Home » Australia » A short trip to New South Wales.

Flying into Sydney from Fiji we were treated to a spectacular view of the harbour bridge and opera house. There was no mistaking where we were. Sydney is a great looking city, it has a high rise down town, but maintains a very green, open, feel because of its numerous parks and harbour area. The bridge and opera house dominate the harbour, as most people in the world know, whether they have actually been there or not. It's quite strange to be somewhere that you are so familiar with from having seen particular images on TV and film for as long as I can remember, but have never actually been there.

A short trip to New South Wales.

Thomasin Turner
2006-08-21 15:13:19

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sudden there was mention of a snake called a DEATH ADDER!!!! What of earth is going on. Thats just not right. Death Adder?!!! That's just scare mongering, and even then they didn't say something like "THIS SNAKE IS HIGHLY VENOMOUS AND SHOULD NOT BE APPROACHED. HIKERS SHOULD USE ANY AVAILABLE BIG STICK TO KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES" or something like that. They just nonchalantly slip in the fact that maybe a matter of inches from where your standing, there could be a DEATH ADDER coiled ready to leap on you and bite your eyes out! I'm going to complain to someone. The first 3 in the tourist bumph didn't appear on the sign, so in my mind that's 7+3=10. That's a lot of snakes in my opinion, because if there's one, there could be more, so that's lots x 10 species, which is a bit like Raiders of the lost Ark when Indiana Jones is in the tomb thingy. I don't like snakes. They're generally unfriendly and spoil things.

We then headed off further south to see what else we could find that could sting, bite, burrow, poison, eat, or generally harrass us. Kangaroos. They actually have more potential for harm than people give them credit for. Fortunatley the ones we encountereed were in good spirits and reasonably unagressive, but don't be fooled, everything that moves on Australian soil will in someway, given half a chance, cause you mischief. And then there is the sea. That's where the worst of 'em live. We did a couple of boat dives in Jervis bay, which is a couple of hours south of Sydney. Its a beautiful spot, but everything in the sea is out to get you. Massive Cuttlefish that try to hump your leg, and failing that pull your mask off and bite your nose. Massive rays 1.5-2m across. They'll get you! Sea snakes, jelly fish - they've even got jelly fish that are so small that you can't see them, you can't feel them bite you, but you're dead in 2 minutes. Oh, and then the sharks. Wobbegong. Not eat you but will remove your hand pretty damn quick. Then the Great Whites. We saw a 2m wobbegong, but saw it a bit late. Not until it was swimming underneath me about 2m away. 2m long, 2m away. I soiled my wet suit! No Great Whites at our dive site though. No, they had eaten everything that was worth eating and moved around the corner, 300-400m away. Yep. The Aussies tell you this afterwards. That's going in my letter of complaint too!

The dives were in fact really good. We saw octopus, rays, a couple of Wobbegong sharks, the humping cuttlefish, lots of urchins and gropers and were fortunate enough to see half a dozen or so Weedy Sea Dragons. These are related to the sea horse but are up to about 40cm long (or so).

Really nice things. I didn't even know they existed until the aquarium in Sydney. Really good diving, different from Fiji diving, but spectacular and great experience, dispite the unfriendly critters!

Back in Sydney again for a couple of days before we flew out. We stayed at Bondi Beach, (which is rather like the south bay at Scarborough, but without the castle, so not quite as good!!), visited Manly Beach too, but no topless sunbathers so I didn't want to stay long. Then on to Singapore.....

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