Sydney

We were woken at about 6am by the bustle of people coming and going and the sun peaking up on the horizon. We had our first glimpse of the landscape which was gradually changing from the inland dry and brown hills and sparse gum to greener paddocks, cattle, and thicker stands of trees. The mist on the paddocks looked beautiful in the morning light.

When we reached Sydney the train station was relatively quiet as it was Sunday. Josh found a map and after checking in our sleeping bags and my violin into a locker we set off on a ’15 min’ walk to the Opera house for our breakfast. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be only 15 mins but 45 minutes and it felt longer as we all were carrying our day bags which were heavy with our train gear and the food we had brought along for the next three meals.

The city was also very quiet as most people were still tucked up in bed at 7:30 on a Sunday morning. Though we did pass a few people who look like they hadn’t been to bed at all yet – still dressed in their Saturday night party closes with smudged make-up and heavy eye-lids.

It was already lovely and warm and as we got closer to the botanical gardens we were walking through to get the harbor we were treated to lots of wonderful bird life – such as we’d never seen before! There were flocks of Ibis just hanging out on the mown lawns looking for worms. Ibis!!  I made us feel like we were in Egypt. And they didn’t seem to mind us getting too close though I still didn’t manage a great picture.

There were cockatoos, Minahs, Galahs, Rosellas, and rainbow lorikeets. We came across a statue with a water fountain feature and there were Lorikeets having their morning bath happily chatting to each other and right up on top was a cheeky cockatoo looking like he was pleased to be king of the world. It is such a pleasure to see these beautiful birds so happy and carefree.  The day before we’d been to a wee petting zoo which was interesting but super sad at the same time as all the animals we saw were ones that we’d seen out in the wild (with the exception of the wombat) and their behaviour was markedly different. With the birds, it was the most obvious. They could see their brothers and sisters flying around just outside their cage- chasing and calling each other – and they were sitting in their cage almost brain dead looking. It is so very cruel. What can we do about this? It’s truly not right to cage these majestic creatures just for our one selfish pleasure of seeing them.

Fern's birthday breakfast view

We eventually made our way to the Sydney Harbor and were thrilled with the beautiful view of the opera house and bridge. We had Fern’s birthday breakfast sitting there in the park watching the joggers and magpies. I hope Fern will remember this birthday fondly! We then took another long walk to find a playground on the other side of the city which on the map looked not so far… but of course, it was. I wonder how many times we might get caught out walking longer than we anticipate carrying our lunch bags to get to the perfect spot.

We made it back to the train in time for the next 7-hour journey. Josh and I meanly had quite a few laughs behind our hands at the train conductor’s announcements of arrivals and notices because of her accent! Every now and then she would walk down the aisle and call “Rubeeesh, has eenyone got eeny rubeesh?”

Bored on the train

Josh's famous on-the-go sandwiches

Waiting at the train station late at night