Sydney, a Wildlife Park, and the Blue Mountains

On Saturday, we met up with Ageless Adventures as we had our first activity together as a group. We all boarded a bus for a fun day of touring in and around the Sydney area. Our tour guide for the day was Andrew who is from Moscow, but now lives in Australia. The leaders of the Ageless Adventures group are Jacque and Kent Lederman from Atlanta. There are 34 people in our group. We had an opportunity to meet some of the people in the group at breakfast. Most of the conversations when I encountered someone from the group started with "Are you Richard's sister?" Most of them know my brother as he has traveled with the group before, but we are new to the group and looking forward to the upcoming adventures.

When we boarded the bus and took our seats, we were told we had to wear our seat belts on the bus. The police will occasionally stop a bus and check to see if everyone has their seat belts on. Australia was the second country to implement the use of seat belts on buses. They're really big on safety in Australia, not a bad thing. Also, Australia was the first country to make it compulsory to wear seat belts in the front and the back seats of the car. We discovered this on our Uber trips in Australia. Many times the Uber driver wouldn't go until we clicked in when sitting in the back seat. Also the cars would buzz until the people in the back seats were strapped in. 

A few things about Australia that our tour guide Andrew shared with us: There are lots of eucalyptus trees in Australia, known colloquially as gum trees. The unique thing about gum trees is that they shed their bark and not their leaves. Australia is almost the same size geographically as the continental US, but the population of Australia is only 27 million. Of these, 95% live within 50 miles of the coast, as most of Australia's large cities are located on or near the coast. Andrew described Australia as a quiet, peaceful country with a low crime rate, but very expensive. Andrew told us a story about when police stop people for sobriety checks. They ask you how long since you've had your last drink. If it was a relatively short time ago, they will wait, since your alcohol level will continue to rise for maybe a half hour or so. Then they will test you again. If you test above the limit on the re-test, they will arrest you. 

Andrew mentioned a few other obvious things about Australia. They use the metric system here; according to Andrew, it's easier. Also he mentioned the driving on the left side of the road. He also shared some interesting facts regarding driving on the left or right. He said that in 1967 Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right, and it was very confusing. There were lots of accidents for a few years until everyone got used to it. Also he said that in China people drive on the right and in neighboring Hong Kong they drive on the left, so everyone has to switch at the border. It's confusing enough driving on the left (when you're used to driving on the right). I can't imagine switching to the other side like Sweden did, or having to switch when crossing a border.

Andrew told us about Australia Day, which is tomorrow - Jan. 26. Australia Day is a national public holiday. It celebrates the founding of Australia as it commemorates the landing of the first group of settlers from Great Britain. It is not without controversy, as the Aborigines don't consider this to be the founding of Australia since they were already living here. That means that this weekend that we are here is a three day holiday weekend. Everyone is out and about and there are lots of Australian day activities planned for tomorrow.

Some interesting facts about Sydney that we learned: Sydney is the capital of the Australian state of New South Wales and is the second most populous city in Australia after Melbourne. It's nicknames are the Emerald City and the Harbor City. Of Australia's multi-millionaires, 65% live in Sydney. There are 100 sandy beaches in Sydney. There are no crocodiles because the water is too cold. Sydney has a subtropical climate and crocodiles apparently need a tropical climate. According to Andrew, Sydney has the largest fish market in the world. 

One other comment from Andrew before I start with today's tour: Andrew told us about another group of senior citizens that he took on a tour. He said they all wore matching t-shirts, and the t-shirts said "Adventure before Dementia".

Our tour started with a drive by the Botanical Gardens, as our hotel is located directly across the street from the gardens. According to Andrew, there is a flower that blooms in the Botanical Gardens here in Sydney that Andrew claims is the largest bloom in the world. He said it blooms once every 50 years and it bloomed yesterday. People waited in line for over an hour to get a look at the large bloom. The reason I say "Andrew claims" is because Andrew made a number of claims on this trip, and some of them just can't be true. Even the bus driver challenged some of his claims. The claims are usually about Australia having the largest, oldest, first, etc. More about that later.

Some of the sights we passed by in Sydney were the Opera House, the famous Harbor Bridge, the beautiful Harbor area, the library, mint, hospital, marina, the Art Gallery and Art Museum, Hyde Park, and St. Mary's Cathedral, which according to Andrew has one of the largest organs in the world, and the largest in Australia. We also passed by a home that Andrew said belongs to Russell Crowe (the American actor) and apparently he is trying to sell the home for an asking price of $22 million.

We stopped at an overlook to take pictures of the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and some views of the city from a vantage point across the harbor. 

We also took a group picture. Joe is not in the picture, because he had wandered off to take photos.

We stopped at a scenic overlook called Gap Park, where a prominent rock promontory juts out into the water. The rock formation is nicknamed Suicide Rock because there are an unbelievable number of suicides that take place here, where people jump off the rock. There are signs at the park with phone numbers to call for help, and signs that try to dissuade people from jumping. 

We passed by a cemetery that was located next to a retirement village. Ironic. Those residents don't have far to go when their time comes. But they pay a high price for their proximity to their final resting place as the retirement village homes costs $600,000.

We made a stop at the famous Bondi Beach. According to Andrew, in 1907 Bondi Beach started using lifeguards and were the first in the world to do so, but only used them for surfers. In 1912, the Australian government outlawed daytime swimming because they thought it was unseemly. Bondi Beach has one of those ocean salt water swimming pools that I had mentioned in an earlier post. Also, Andrew told us about a former Prime Minister of Australia (didn't catch the name) who served for one year and then was eaten by a shark. 

We passed by the cruise terminal where we will be heading on Monday to board our cruise ship. We also traveled through a tunnel that was 14 km (8.7 miles) long. 

Our first stop after our tour of  Sydney was at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This park is similar to a zoo, but mostly with native Australian species on display. There were kangaroos, koalas, tasmanian devils, dingos, emus, cassowary birds, wombats, wallabies, echidnas, crocodiles, as well as a number of Australian birds such as lorikeets and cockatoos. We spent about an hour walking around the wildlife park taking pictures and enjoying the unusual animals.

Australian Pelicans

 Sleepy Koala Bear

Wombat

Tasmanian Devil

Crocodile

Lazy Kangaroos

Echidna

Dangerous Cassowary

Lorikeets

Beautiful Lorikeets

After leaving the wildlife park, we drove to the Blue Mountains. They are called the Blue Mountains because they tend to take on a blue tinge when viewed from a distance. The Blue Mountains consist of a range of mountains and plateau escarpments with very rocky outcrops and eucalyptus forests. The most famous of the attractions is The Three Sisters, a formation of triple sandstone peaks which stand out due to erosion of rocks around them. When we visited Australia 11 years ago, we had come to the Blue Mountains and saw The Three Sisters. At that time, I gave them names, which I will repeat, because as far as I'm concerned, they continue to bear the same names: Rachel, Sarah, and Becca! 

The Three Sisters

We rode a gondola down to the bottom and walked along a forested path. 

Then we took a steep incline train back up. This is supposedly the steepest incline in the world. 

After that, we rode a cable car from the top of one mountain to another, viewing more of the fantastic mountainous rock scenery, a waterfall, and the famous Three Sisters formation.

Cable car that we rode

After leaving the Blue Mountains we headed back to Sydney. Now would be a good time for me to share some of the claims that Andrew made that we think are suspect.

Claim number one: Sydney is the 6th largest city in the world by area. 

Claim number two: Seat belts in cars were invented in Australia.

Claim number three: Wifi was invented by a Sydney company.

Claim number four: Ultrasound technology was invented in a Sydney hospital.

Claim number five: The wet suit was invented in Bondi Beach.

After these claims made by Andrew, it makes me wonder if some of the other claims he made were true, like the largest blooming flower in the world in the Botanical Gardens. Andrew was a really nice guy and an excellent tour guide, but I think I'd have to say that he has a tendency to exaggerate, maybe just a little.

We had a great day seeing the sights of Sydney, viewing the native Australian animals at the Wildlife Park, and enjoying the awesome scenery of the Blue Mountains.