The weather in Sydney was very variable, with short rain showers sweeping across the city. It was pleasantly warm, at about 24° C and on the first day we enjoyed a stroll through the Botanical Gardens where we saw an avenue of large fig trees with buttressing roots. They're not figs of the edible type you can grow in the UK or buy in the shops, but most attractive to look at and various animals like to eat them.
Further on we saw a cluster of birds rooting around where people were feeding them. The straw-necked ibis were common, not just in Sydney, but wherever we went, along with various parrots and sulphur-crested cockatoos. I didn't get good shots of many of the birds, and the few I did get were in Melbourne. The seagulls and European starlings are ubiquitous.
As we approached the shop and restaurant at the centre of the Botanical Gardens, intent on lunch, we heard and saw hundreds of flying foxes roosting in many of the trees. They were pretty noisy, and a few flew around intermittently, but sadly never close enough for me to get a decent picture. On another occasion it had rained not long before we walked through the gardens, and it was pretty smelly, too!
There were quite a few spiders with vast webs throughout the gardens, many living quite close to each other. I doubt they're particularly friendly towards each other, but imagine their webs don't actually come into contact. These were by no means the biggest we saw! They got bigger as we travelled further north, with the Queensland ones being the most impressive. I get the impression the bigger they are, the less poisonous, so these yellow-kneed spiders are not desperataly dangerous, though they could probably give you a nasty bite.
We went to the Sydney Opera House to collect tickets to a ballet which I'd ordered online months previously, and took the opportunity to take the obligatory bridge and Opera House photos. Sadly, the weather wasn't brilliant, so it all looks rather English. We weren't complaining, however, as it was a good deal warmer than at home in the UK and felt decidedly summery to us, although you can see from Jen's hair that it was quite windy!
The ballet I'd bought tickets for was Don Quixote, choreographed by Nureyev in the '60s, with excellent costumes and scenery. It's an exciting, comic ballet, and the Australian Ballet put on a thrilling performance which was a delight to watch.
We took a boat trip around the bay to get a look at more of the place, but in the end I didn't take too many more photos. We had decided to go on round to Darling Harbour to visit the aquarium and wildlife centre, so when the boat called in at Circular Quay, where we'd embarked, we sat tight. A bunch of Americans all got up and hovered around, but didn't actually get off the boat, even though the gangplank had been put in place only feet from where they were standing. Then they got in a panic when the crew cast off and we continued on our way. They were all there and ready to get off; why didn't they actually do so? Beats me. Anyway, they had to catch a bus from Darling Harbour back to their hotel.
Wandering around near The Rocks, we came across a series of bronze fountains in a square. First there was some confusion between Jenny and me about who would actually take the photos, then as she passed the camera to me the wrist strap somehow caught on something, jerking the camera out of both our hands. When I picked it up and took it out of its leather wallet, I found the case had sprung open and of course, it wouldn't work. I managed to spring it closed again, and all was well, but it did misbehave itself on several occasions, with strange messages and requests to switch off and on again.
In an opal shop, looking for loose opals to take back home, we saw this opalised fossil plesiosaur skeleton, in which the skeleton has been largely replaced by low-grade opal. It's not unknown for fossils to be opalised like this, and the shop also had various other animal bones and teeth on display.
<<< MOVIE We visited the new Wildlife Centre in Darling Harbour next to the aquarium. It was really rather good, with a lot of thought put into the displays. I didn't take too many photos, but was pleased with this short movie of the platypus, which was clearly visible, and doing its stuff properly. We reckon the keepers plant fragments of food in regular spots where the beast can be seen by the public.
<<< STILLS I apologise for the music that accompanies the shark movie. It's easy to forget the camera has a microphone as well! The lungfish was rather less cooperative than the platypus, unfortunately. We noted that whereas the platypus had lots of info displayed for people to read, the lungfish had more or less nothing, yet it's at least as important an animal. The staff we mentioned this to seemed bemused, as if unable to grasp the significance of our point. We gave up. The red, yellow and blue thing on the far left is a sea cucumber. I've never seen one such bright colours before!
Jean and Greg Joss, who Jenny knew from her work, kindly took us into the Blue Mountains on Good Friday. We'd wanted to do this trip since booking up to come to Sydney, and were looking forward to it, but sadly, the cloud was really low, and most of the views were obscured by mist. We still had a very good time, and the canyons certainly are spectacular, but it would have been better with a bit of sunshine. Some people seem to feel the need to climb up and down vertical cliffs, as you can see from the third photo, but I think I'll just let them get on with it!