 |
| Bondi Beach |
If people know of only one Australian beach, it would be Bondi. Just a 20 minute drive from Sydney's CBD, it features often in movies, and in the summer is packed with swimmers, with many lifeguards monitoring the crowds. You might even luck out and see 'nippers' being trained -a junior lifeguard training program - which teaches water safety and builds surf confidence in the children who participate.
Beaches are central to Australia's national identity, providing a venue for family and community relaxation. Those emigrating here from Europe, found the beautiful and sandy beaches evoked freedom, and independence and provided an outlet for pleasure and a relaxed lifestyle.
As you see, Bondi is a sweeping, beautiful wide beach, in a cove contained by two rocky points.
 |
| Bondi Icebergs Club |
The Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club is located at the south end of he beach, along the rocky shore. It has been around since 1929 and is the only licensed swimming club in the world. The 'iceberg' name refers to the fact that their open air pool is open year round (it gets quite chilly in the winter) and every week the hardiest of swimmers take a dip here to impress others! (Could there be another reason to torture oneself in that way?) They even encourage children - called the 'icecubes' - to join them. (Cruel and unusual punishment in my book!)
 |
| The Iceberg's Ocean Pool |
As you see, their pool is fed by ocean water. I imagine it would be quite fun to have a wave crash over one in this way. Pools like this were built in the early 1900's at many coastal beaches in New South Wales, as a way of providing safer alternatives to unpatrolled beaches. Not only were there dangers from strong waves and rips, but sharks enjoy these coves as well. The sharks generally don't get in the pools! The link below provides a history of these surf pools, which includes explanations of how they contributed to integration of genders when it comes to bathing.
 |
| Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk |
The temperature was cool, and not being icebergs, Fran and I decided to sniff out the coastal walk around the rocky point to the south, the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk. As you see, it gets very rocky here - this is the sandstone that provides the sand for the beaches.
At the beginning, the walk was very crowded. It's 'standard' is to go the 6 km to Coogee to the south, but we were only planning to go to the next inlet, at Tamarama. Fortunately, as we ventured further from Bondi, the crowds thinned.
 |
| Fascinating Erosion Patterns |
Well, you know as soon as we turned the corner away from the beach and toward the rocky Mackenzie's Point Lookout, we started seeing these fabulous rocks. I was in seventh heaven! The colors, the smooth and rough textures - how one environment creates such different effects is hard to fathom.
 |
| Looking East |
The splash of color provided by the nasturtiums was also a feast for the eyes.
 |
| Little Pied Cormorant/Shag |
There were many birds flying around - seagulls, kookaburras laughing - and this little shag who was sitting below with his webbed feet gripping the rock securely.
 |
| Looking North Over to Ben Buckler Point |
From the lookout, were able to see whales breaching - most likely humpbacks. The peak season had passed, but the splash from their breaching and blowing was very recognizable. It was all very thrilling in the blustery wind.
 |
| Rocks at Tamarama |
Once we were arrived at Tamarama, we were not only greeted by a lovely, grassy municipal park, but also by even more fabulous erosion that revealed the colors of the oxidized sandstone. This, to me, looked like a huge shell.
 |
| Ignoring the Rules |
Before we left, Fran and I were bemused by this scene. The surf lifeguarding stand was immediately to the left. In spite of that and the sign clearly saying 'No Swimming', we saw this man gamboling in the water. Maybe he was a grown-up 'nipper' or 'icecube'!
 |
| Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook |
Following our visit to Bondi, we headed out of Sydney to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, only one and a half hours drive away. On the way we stopped at Glenbrook in the foothills of the Blue Mountains escarpment and visited the aboriginal rock art of this region. As you see, the complexity of the art we saw here was much simpler than what we had seen in the Top End of Australia. It consisted entirely of stenciled hands thought to have been created 500 to 1600 years ago.
Each handprint is unique, so it is thought to be a ceremonial cave used for initiation. Perhaps each one is documentation of each young warrior's 'graduation' and remains as a statement, saying 'I was here'.
 |
| Many, Many Tribes Here |
The tribes that lived in this area, and who might have made the hand prints were Gundugurra and Dharug. I know I've been throwing names at you that are very foreign to our (mostly) European ears. Most of the time when I see them printed, I don't know how to pronounce them, and when I hear them pronounced, I don't know how to spell them. The reason I'm showing you this map is to illustrate that there were many, many different groups of people here, who shared language, culture and skills to live on the ecosystem they inhabited - the all important 'Country'. Within those tribes there were also clans. It becomes most complicated! In our culture, we identify more with family, education levels, economic status and to some extent where we live (neighborhood), or even what sports teams we follow, or type of music we enjoy etc. However, we do not depend on the land we inhabit for our survival and our connection to it is not as much of a vital part of our identity as it is to Aboriginal people, even today. In modern cities, I think there are people who really don't understand the extent to which we depend on nature to underpin our essential needs.
 |
| Nepean Lookout |
This river led the early explorers, Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson into this region, as they tried to find a route across the mountains. As you might imagine, when they found rocky cliffs like this blocking their route, they abandoned following the rivers, and stuck to the ridges instead. This eventually led them to the fertile western plains, which I had flown over, when I first arrived on this trip.
 |
| Scribbly Gums in Our Backyard |
The place we stayed at, an AirBNB in Katoomba, had a deep backyard covered in these crooked gum trees - scribbly gums.
 |
| Scribbles From Insect Larvae |
They are called that, as you see, because they have scribbles all over their white bark, caused by the larvae of a moth. The darker vertical curlicues you see here are just remnant pieces of rolled up bark and I thought they made the tree much more interesting than just a bunch of scribbles.
 |
| Crimson Rosella |
I loved wandering down toward the creek at the bottom of the slope. It took me back my days when we lived on a somewhat similar block of land. I could have pretended I was young again as I made my way on a very light path through the undergrowth, but my knees kept reminding me otherwise! I was greatly thrilled to come across a couple of crimson rosellas flitting around the trees. Isn't he beautiful!
 |
| Katoomba Falls Night-Lit Walk |
Katoomba's Echo Point is a busy place, but by night time it quietens down as day trippers return to Sydney and sensible people are inside eating dinners in the warmth. Fran and I decided, however, to check out the Katoomba Falls Night-Lit walk, which is free and open until 11pm. As you see, it did not give us sweeping vistas, but the drama of the rocks was enhanced by the lighting. It was a good start and not at all crowded when we went after dinner.
 |
| Wentworth Falls Lookout |
Our first exposure to the spectacular daytime views from the escarpment of the Blue Mountains, was Wentworth Falls. It is hard to really convey the scope and beauty of the view with photos, so I thought perhaps a video might help.
View From Wentworth Falls Lookout
Many mountains are blue when seen from a distance due to normal haze, but here that effect is enhanced by a fine mist of eucalyptus oil droplets that scatter the blue end of the spectrum more effectively. The escarpments and gorges of this vast, 2.5 million acre Greater Blue Mountains Area, was given UNESCO World Heritage status in 2000 for its dramatic landscapes and rich biodiversity.
Although Wentworth Falls offers many wonderful walks, our limited time and my knees suggested that we would be better served moving on to other notable places here.
 |
| Panoramic of Perry's Lookdown, Blackheath |
So we headed west to Blackheath to see Perry's Lookdown, which offers a vast panorama of sandstone escarpment on the other side of Horden Gully. It was supposedly named after a local innkeeper and the ongoing face of rock opposite was stunning.
 |
| Waratah, NSW State Flower |
Also stunning was the splash of color provided by these waratah flowers at Perry's Lookdown. They are the state floral emblem of New South Wales and although I had often seen them depicted in images, had never seen the flower in the wild before. I thought it was pretty special!
 |
| Govett's Leap Lookout, Blackheath |
Not far from Perry's Lookdown, was the view that I felt was most spectacular - Govett's Leap Lookout - giving a grand view across the vast reach of the Grose Valley. This valley was discovered by hikers in the 1930's who valued the red gum forests there so highly, that they bought out the lease to allow it to remain conserved. We all the better for being able to come to a place like this to see the beauty nature offers without the imprint of human development.
 |
| Bridal Veil Waterfall, Govett's Leap, Blackheath |
I was concerned that the word 'leap' in the name implied that someone had jumped off here, but was relieved to find that it was a nearby waterfall that was doing the leaping! It falls 600 feet to the valley below, and is the tallest waterfall in the Blue Mountains.
 |
| Bushfire? No, Cool Burning |
When we got back to our little scribbly gum patch at our accommodation, I was concerned to see smoke nearby, with helicopters overhead. In fact, when we first saw it earlier in the day we decided to carry our passports with us just in case we came back to a charred mess! The helicopter was not dumping water, just circling round and round. Later we found out it was a controlled burn which had been successful. We were OK!
 |
| Echo Point at Sunset |
One of the reasons I was happy to return to the Blue Mountains with Fran was to see again an iconic set of rocks called The Three Sisters, which can be seen from Echo Point, in Katoomba. They are the three lumpy rocks you see in the photo, lit by the setting sun. When I came here as a child, it was just a lookout that a few folks enjoyed. Now, this area is and incredibly crowded hub of all things touristy in the Blue Mountains. Scenic World nearby has a cableway, skyway, and railway along with other attractions. This is not how Fran and I wanted to experience this area, so we had been avoiding it. We had stopped by Sublime Point at Leura, earlier in the day to see the 'Sisters', but the light was all wrong, so we decided to check it out at sunset. It was a great decision. The Sydney crowds had returned to the city, people were sitting having picnics in the evening light, parking was free and we saw a glorious view into the Jamison Valley ahead.
 |
| The Three Sisters, Katoomba |
You know that there must be a story from the Aboriginal inhabitants to explain how these rocks got there, so here we go. The tribe from this area was the Katoomba tribe, where there were three sisters. Their culture was strict about who they could marry - somewhat like Romeo and Juliet - so when they fell in love with three brothers from the nearby Nepean tribe it resulted in war between the two groups as the elders tried to prevent the 'unlawful' union. It must have been a major war, as the lives of the three girls were in danger. A witchdoctor/shaman, from their own tribe, decided to protect the young women by turning them to stone but, unfortunately, he was killed in the fighting and could not reverse the spell. As a result, these sentinel rocks remain, overlooking the Jamison Valley and enjoying a lot of fame and attention!
This special area was a completely different version of Australian nature, compared to the Red Centre, and stunning in its own way. It had been well worth the journey to see the contrast. I'll leave you with a recording of kookaburras laughing.
(The creaking sound at the beginning is me changing the settings on the camera, so just ignore that and enjoy the jollity from the Australian bush.)
See you next time.
