20231206 AAAA Trip - Sydney, Australia Day 2 - Zoo, Mountains, and a Ferry ride

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 81/105 - Sydney, Australia, Day 2, Sydney Zoo and Blue Mountains

Day #2 in Sydney started too early.  We needed to get out of the hotel before 7 a.m. so we could swing by McDonald's, or as the Aussies call it, Macca. We snagged a quick bite before walking to the Sheraton at Hyde Park, the pick-up spot for our tour today. We went to the front of the hotel, because, why wouldn't we? As it turns out, the pickup was at their secondary entrance behind the hotel on another street. It all worked out, and we caught the bus, but communication is wonderful. They said to meet at the hotel. We stood in front of the hotel. Oh well. We got on and went to our first stop, the Sydney Zoo.

As we waited, I noticed that several buses were sporting moustaches. I am still trying to figure out what's up with that.

As we drove, we passed this cool building.

It turns out this is Broadway Sydney - a shopping mall

Above the building, Arlona noticed that a pilot was skywriting.

As our direction changed, they finished with "RAIZ".

Apparently, RAIZ is an investment app here in Australia, so we guess this was an advertisement

Passing Olympic Park

We arrived at Sydney Zoo. We weren't too excited since we've recently been to two wildlife parks, but it was part of the tour so we rolled with it.

I think it's a law here - we didn't want to risk it

As I said, we weren't too excited given all the wildlife we've seen in the past couple of weeks. We were pleasantly surprised. This is a fairly new zoo, opening on December 7, 2019. They had a very nice assortment of animals with attractive habitats.  Here's a look at what we saw.

The dingos were hiding

Wallaby

Kangaroo

We were given food to feed the kangaroos - mostly their regular diet and one small piece of sweet potato - a favorite of theirs - it is their chocolate

They would ignore the regular food and find the sweet potatoes, even if it was buried, and move on to the next guest - they are very clever

Emu

Lace monitor

We were given an Aboriginal culture talk. It was very interesting. Aboriginals have been here for thousands of years. Their view is that they do not own the land, they are caretakers of it. They only took what they needed and made sure to leave enough so that nature could continue to thrive and provide.

A map showing the geography of all the aboriginal tribes

An ostrich egg - it feeds as many as an entire dozen chicken eggs

Hunting tools - he discussed the red cylinder - hitting the opening with your palm sounds like a female ostrich - it would draw males - a returning boomerang to flush birds and a kill boomerang to the right for breaking legs of ostriches and emus so they couldn't run

A land spear to the right, a fishing spear, and a didgeridoo to the left

An obligatory koala photo

A massive saltwater crocodile

A nice addition to the zoo is an aquarium area.

These lizard were recently added - they've made friends quickly

Making sure there will be more lizards for the zoo

It's hard work but you've got to pay the rent

The lizards might have given the fish ideas

Little penguins - that is their actual name and they are the smallest of the penguins

They're cute but it was much better walking with them in Chile, The Falkland Islands, and Antarctica

Cue the music...

This porcupine was mostly hidden, but still...

...look at those quills

Bust meerkats

Dromedaries

It was appropriate that we visited them on humpday

Tigers

What a face

Tigering is hard work - check out the yawn on the back one

Sleepy capybara

Cheetah

The king of the jungle

Ostrich

Giraffe and ostrich

Zebra

Hyena

African painted dog

Orangutan

Chimpanzees

We enjoyed our time at the zoo. We hopped back on the bus for the hour-long ride to the Blue Mountains.

Our first stop, Echo Point - there is supposed to be a spot where you can create an echo - nobody found it

The views were beautiful

Maps explained everything you saw

The big draw is the Three Sisters seen here on the left

There are multiple, conflicting legends about the three sisters

Since nobody knows the right one, we'll just leave it at there are three pillars of stone standing together

Our next stop was some free time to get lunch in Leura, a small town in the Blue Mountains. We found a bakery that offered types of pot pies.

After lunch, we made the short ride to Scenic World in the Blue Mountains. Scenic World is a nature center with multiple walks throughout the Blue Mountain area, passing different natural phenomena including the Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls, the now-closed coal mines, and more. In addition to that, they offer (for a fee) three different rides that provide unique views of the area. Our tour included a wristband for entry into all of them so we took advantage.

We started with the Scenic Skyway

At 270 meters high, it is the highest cable car in Australia

Katoomba Falls

From there, we hit the Scenic Railway. With a 52-degree incline, it is the steepest passenger railway in the world. It was originally used for hauling coal.

While waiting, they had a chalkboard where folks showed where they were from

The train

We went with the original - it was crazy-steep

We walked through the rainforest. They pay homage to the coal mining history in the area as well as recognize the dinosaurs that lived in this geography.

That's coal

Coal mining tools

There were lots of animated dinosaurs along the trail - a great place to bring kids

I guess we're old enough to be dinosaurs

Our walk concluded at the Scenic Cableway. These large, 84-person cars travel 545 meters from the Jameson Valley to the top of the escarpment.

A steam-powered clock at the exit of Scenic World. There is something similar in Vancouver.

It had a coal mining theme

This was the end of the tour. We got on the bus for the 90-minute ride back to Olympic Park.

I took advantage of the time

Our awesome bus driver and tour guide, Irene from Sight Seeing Australia Tours

Irene dropped everyone at the ferry terminal. We had to make our way back to Sydney on our own. That was explained before we booked the tour so it was no surprise. We grabbed the ferry - ours was named the Evonne Goolagong after the famed Australian tennis player.

The ferry stopped every few minutes at another pier, loading and unloading passengers.  Each stop was like an Indy pit stop, lasting less than a minute. It was impressive.

After about 40 minutes, we docked at Circular Quay and made the 20-minute walk back to The Grace.

We tried one of the restaurants in the hotel, P.J. O'Brien's Irish Pub. Holy crap, was it loud inside. It was so loud that you had to holler so your dinner partner could hear. That increased the volume so then others yelled loured, and so on. It was a vicious cycle. We stayed and had fish & chips, but as soon as we were done, we headed back to the room for a little quiet.

A shower and a little Limoncello helped me through this blog entry. It is another early day tomorrow as we're scheduled to walk the Sydney Harbor Bridge at 9 a.m. and I'm hoping my knees hold up.