Posts Tagged With: Koala

Blue Mountains, Wildlife and Cruising Back to Sydney

For my last day in Australia, I joined a tour group to journey into the Blue Mountains.

Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park where I planned to practice my photography skills on the native Australian animals and birds. I soon discovered how clever these little creatures are at ducking just as the camera shutter goes “click”. Years of practice and very little in the form of amusement, I guess.

We stopped for lunch at Leura, the Garden Village, where I found a lovely local deli with the most amazing panoramic view. Leura is a very pretty village with an old world railway station and a selection of delightfully quaint shops and cafés.

From here we travelled to view the Three Sisters rock formations, initially from Echo Point and then at Scenic World. We had a hair raising ride on the world’s steepest railway down into an old mining valley and then returned by cable car. This was a real action packed day.

To round off the day, I took the optional cruise back to Darling Harbour, where I sat in a quayside restaurant and enjoyed a lovely Thai meal. The end of a perfect day 🙂

Ann x

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Happy Christmas

Today’s tour was the Ocean Road.  Torquay for morning tea.  Then on to Bells Beach, a world famous surfing beach and film scene.  Torquay, according to our driver Colin was originally called Swampy Creek but nobody wanted to live there so they changed the name.  Colin had a nice quirky sense of humour.

We drove for hours along Ocean Drive always on the look out for wild koalas in the trees and kangaroos in the fields.  The coastal views were superb.  Miles and miles of cliffs and beaches, like the Cliffs of Moher but many times over.

Christmas in Melbourne feels very low key.  None of the excitement or the madness of home.  I did hear John Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War is Over) but only the once.

Lunch was a take away fish and chips on the beach at Apollo Bay.  The tour included a lot of photo stops.  I felt like a Japanese tourist but then most of my fellow travellers were Japanese or Asian so that explains that.

As a Christmas present, I treated myself to a helicopter ride over the off shore rock formations known as the Twelve Apostles.  Wow!

Happy Christmas All.

Ann x

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Day 7: Perth City and Swan Valley

Day 7 and I haven’t mentioned my hair yet. I love it here but my hair doesn’t. It makes this clear by impersonating a bleached straw nest perched on top of my head. If I lived here, my options would be to shave it off or grow a ponytail. End of hair moan. Thought it best to get that out of the way 🙂

Busy day today. Two tours. 7.20am start for a city bus tour of Perth and Freemantle. Really enjoyed King’s Park where we wandered through the botanic gardens and strolled along the treetop walkway. Highlights for me were the Banksia and Pioneering Women’s gardens.

The afternoon tour to the Swan Valley involved cuddling furry animals (Wombat, Kangaroo and Koala) and tasting local produce: two of my favourite things, wine and chocolate. My new friend for today was a Brazilian girl who lives in Spain and markets cosmetics throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Tomorrow I fly to Melbourne

Ann x

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