OVERNIGHT TRIP TO SYDNEY

Can't seem to get enough of Sydney!

On Monday, April 19, 2010, I decided to take the train to Sydney and spend the night so I would have some extra time to do some sightseeing. The train dropped me off at Central Station and from there I walked over again to Darling Harbour to the Sydney Aquarium. The biggest attraction at the aquarium was the glass underwater tunnel inside the shark exhibit. That was totally awesome to have sharks, stingrays and other fish swimming over my head and under my feet.


Another attraction was the Dugongs. Sometimes called "sea cows," because of their diet of sea grasses, dugongs are beautiful animals which legend has it were often mistaken for mermaids by the first European sailors to arrive in Australia's coastal waters. Pig, a 10-year old male found in North Queensland, and Wuru, a 4-year old female found near Rockhampton, are the only captive dugongs in Australia.

After the aquarium, I jumped on the hop on/hop off bus and did a 2-hour tour of the city. After the bus tour, I took a ferry from Circular Quay over to Darling Harbour where I revisited the Star City Casino before bedtime (surprise, surprise!) for dinner and a little slot machine time. Actually had some luck and left with some of their money for a change. I took a taxi to my hotel, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth which was located in the heart of Sydney's central shopping and business district.

On Tuesday morning, I walked over to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The Royal Botanical Gardens and the Domain have more than 35 fountains, sculptures and memorials. This area has been parklands ever since Sydney was first settled. It was set aside by Governor Phillip as his private reserve in 1788.

I took a 1-1/2 hour guided walking tour that took us through the many pathways of the garden and was very informative regarding the various plants and trees.

Grey-headed flying foxes (large bats) have taken over most of the tree tops. They sleep during the day and feed on fruit, and pollen and nectar of eucalypts and other native trees at night. The tour guide told us that they are trying to come up with a plan to relocate them to another area as they are killing off many of the trees in the gardens. The grey-headed flying fox is a native species that is endemic to Australia. Hard to believe that I did not notice them while walking through the gardens until the tour guide pointed them out .....and then I noticed they were everywhere!

At the end of the Botanical Gardens is Lady Macquarie's chair. It is an exposed sandstone rock cut into the shape of a bench, on a peninsula in Sydney Harbour, hand carved by convicts in 1820 for Governor Macquarie's wife, Elizabeth. Folklore has it that she used to sit on the rock and watch the ships from England sailing into the harbour. The chair itself faces northeast towards Fort Denison and the Pacific Ocean.


Fort Denison is on a tiny island and was originally a convict prison known as "Pinchgut" due to the tiny rations served there. Since 1906, the one o'clock gun has been announcing lunchtime.

After I left Mrs. Macquarie's chair, I walked back to Circular Quay via the 20 minute path that looped around the water. It was around lunch time and I was amazed by the amount of JOGGERS! Evidently this is what people do in Sydney during their lunch time. I also saw people doing yoga, boxing, just running up and down the stairs - any type of exercise, they were doing it! I felt so out of shape!!!! However the "hunk" viewing was excellent.