

At a beach we stopped at. Beautiful. The water was cool but that day the air was chilly. This water comes straight up from Antarctica. A couple people swam but I decided not to.

On the way to the lighthouse. You can see it at the top of the peak on the right.

Bruny lighthouse.

Walking down to the beach from the lighthouse. Graves of two of the 14 children one lighthouse keeper had. Yes there was not much to do here as it is isolated.

Hobart, Tasmania

Hobart has a small airport with fun art!

This island is beautiful. I did not have many hours after arriving to look around but made the most of my time walking down Elizabeth St. to the wharf to find food.

Down at Salamanca markets there is usually a large farm market on Saturdays but it just closed. Instead I bought Weetbix for breakfast.

This artist wanted to explore the connection between man and animal. What it did was spark a great conversation with a few other women standing around. The consensus: we didn’t like it.

On the way to eat at Fish Frenzy, I saw this cool party bus.

At Fish Frenzy, I ate lightly breaded and fried fish.

I took a different route on the way back and stumbled on war memorials with a clever bridge over a highway.

Last night walk, Sydney

I went through the Queen Victoria building as I just happened by it again. I’m glad I didn’t miss time looking around. It is a beautiful building on the outside…

And on the inside…

A camelbak store. It may be the only one that exists in the world!

A close up of the clock that was commissioned by Queen Victoria and made in England. There are 3D scenes in the clock, shows time in different places and parts rotate.

The ship at the bottom moves around the base.

I walked down to the harbour one last time. (I still may run there tomorrow.)

At the entrance to the Royal Botanical Garden.

I took a different way home and stumbled on the Sydney museum. It is built on the site of the first government house. I never made it there. I could have scheduled it but had other things first, and of course I needed to spend hours each day teaching online. Regardless, no matter how much time you have you cannot see everything and must learn to be content with that fact.

I did have a little time to go back to thee museum before checking out but not enough to time to tour all.

Bondi to Bronte beach coastal walk

After a morning of work for online learning, I headed to Bondi beach. It is a train/bus ride to the outskirts of Sydney. I finally linked my cards to Google pay ( a luddite I know but we don’t use cards in China). This allowed me to pay directly on the bus or train.

I took a train to Bondi junction and then the 333 bus to the beach. They packed as many people on the bus as they could including squished in the aisles – it is a popular place to go. It could be like a bus in some countries except no fast turns on curves overlooking cliffs or live chickens on board!

Once at Bondi, I went down to the beach. The waves are large as there is a big storm of the coast. The water was also cold.

I walked along the edge to get my feet wet then perused the shops of the town.

I walked along the coastal path. Such beautiful views the whole way!

Mackenzie’s Beach

Tamarama Beach

Bronte Beach

In the path up the hill, headlines from past newspapers were painted on the sidewalk. They were very interesting and included the year it appeared.

I also walked through a nature reserve area after Bronte which is a coastal swamp with many small shrubs and species of frogs.

I reached the end (or maybe this was supposed to be the beginning?)

A skywriter made this heart in the air. I thought it was for Valentine’s Day (which is today) but it had a web address after so must have been a stunt. It did get a lot of attention.

I walked back to Bronte beach. This worked out perfectly as that beach has a different bus stop there. The 379 is a pretty short distance and also is very light in passengers. It goes back to Bondi junction.

Manly Beach

Manly is across the harbour from the rest of Sydney and the easy way to get there is a ferry. You can get an opal card where the maximum you are charged in a day is about $18 but I have had no luck with stores that have the card but the machine would not add the funds to it. I decided to not worry about the opal card and just buy the fast pass ticket from a kiosk for a couple dollars more. You can find the kiosk near wharf 3.

The difference? Less people on this ferry (I’m escaping the coronavirus, remember?) and it takes about half the time (20 min) as there is no other stop.

I made it to Manly and the first thing I saw was this candy station. I had been eyeing sour candy and licorice for awhile and I broke down and bought some.

The signs of where to go include sunrise, sunset, and WiFi. They must be tired of being asked those questions!

I started walking along the boardwalk and the coastal trail when it started raining again. A good steady hard rain. I walked for awhile.

This beach is known for the little penguins that stand about 30 cm tall. There numbers have really dwindled and they have many signs around to protect them (no loose dogs, etc.) I didn’t see any but I really looked.

The views were beautiful regardless!

I then decided to stay dry by walking along the shopping area. Since I’m gone for so long with limited clothes, I bought a no sleeve shift dress and a nice tank top.

And of course there was a gelato place in the middle of the wharf. They had Weetbix, honey, and banana. Weetbix is a cereal like shredded wheat but with some pressed flakes in it as well. It is very good.

I enjoyed it in the way back to Sydney harbour. Yum!

Botanic Gardens and Darling Harbour via running

I actually learn my way around more by running instead of walking. Maybe I’m more focused because I have to make faster decisions or I use my intuition more as I don’t run with my phone in my hand. (People who know me know that I do not have much of a sense of direction.)

One morning I specifically ran to the Royal Botanical Garden. I can memorize a few turns and names to get there. This area is huge and contains thousands of species from all over the world. It is close to the farm area that the settlers once used.

You can access it from beside the Sydney Opera House as well as many other points and it runs along the harbour.

Yes, the problem here is that I stopped often to take pictures so instead of a 5k I ran 9k instead. I also found many of the sites up close I learned about on the harbour cruise.

Mrs. Macquarie’s chair that the military cut into the rocks so she could sit and pine away for England.

A Huntsman spider. These guys get huge and they bite. It hurts but is not venomous.

Another day I ran to Darling Harbour. To get there I passed through Chinatown. I continued along the harbour there to connect to the street my apartment is on.

Now to do more online work!

Free Tour of Sydney

Even though I took the harbour cruise tour I heard of a free tour not far from my hotel from one of the people I met on the Blue Mountain tour.

We started at what used to be the Town hall. Before then it was a graveyard with shallow graves. When the smell was too much the bodies were reburied.

Queen Victoria building or also known as QVB. The statue was originally from Ireland and given to Australia after Ireland had quite the spat with England. This building was a marketplace area 200 years ago before the building.

They have clocks at both ends that have English history on them at each hour including beheading of king Charles I at one of the clock strokes.

Chinese New year display fur the year of the rat

Pitt St. Mall shopping and food area. From here you can gain entrance to the clock tower.

This area used to be a sports center in the past. I keep hearing the comment that they hate bin chickens, which are really the Ibis. This is Hyde’s park and St. Mary’s cathedral.

Archibald fountain shows Australia’s friendship with France. The artist used Greek statues – maybe because the gardens in Versailles features them?

Sydney tower and the golden bucket. This is a water tank which is a counter balance against toppling because of the wind.

The original hospital and other sections were added on. He wanted England to pay for hospital but he was denied. He found people to sell rum to Australia exclusively if they built the hospital. Called the Rum hospital. However, sections were not built well and collapsed. Hospital was added on to over the years.

Macquarie’s statue. He was the first governor.

Pig statue. You donate money to the hospital and rub his nose for good luck. His nose has been rubbed quite a bit as well as another part of his anatomy!

Part of the hospital and also the New South Wales parliament House

Above the bank is the Australia coat of arms. They are chosen because both animals cannot move backwards and so Australia just keeps moving forward. They are the only country to eat the meat of their beloved national animals.

The General post office. The clock tower was taken down in 1942 as they thought it would be bombed.

Some Street art near on Angel place. There are 50 bird cages to represent the 50 bird species who are no longer here. Bricks on the ground have their names engraved and speakers play the bird’s sounds. If you go there at different times of the day the sounds change.

Sydney square where Obar is. This bar has a wonderful view of the city without the cost of the tower. This cool Statue sits in the square.

The Customs house which is now a library. In the floor is a mini Sydney city. It is the size of the lobby and really cool.

The symbol below is not a Nazi symbol. It is inside the entrance of the customs house. It has been prevalent in European and Mediterranean areas as a sign of peace and prosperity. It is a counter clockwise symbol whereas the Nazis symbol is clockwise.

Afterwards I walked to the Sydney Observatory and the South dome.

At the top is a ball that is used to indicate time for ships in the harbour.

This pendulum clock keeps accurate time for astronomers.

The use of following the path of Venus in the sky allowed many discoveries including Australia by Cook.

Afterwards I walked across the harbour bridge.

And back again…. Down to Walsh bay. There are beautiful buildings down here.

I was pretty hungry and intrigued about the cost of arms pizza you can buy at just one place. It is half emu and half kangaroo. I thought why not as I would not be anywhere to try this again. It is made at the Australian Hotel in the Rocks. To find it was a little walk in and among the cut rocks of the area.

The emu pay is on the top of the pizza, kangaroo is the bottom portion of the photo.

That night I went to see the opera Carmen at the Sydney Opera House.

The lines of the inside of the building are slanted as well and had interesting lines.

Blue mountains

I booked a tour with Wildlife Tours to the outside of Sydney to the Blue Mountains. They have eucalyptus trees there and the oils that evaporate of the surface of the leaves reflect the light and make a blue haze as you look at them.

We stopped at a few places along the way, stopping at a water fall, and taking a few bush walks through the area. The smell of eucalyptus in the air was fantastic.

Jamison lookout

From here we walked around to get to the other cliff where the water fall is located. It was a great bush walk.

During the bush walk we found a funnel web spider hole. This is the 3rd most venomous spider in the world. And… the venom can kill quickly.

Boars Head lookout and Cahill lookout.

We stopped here to see how far the Australian fires came to Sydney. This was the worst year on record for the amount of bush fires and animal lives lost. You can see the scorch marks on the rocks and areas of trees that are browner than others. Since they have had rain the last week, it is really starting to green up quickly in the area.

This Rock formation looks like a Boar’s head.

From here you can see the areas that burnt.

Three sisters rocks.

An Aboriginal tale of the Dreamtime talks of a medicine man who took his 3 daughters looking for herbs. He put them on the cliff to keep them safe but they kicked rocks to the valley below which angered a monster who raced up the cliff. To protect them, the father turned them into stone. The monster chased the medicine man around the opposite cliff carving a valley at the base. Tired, the medicine man turned himself into a bird.

At this point we had 3 options: go to the pub near 3 sisters and wait, go to the pub but take a short walk and touch the closest of the 3 sisters, or walk the rim of the canyon. I chose the latter.

Almost to the pub it started pouring and we had to be sprint. As it was not clearing soon we did not see the sunset, but it was a great day!

Sydney Harbour Cruise

Brief history:

Australia was found by James Cook who did not find any formal structures here and determined it uninhabited. Of course it wasn’t.

It was another 18 years before Australia was used as a penal colony as jails in England were overpopulated due to a poor economy, the US had won its independence and people were sent here to live. There were 750 inmates and 750 people with skills to start the new colony.

They arrived where the airport currently is in Botany bay but the lack of fresh water and ground to plant cross had them look elsewhere. Then Sydney Harbour was founded which had more land to grow crops and fresh water.

I walked from my hotel to circular quay (pronounced key).

There is a great set of ornate fountains outside of the wharf. This commemorates the storage tanks for water carved in stone.

I walked around while I waited for the tour to get underway. Near the wharf is the museum of contemporary art.

The oldest house in Sydney in Campbell’s Cove. The Rocks is near here where the first settlement was created.

The lunar New year celebration just finished the day before. All the animals of the Chinese zodiac are on display here.

The opera House and Sydney Harbour bridge from the cruise.

This is in the Royal Gardens. It advertises plants with bite carnivorous plants.

Mrs. Macquarie’s rock. Her husband had steps and a seat carved out for her. She used to crochet/knit and yearn for England. He was the first governor.

Garden Island military base in wallabaloo which meand Little kangaroo. They originally planned cross here with seeds they brought from Europe but all the crops died of course.

This is Shark island which is named because of its general shape.

On the military base is a heritage House.

This area is Point Piper. The white house is rented by Oprah Winfrey for 40k a week. The salmon committed one on the right is owned by universal studios.

There are only a few beaches here along Sydney harbour. This one is particularly busy usually… But it is a Monday… School is back in session because summer is over.