Sydney, Saturday, Oct. 24

Sydney

We got up at ten after five a.m. to watch the sail-in to Sydney Harbor. It is said to be one of the prettiest in the world. That is true because of the Opera House and the bridge providing a focal point.

We had to change cabins because this cruise is over and the next one is starting. We moved from an aft cabin to a forward one. We had washed clothes and packed yesterday, so all we had to do was roll the suitcases down the hall and an elevator. We could have waited for the movers to come do it, but there wasn't a specified time for that to happen so we did it ourselves so we could get to our tour on time.

When the tour was called, we went out and got onto a very nice bus for the tour to the Blue Mountains. The guide was a Brit about 70 yr old who had moved to Austraila about 20 years ago. He has been a professional tour guide almost all his life. He makes a business of leading international tours and does these bus trips as fill in work.

As a tour guide he is as good as we have ever had. He covered history, sociology, poltics, immigration, geology, botany, zoology and economics as well as the sights, all in a very interesting and entertaining way.

The bus took a wandering path through Sydney - I tracked it on my GPS – showing us the sights and different parts of the city while slowly making its way out to the west. About forty miles west of Sydney is an abrupt scarp line where the land raises up about 2,500 feet. These are the Blue Mountains. They are called that for the same reason that the Blue Ridge is called that: dust particles pick up a microscopic layer of water and also a little bit of oil (eucalyptus oil in Australia, pile turpenes in the US) which causes the haze to be a blue color rather than just a cloudy white haze.

We stoped at Echo Point for a great view. It is not immense and spectacular like the Grand Canyon, but it is quite nice. The “layer cake” rock formations remind me of southwest Colorado – Mesa Verde with more trees.

Then we took a tram ride down into the canyon. It was a ride worthy of Disneyland, almost straight down. Then a walk through the forest seeing coal mine exhibits (coal layers are part of the layer cake structure) and more views and the botany of the forest. The guide says that Australia has unlimited coal reserves and that export of coal to China is a mainstay of the economy.

We rode the gondola back up to the rim and had lunch. Lunch was served in a rotating restaurant with nice views. It was an unremarkable buffet except for one thing: it included kangaroo as one of the choices. Of course, I ate the kangaroo. It tasted like venison or a mild flavored mutton to me. Others said it was like beef. Nobody said it tasted like chicken.

On the way back to Sydney we went to Featherdale, a sort of petting zoo with native animals and birds. We petted the kangaroos, koalas, and emus. We saw a Tasmanian Devil, wombats, dingos, parrots, cranes, penguins and many other exotic Australian creatures.

Coming back into Sydney the guide detouted so we could go over the Harbor Bridge and see the ship and Opera House from there. They couldn't stop or even slow down, so no pictures from there. Nice view though.

There is a statue of Captain Bligh at the dock. He was the fourth governor of Australia and they think well of him. There is another side of the Mutiny on the Bounty story that we don't often hear: many of Bligh's sailors had been to Tahiti before and had wives and children there. They took the trip on the Bounty from England to get back to Tahiti with no intention of ever going back to England. When Bligh forced them to go, they rebelled. That, rather than Bligh's excessive discipline, was the real cause of the mutiny.

When we arrived back at the ship just before sundown on Saturday, we found several weddings going on. Some were taking place around the very nice dockside area and at least one was on a balcony overlooking the harbor. Having the Sydney Opera House as a background in your wedding pictures must be nice. The Jacaranda trees were in bloom, too. These are a lovely blue color.

Since we were too late getting back from our tour to have dinner in the dinning room, we got a hamburger at the grill and ate on deck overlooking the Opera House while we enjoyed the sunset. It was a lovely end to a fun day. The movie on TV was Australia.