A SYDNEY VISIT

One of the nice things about being a member of one of the forums on the Internet is when the friends that are made there come to Australia for a visit and I have the pleasure of showing them around my part of Sydney. This happened only a few weeks ago when Graham and Suzie arrived here on the Sydney leg of an extended holiday. Some of the photos below were taken by Gina, another forum friend from the U.S.A. who visited me a couple of years ago.

There were lots of places that I had planned to take them but unfortunately we had a rare day of rain and while this was very welcome it meant that some of the places I intended to show them had to be ruled out; however, after picking them up from their hotel in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, we headed south through the central business district of the City, passing through the very busy inner suburbs and on towards the George's River which flows into Botany Bay. After joining the Captain Cook Drive at Taren Point, we headed out towards the Kurnell National Park where we paid a quick visit to the small museum there where one of the Endeavour's guns is on show.





From the museum it was on to the actual Landing Place on the shores of Botany Bay....



.....past an old house now being used by the National Parks and Wildlife Staff......



.....and found ourselves on the opposite side of the Bay to the Kingsford Smith Airport with the two runways which reach out towards the centre of the Bay.





Just along the coastline is the entrance to Botany Bay and the ships which come through the Heads there are very close to the shoreline.



There is also a good distant view of the City on a clear day.



A little further around the Kurnell Peninsula is a whale watching lookout which is very popular from the end of May through to September when the whales come close to the coastline as they pass Cape Solander, pictured below from the lookout. I am hoping to take some photos of the whales during the next few weeks and if I can get some good ones I will post them in another Blog entry.



Cape Solander from La Perouse, on the other, northern, side of the Botany Bay Heads......



........and from Bundeena, a village in the Royal National Park on the southern side of the Port Hacking River, the next river south from Botany Bay.



On our way back from Kurnell we passed the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks Rugby Leagues Club. Each of the teams in the first grade Rugby League competition have a large club complex like this one but the Sharks are fortunate to have their home ground right next to their club. There are many facilities in these clubs with large dining rooms, lounges, entertainment venues which often have world famous acts appearing there, promotional give aways, monthly Swipe and Win prizes, Lucky Members badge draws and Members Birthday offers, Snooker tables, Squash courts, and access to Sharkies sporting and recreational intra clubs - there is even a hairdressers for the members. There are, of course, a LOT of poker machines, too !



There are four surf clubs along the Bate Bay stretch of coastline and these are four of the strongest surf clubs in Australia with many many Australian Championship Awards between them. One of them, Wanda, is the club my husband belonged to and was formed after WW2 by returned servicemen which explains why the Club's colours are navy blue, airforce blue and army red. The Elouera Surf Club is the next one south from Wanda and was formed by the Police Citizens Youth Club movement. The next club along is the North Cronulla Surf club which has not only won Australian Championships but has also won the World Championships, too. Cronulla Surf Club, the last of the four was the first of these clubs to be founded in 1907 while North Cronulla had its first beach patrol in 1925.





Cronulla Surf Club.



Very early morning surfers off Wanda Beach.



This is what I hoped to show Graham and Suzie but unfortunately the cockatoos didn't show up ! There are close up photos of the birds and what they get up to in a previous posting in my blog.



This is another area where the cockatoos gather to extract food from visitors to the Park - this is the second area I took you to - seen from the water, Graham and Suzie, after finding no birds around in the first place. There are a few more views of the Park from a ferry following the one below. You wouldn't think that a large city was only a 30 or 40 minute drive from here, would you.







A few days later, another forum friend, Tardo, who lives in one of the northern suburbs of Sydney, invited Graham, Suzie and myself to lunch at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, where the boats taking part in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race gather before the dash south to Tasmania. Once again the weather was rather unsettled but we all had a good time talking about the forum we have in common.





The Cruising Yacht Club, in spite of being just around the corner from the Sydney Opera House in the heart of the City, is a very large and busy club as can be seen from the photographs below.













The reflections in the water gave me a different photo.



The hotel in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge.



I really enjoyed showing Graham and Suzie some of the things I had planned to show them and in my next blog entry I will try to show them some of the things they missed out on due to the weather.

I hope they do return for another visit so that they can see a lot more of Sydney. It was a delight meeting you both.