Canberra - Botanical Gardens

The National Botanical Gardens are, depending on your point of view, either more naturalistic or less well maintained than the others we have visited on this trip. We especially liked the botanical gardens in Adelaide and Sydney much better. Still, it was worth an afternoon stroll to see more of the local flora. Deborah may not agree as it was quite hot that day and she was fairly melting by mid-afternoon. We escaped to an air conditioned movie theatre to cool off while watching Brad Pitt do his best Louisiana drawl in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which we both liked.

Botanical Gardens

Beautiful Gum Trees

As one early explorer noted, in this curious land the trees keep their leaves and shed their bark.

Star Trek prop?

Orchid

A confused tree (can't decide which way to grow)

Canberra - Arrival

Canberra is the nation’s capital and sits within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It was established in 1908 and located exactly midway between the competing principal cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Australians do not think highly of Canberra, not just because it is full of politicians, but also because they regard it as dull and sterile. Our first impressions suggest that opinion is well founded. The city is laid out according to a carefully conceived plan with lots of concentric circles and intersecting axes, leaving large swaths of dry-looking grass providing pedestrian-unfriendly distances between important pieces of bland architecture.

Upon arrival we walked in the heat along quiet, mostly deserted streets to our hotel, feeling as if we were in a Twilight Zone episode set in a post-apocalyptic future. Then we walked back into the civic center on more remarkably unpeopled sidewalks in a prolonged search for a restaurant that was actually open. In fairness though, it was a Sunday, the parliament is not currently in session and the schools are on summer break. Maybe it is livelier at other times of the year. Or maybe not.

Sydney - Departure

We decided to leave Sydney a few days earlier than originally planned. Our Sydney hosts weren’t able to break away for any vacation time so didn’t need our services as house sitters. They generously offered to have us continue to stay with them anyway, but we felt at least a little guilty about being such freeloading leeches and our next hosts in Jindabyne actually asked if we could come early. Fortunately we were able to oblige them. We really like Sydney and there is plenty more to see but we’ll be back for a couple of days in mid-March after our stint in Jindabyne is over.

We went out for a great meal at the family’s favorite Italian restaurant as a way to say thank you and goodbye. Next it’s off to Canberra for a couple of days then continuing on to Jindabyne.

Angel the cockatiel

Angel on Deborah's foot

Bobo


Lady

Paul, Sharon, Garry, Nick and Jacinda (left to right)

"I wonder if someone is going to throw this thing"

Sydney - Aquarium and Zoo

We toured the aquarium and zoo in Sydney on separate days. Given it was summer and school holidays we should have expected the mobs of people we encountered at both, and the large percentage of annoying children. The aquarium featured underwater “tubes” through which we land dwellers could walk and gain an unusual perspective on the sea creatures swimming all around. The zoo has a great location on a hillside across the harbor and is reached by ferry. It was a fine zoo, but it was also our fourth since arriving in Australia two months ago so we were a bit “zooed out.” Still, we particularly enjoyed the Chimpanzees, which for some reason we seldom see in zoos. They’re probably too busy solving puzzles given to them by people in lab coats.

Underwater viewpoint at the aquarium

A dugong (similar to a manatee) smiles for the camera

Another sleeping koala

Komodo Dragon

The ever popular meerkats

Not quite as popular iguanas

Waiting for a bus

Sydney - Royal Botanical Gardens, Part 2

I seem to have cultivated on this trip an unexpected interest in photographing flowers. A return trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens further fed this uncharacteristic personal development, as the following photographs will attest.

Tropical Center within the Royal Botanical Gardens

A rather wet orchid

Pitcher Plant

Dragonfly

Bat Orchid

More orchids

Paperbark tree (you just want to reach up and peel it)

Spider Lily

Colorful Leaves

Hibiscus (I think)

View of Opera House and Harbour Bridge from Royal Botanical Gardens

Unknown Lily

Fig Tree

More bloody flowers

Sydney - Royal Botanical Gardens

The Royal Botanical Gardens are a colorful oasis in Sydney’s downtown and provided a pleasant diversion for most of a day. I played Mr. Photographer while Deborah, who was feeling a bit off, laid on various nearby benches impersonating a homeless person. She said she only lacked a newspaper to drape over her head. Still, she enjoyed watching the birds and the clouds from this unaccustomed vantage point while I wandered about aiming my lens at anything stationary and interesting. The gardens are divided into several different sections, each featuring a particular type of plant life. We only managed to see a few of these but we will definitely make a return trip.

A big surprise was the discovery of a colony of rather large fruit bats hanging in the trees. I had always pictured bats as residing in dark caves during daylight hours but these were out there in broad daylight, hanging upside down in the trees, squawking at each other, and pooping on the unwary pedestrians below. Occasionally one would fly from one perch to another and you could see that iconic batwing shape and also get a sense of just how large they are. Very cool.

The Royal Botanical Gardens

In the cactus garden

Looks like an explosion but it's just another cactus plant

Bottle Tree

Fruit Bats in the trees

Dracula's kitty

Sydney - A Correction

Sharon has informed me that the rock formation I mentioned in the recent post about the Blue Mountains is actually the Three Sisters, not the Three Fingers. How I confused females of common parentage with forelimb digits I cannot say. But I stand humbly corrected.