Australia - Kangaroos and Us
28 degrees at night and 32 degrees during the day were too warm for us. So we went on to Australia. -2°C at night (in the Blue Mountains) and 18°C during the day (in Sydney) were pleasant temperatures. In theory, that is. After we both caught a cold 😉 But that didn't stop us from exploring a bit of Australia and our joy to visit Roslyn and Fiona, who invited us to their home.
We were really looking forward to our reunion with Roslyn and Fiona in Sydney. The friendship between Roslyn and Tatjana goes back a long way; they originally met during Tatjana's studies in Cape Town. Over such long distances, we don't get to meet often, but when we do, the joy is always great 🙂
(The picture shows the flag of Australia as it is hung on the Harbour Bridge in Sydney).
Sydney is NOT the capital of Australia, even though this is often confused. The capital is ... not Melbourne either. The capital is Canberra and is about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. But more about that later 😊
Sydney Opera House
In Sydney, pretty much the first thing we saw was the Sydney Opera House. This is because it is close to the ferry taxi port (Sydney Harbour) and we used the ferry regularly. It is the "standard" means of transport to get from the countless bays to the city centre - including the bay where our friends' flat is located.
Harbour Bridge
Opposite the Opera House is the Harbour Bridge, the second landmark of the city. Of course, we didn't miss out on a walk across this bridge 😊
Royal Botanical Garden
On the other side of the Sydney Opera House is the Royal Botanic Garden. We went there right at the beginning. As we all know, everything in Australia wants to kill you, so we wanted to know what we could expect 😉. Spoiler alert - we are still alive and nothing wanted to take us around the corner...The flora of the Botanical Garden took us right away - even though it is winter. There are some plant species we've never seen before and also some that bloom in winter. Crazy here in Down Under 😉.
It gets even crazier because the cockatoos and other large birds that we have only known from television or zoos are just flying around freely here.
Our friends' flat is also surrounded by fascinating biodiversity. Behind our room lived a bush turkey, which regularly mated with many turkey ladies...
On the terrace, a possum has taken a liking to the planting and regularly comes by at night for a snack. There are also huge flying foxes that dart across the terrace and many special species of birds that forage on land or water and can be observed from here (e.g. parrots, cockatoos, Australian loris, kookaburra, ...). Now that's a little piece of paradise.
NSW und ACT
Australia is huge and in our three weeks, we were able to explore "only" a very small section. We limited ourselves to parts of the state of New South Wales (NSW) in south-eastern Australia and the Australia Capital Territory (ACT) with the capital Canberra. The distances here should not be underestimated. If you are planning a trip to Australia, be sure to note the scale on the map 😉.
Down Under
Time and again we have heard "Down Under" and asked ourselves what it actually means. Here is the answer: Down Under comes from English and means "at the bottom", referring to the location of Australia and New Zealand as well as the surrounding islands on the globe from the British point of view.
Kangaroos and Koalas
Our hope was to see wild kangaroos and koalas if at all possible. Guided by this, we set off for the Blue Mountains, which lie about 60 km west of Sydney. They owe their name to the haze of eucalyptus trees that cover the mountains in large forest areas. The leaves of the eucalyptus tree evaporate essential eucalyptus oils, which then make the air above the trees shimmer bluish due to the sunlight. Since koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, we assumed we would definitely see them here.
So: there are over 600 species of eucalyptus and koalas only eat about 70 of them. In principle, the Blue Mountains provide habitat for koalas, but the number of national bears has declined significantly in recent years. While originally there were about 8 million koalas living in Australia, by 2023 there are estimated to be only between 43,000 - 100,000 animals left. The reasons for this are fur hunting (until 1927), habitat destruction through logging, bushfires and the sexually transmitted disease of chlamydia (it makes many koalas infertile). Meanwhile, koalas are highly endangered.
Koalas are also very well adapted in colour to their natural habitat. Since they are mostly sleeping, it is bordering on a miracle to see them in the wild. Unfortunately, we did not succeed ☹. Before that, we can report a complete success with the second national animal of the Aussies, the kangaroo. We saw more than a hundred kangaroos hopping, grazing and looking curiously. In fact, besides kangaroos, we also saw the smaller wallabies (a species of the kangaroo family). There are about 60 kangaroo species in total, they are marsupials and their young are called joeys by the Aussies (this applies to the young of most marsupial species in Australia).
A little beyond the Blue Mountains, we stayed for a few days in the Oberon area and did some great hikes there. We found the Evans Crown Nature Reserve particularly mystical. We were all alone on our hike, it was an overcast and foggy day and wallabies were watching us from the bushes. The small national park has spiritual significance for the Australian Wiradjuri Aboriginals*, which we could relate to in the magic of the place. There are spectacular granite stone formations and unique flora and fauna here. We were very lucky to see one of the native Australian animals here, a wild echidna.
Echidna
At first glance, the echidna looks like a large hedgehog, but it is an egg-laying mammal. Besides the echidna, the platypus, which only lives in Australia, is one of the only mammals that lay eggs. The echidna has a so-called gross pouch, i.e. a "pouch", but it is different from the pouches and marsupials. We find this super exciting. You can find out more here if you are also interested:
Brisbane Water National Park
After battling an extremely bad cold, we went north of Sydney for an extensive hike in the Brisbane Water National Park. Here there are tide pools with small shells in the sandstones, which reminded us of the African game of troughs and stones called Mancala. On the Warrah Lookout Trail we saw far and wide no other people, but beautiful flora and fauna.
After a breather in Sydney, we continued on to Canberra, Australia's capital, which is located in the Australia Captial Territory (ACT for short). Canberra is geographically located about halfway between Sydney and Australia. It became Australia's capital at the time as a neutral location because of disputes between Melbourne and Australia over the capital role.
Here we wanted to have a look at the parliament and were lucky enough to even get a private guided tour, because all the other registered participants did not show up.
As a former British colony, Australia became independent from Great Britain in 1907. The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and has a parliamentary democratic monarchy as its form of state and government. The form of government is based on a system of separation of powers and King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of state. The King essentially has a representative/ceremonial role; represented by a Governor-General, he signs new laws passed by the Australian Parliament into law, for example. For more in-depth information, we provide the link to the Parliament.
Home – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)
Australian Parliament – Parliamentary Education Office (peo.gov.au)
Funfact - the flag on the roof
The flag flying on the roof of the parliament building is as big as a double-decker bus (12.8 x 6.4m), weighs about 25kg and is changed every month by 3 people for cleaning purposes. There are a total of 14 flags that are used in rotation. Unfortunately, we do not have a picture of the flag as there was no wind on the day we visited.
Funfact - clocks in the building:
There are 2700 clocks throughout the parliament building, which have 2 LEDs, one green and one red. Depending on which house is in session, the red LED (House of Senate) or the green LED (House of Representatives) flashes. This lets the members of the corresponding house know when a session is about to start, a vote is to be taken or they need to visit the chamber for other reasons. In addition, a ring tone is played over the loudspeakers.
After our visit to Canberra, we headed back towards the coast, which we wanted to see south of Sydney. There are many national parks here. The water of the Tasman Sea was too cold for swimming at this time of the year, but we experienced some beautiful sunshine hours in the coastal section up to Tuross Head.
We ate delicious mussels, did some hiking and, above all, observed many wild kangaroos. When we arrived at our accommodation in Durras Beach, the hairy friends even welcomed us in the garden right in front of our charlet. They are also quite "used" to humans here, so we were able to observe them from relatively close without getting punched 😉.
All the people we met on our exploration tour in Australia were very nice and friendly. We got lots of recommendations everywhere about what was worth seeing, and that was indeed always worth seeing. That was very positive for us.
Who knows which building in Sydney is 309 metres high? Exactly...the Sydney Tower. From here we had a fantastic overview of the whole of Australia, haha - no Sydney of course and had a lovely evening with Fiona and Roslyn toasting our time together. A big thank you again for the warm hospitality, the beautiful moments and and... You are fantastic!
Hallo ihr zwei Lieben die bisherigen Fotos und Videos sowie die Kommentare dazu waren sehr schön und aufschlussreich da ihr ja schon weiter gezogen seid und über die USA nach Kolumbien eingetroffen seid.Aber die Bilder und eure Kommentare zu Australien waren bestimmt für einige Menschen neu aber was ich vermisst habe waren die sehr langen LKWes die Riesen der Landstraße.Wünsche euch zwei alles gute und beste Gesundheit sowie eine wunderbare Zeit im nächsten Land.Alles gute und viel Spaß und Freude Klaus
Hallo zusammen, vielen Dank für das Teilen der sehr interessanten Bilder.
Genießt jeden Moment und Bitte weiter eure Abenteuer teilen.
Ich wünsche euch weiterhin eine gute Reise und freue mich von euren Erlebnissen zu hören 🙂
Liebe Grüße
Mehmet
What a wonderful blog about your Australia travels! 🦘
We loved reliving your visit through this update and really enjoyed spending time with you both in the Southern Hemisphere again. This is now the 3rd country where we have been lucky enough to enjoy spending time with you both 🇿🇦🇩🇪🇦🇺
Looking forward to the next visit AND watching your travels as you head back north. Thank you for the new memories!
Much ❤️ Roz & Fiona 🌍