Saturday 17 October 2009

The Entrance & pelican feeding


A small beach behind our campsite. There were a few surfers out and an amazing display of humpback whales breaching in the background. (again they were too far out to get a photo)



About 50 Pelican arrived for the feeding which has been going on now for nearly 30years. It was started by a local fish and chip shop owner, but now it's a tourist attraction. The birds get fed at 3:30pm everyday.


The smell was quite overpowering though....and I had a cold.


These birds were massive!!


Regularly the pelicans would jump up onto the first step, and when they did their wings would come out to balance them. So a lot of the front row would have a wing in the eye throughout the feeding.

Seal Rocks and Sugarloaf Point





Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse with Seal Rock


Hannah wishing the romance of being a lighthouse keeper would be bestowed on her.


It was steep I tell you...


There was a trolley to the left of the picture which was used to pull up equipment to the lighthouse. I was half hoping Hannah would pull me up, but she made me walk.


Someone had been busy with a marker pen.
Seal Rocks. Originally they wanted to put the lighthouse on the furthest rock out to the left of the picture, but when they came round to looking at the small outcrop they couldn't make a landing with their boat even on a calm day so they scraped that idea.


Lighthouse Beach. Back in 1992, 47 False Killer Whales became beached on this beach. They were transported overland to Boat Beach (below) and 39 were successfully released two day later.


On the track from the car park to the lighthouse there were stunning views of two inlets which gushed with water, as the waves were funneled in.


Boat Beach. This is the view as we ate breakfast after the thunder storm.


Arrived at Seal Rock Camping Reserve in sunshine, however three hours passed and then a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in!!! It rained and rained, probably the heaviest rain I have ever experienced. Not a huge amount of thunder but none stop lightning, fork and sheet. Han and I turned off the lights in the van and watched it for ages

Tamarama & Bronte Beaches


View over the swimming pool at Bronte Beach at the rough sea. The fella swimming was like a machine, back forth, back forth. He made me feel so so sooooooo unfit! The pool is actually filled with the water from the waves not the tide.


There wasn't one surfer out at the beach, however there were some at Bondi, which is a little more sheltered.


Me in a customary raincoat, a must for Sydney. Well I haven't seen Sydney in the sunshine much.


Bronte Beach


Tamarama Beach, this is Adrian's surf beach but it was a little too rough to surf this day.


The sign which greeted us as we both ran towards the warm sea in our speedos! Chucks...


Tamarama Beach from the road down from Adrian's apartment.

Friday 16 October 2009

Sydney Fish Market and The Gap National Park


Guess what these mud crabs were saying when Hannah took this photo!?


Hannah wearing Lobster


I have never seen so many fish in such a small area ever!!! It was total madness!!


They LOVE fish down at the Sydney Fish Markets!


One of the indoor areas to the fish market. Grace and I had sushi, Hannah had Dim Sim, and Adrian had fried squid and octopus. The seagull are right buggers just like home. Grace has the prawn taken straight off her sushi while she was eating it.


Adrian and Grace.


A view of the harbour from the hill overlooking Watsons Bay.


Sydney Harbour National Park, on the northern side of Sydney Harbour entrance, with Manly to the left.


A good old holiday snap :)


The Gap, part of Sydney Harbour National Park


Smiling because the sun finally came out!!! Just rained while we were in Sydney.


The headlands either side of the entrance to Sydney Harbour

Sydney


I let Hannah drive the 'red car' around Sydney and this is how she brought it back to me!!


...........and Hannah is in this weird place :)


..........and we are here.


You are here.............


We popped into a pub on our way back to the station. It was called "The Heroes of Waterloo". I was the first pub I have been to in Australia. Usually they are bars or hotels.





The Opera House - everytime we walked towards it, it started to tip it down so we stayed away and took photos from a distance.


Sydney Harbour Bridge - there was a break in the rain when we took this photo.


Hannah enjoying the sofa in Adrian's and Grace's apartment. It was well nice :) Thank you to Adrian and Grace for allowing us to stay for 3 days, and feeding us :)


The view from Adrian's sun room, where me and Han were sleeping. Tamarama Beach and Bronte Beach are closest to his apartment (3min walk) while Bondi is about 7min walk to the left of this photo.


On our way to Adrian's and Grace's apartment we stopped off for a bite to eat at the Westfield Shopping Centre, Bondi Junction. This is the view from our table. Oh yeah thought I would say that Oz is roughly the same price as England when it comes to food and services, however eating out is really really cheap. 2 gourmet pizza, coke, and two bottles of beer - £18. It would be at least £35 at home.


Crikey we are in Sydney!!! This ship is also known as the Sea Shepard. It travels around the southern ocean picking up illegal drift nets, chasing whale hunting ships and other greenpeace sort of stuff. I probably haven't done it justice really. Google it :)