Wednesday, Nov 21 - Up to the Blue Mountains

Bob and I got up at 6:30 and saw an enormous Holland American cruise ship, the Oosterdam, slowly edge into its berth in Circular Quay - all the tiny ferry boats jostled to get out of the way.





Our favorite ferry, Charlotte, skims by the monster Oosterdam
 

We met Hil on the thirtieth floor and joined the scrum for breakfast. It’s quite amazing to see all these executive premium business people battling for every last croissant and shred of smoked salmon - though there was also a fantastic coffee machine dispensing long blacks, cappucinos and hot chocolates. There’s nothing like free food!


We all set off towards the Royal Botanic Garden east of the Opera House and walked past rose gardens, through palm forests and ended up at the great gift shop where Hil and I made inroads in our Xmas list. We also saw more school aged children in kayaks and on a large schooner and others on field trips around Sydney - almost time for school summer hols. The Garden is very large and we didn’t have time to really explore it - we’ll just have to schedule another trip to Sydney! We walked back to the Marriott, via the Opera House, and packed up.

We caught a cab to Red Spot Car Rental’s downtown office and got another Holden - Australia’s own car brand - this time a full-size sedan with an amazingly spacious “boot” that ate up all our luggage. With Bob navigating and Hil driving, we wove around Sydney’s bustling streets and made our way to the beautiful ANZAC bridge (similar in design to the new bridge in Boston) and west out of town. We drove through suburbs, eventually getting into the countryside and lovely little villages. We stopped in Springwood and found 2 Blonde Girls Cafe, a cute little lunch spot where Hill and I ordered egg and bacon sandwiches, Bob a bowl of potato leek soup and we all got “Traditional” iced coffees or chocolate. The drinks came and they turned out to be coffee or chocolate with ice cream and whipped cream! And the sandwiches had two eggs each and a rasher of Aussie bacon (both the American and the Canadian version of bacon together!). We were swimming in food for what was supposed to be a light lunch.

The Blue Mountains

 

We waddled out of there and continued up the gradual incline onto a high plateau which is the “Blue Mountains”, cut through with deep canyons and covered with eucalyptus forest. We got stuck in the town of Katoomba, the main tourist town to where all the buses from Sydney come, and continued on to Blackheath, a much lower key town and much pleasanter. We found Jemby-Rinjah Eco Lodge which consists of a large main building with restaurant and bar, and ten cabins set into the woods. There is also a lodge for conventions which seems to be full of golfers from Canberra right now. We had trouble finding Cabin #8, but finally did and settled in. We have two bedrooms and a bath with a composting toilet, living room with fireplace and a kitchen. Right off we saw a Crimson Rosella, a lovely bright red and blue parrot, and several unusual blooming plants which we’ll identify tomorrow.

We drove into town and stopped at a tiny IGA, an Aussie grocery chain, and got eggs, milk, butter, jam and bacon for tomorrow and beer for tonight.

We drank a beer and then headed over to the Lodge for dinner with the golfers. Although we were still full from lunch, we managed to eat quite a bit of our roast beef & Yorkshire pudding and seafood crepes. Now back in our cabin where we hope to see a female Brown Antechinus, a small mouse-like marsupial that hangs around the cabins. The Antechinus are unusual in that breeding occurs during a specific two week period and is followed by the death of all males!

To bed and out for heavy-duty birding tomorrow RR played us the songs of the three target birds he “needs” so we can help him find them.

Crimson Rosella