I bet none of you have seen ...

[Joan]

this view of Sydney city before -






That's the city on the far right

More of today's bush walk  here

[Roger Kettle]

Terrific photos, Joan. It seems amazing to me that there is such an apparent wilderness so close to Sydney. I really enjoy seeing photos like this---maybe we should set up a section on here where regulars can post their travel pics.

[Joan]

Good idea, Roger.  As to the wilderness, the convicts were quite environmentally conscious - not the convicts, of course, but some of our founding fathers were, and the Royal National Park south of Sydney was the second National Park in the world to be created.  I think our local one, Ku-ring-gai was the fourth.  This one, Garigal, was created fairly recently, but the whole area contained reserves.  I was amazed at the trees when I first arrived.  There was an uproar about logging down south (quite rightly at the time) and when I looked out over the vista of bush as far as you could see, just north of Sydney, my thoughts were, "What are they going on about?"  The number of rivers, ocean and beaches around Sydney help, I think.

[Diane CBPFC]

If Sydney were to run out of gas/petrol for lawnmowers - it would be swallowed up by the jungle in a matter of weeks!

[Malc]

Sydney is regarded as the best natural harbour in the world, bar none. Its deep, sheltered inlets are perfect for hiding from storms, and the First Fleet realised this after first dropping anchor at Botany Bay a few miles to the south, which they found to be rubbish, before moving further north to Jackson's Cove (later to become Sydney Harbour).

I used to live at Botany Bay, well, a small house at Como-Jannali, it was our first place after arriving in Oz, with two babies and a deep well of homesickness. Amazingly we were young parents then, and now, a mere 14 years later, we're old parents. How fast it goes.

I remember reading Clive James' autobiography "Unreliable Memoirs" before we left the UK. I regarded it as merely a funny book. I re-read it after I had lived in the Sutherland Shire a couple of years, and all the place names leapt out at me. James was a Kogarah boy, and his boyhood memories take on massive new significances once you've lived where he did.

[Rob Baker]

Sydney is regarded as the best natural harbour in the world, bar none.

I was always led to believe that was Poole harbour, Malc.   Great photos though Joan.

[Malc]

Poole? Nah. Poole harbour is like a supermodel, beautiful but shallow.

[Vulture]

Poole? Nah. Poole harbour is like a supermodel, beautiful but shallow.

 

[Joan]

The latest offering - and the last for a while.  This walk was 16.65km - thought it was never going to end!  Had a small operation on my leg to take out a bcc yesterday, so no major exercise for two weeks - needed to recover from Thursday anyway. 

This walk was through a different part of Garigal National Park - see map at end.




Those are black boys - grass trees which have a very slow growth rate, so some of them are probably over 100 years old.  Trevor lost the trail here, because a fire had been through (see the blackened tree trunks).  At least that was his excuse - it got pretty rough for a while.



These are lorikeets just before we got to Davidson Park (civilisation).  Cheeky wee things - quite tame.

The rest are here

[Diane CBPFC]

What is a bcc?

That is a great bird photo!

[Joan]

Basal cell carcinoma - sounds worse than it is. It's a skin cancer, but it rarely metastasizes. Family history - but probably not helped by sunbathing when I was younger - hoping it will make some impression on Kate to stop sunbathing.  Think she should come with me to the skin specialist's waiting room to see the people who are being treated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_cell_carcinoma

[Malc]

This is for non-Aussies:
Skin cancers are a fact of life here. White people don't do sun well, and you see people every day with little band-aids on their faces, arms legs, etc.
A very good friend of mine has been a surfer all his life, and spent his formative years almost totally on the beach. If I had been an Aussie at that time I probably would have been the same. His face is covered with inch-wide discolouration patches due to exposure to the sun in his youth.
He also goes to get cancers cut out regularly.

I was coaching yesterday on a hot sunny day, and I had not put on sunscreen, because I do believe that some sun is healthy, but even some young Aussies still do not use it at all. The message is taking a long time getting through.

[Diane CBPFC]

Poor you Joan. I imagine you have to check yourself out regularly.

It is very sunny here too and we have to be careful - even in the winter I need sunglasses for the snow glare.

Malc you should put on screen as it only lasts so many hours anyway you would still get some sun when it wore off.

[The Peepmaster]

I don't see the point of ugly blokes getting sun-tans. They're still ugly - only a darker shade, aren't they?

[Diane CBPFC]

I had a black friend when I lived in Wales who used to sun tan - I didn't see the point of that either but was too polite back then to bring it up.