Our Upside-Down Chronicles-2

(The first part of Chronicles read here )

An Alternative Universe

If one calls Australia The-Country-Of-Fern-Which-Won and The-Country-Of-Giant-Crocodiles, one wouldn't be mistaken. Evolution went quite different way here in comparison to the rest of the world.
 

What a luck that in their time Dutch sailed past Australia and the damn captain Cook got here not till 18th century! That's why there is a lot of monstrous creatures here such as mollusks which paralyze their prey, jellyfish which leave on human skin some pretty ugly burns, toothy sharks, the most venomous snakes (a single drop of venom can kill 200 thousand unfortunate mice - has anybody ever checked this?). You can continue on like this endlessly, especially if go closer to the Northern part of the continent. I had quite enough through an exhibition in the Australian Museum called Surviving Australia which give me the creeps.

We didn't get to Australia which tries kill you really. You hardly meet in Sydney city center someone more dangerous than a golden cockroach about the size of an adult finger. But you definitely can get some idea about how different the nature of this continent is. Go to the Royal Botanic Garden, visit two or three beaches and at least one national nature park, hike across The Grand Canyon in the Blue Mountains and take a ferry to Taronga Zoo. We have done exactly this - sure, not in one day. We had a whole month in Australia after all. (Omg, how quickly it passed.)

The best cozy place in Sydney

«We encourage you to walk on the grass, touch the trees, smell the flowers and talk to the birds» - I told you this already, you can walk on the grass in Sydney freely. If you ask me, better do this in the Royal Botanic Garden. This place quickly became my favorite in Sydney and I spent many happy hours there enjoying my cup of coffee, English meat pie and my book.

Feel free to have some watercolor class in the Garden

What comforting me the most - no giant crocodiles in here, tiny worms only

Didn't introduce himself but courted

Idyllic life how I see it

Not in the mood, I am afraid

Told you, The-Country-Of-Fern-Which-Won!

And it means it! No kidding -  this are carnivorous plants

Every time I see this tree I am eager to pick a book The Hidden Life of Trees up

What a giant thread spool!

It looks like Ibis doesn't agree with prohibition sign

Enter water on your own risk!

Have you ever swum in the Pacific ocean, I am often asked – and immediately go berserk. Yes, I have! Got my feet wet, saw a gigantic wave coming my way, went back and kept on eating my barbecue. Yes, ocean swimming is not my cup of tea but if you are mad about surfing - here it is, a personal heaven of surfer. One thing only – don’t forget reading every prohibition sign! They put there in a purpose.

If though you don’t feel like swimming you always can choose joy of hiking through some scenic route along endless beaches and admire the pure beauty of it.

 

 

Now I know where these kitchen brushes came from!

 

You also can watch a stunning sunset...

.

..together with an exotic fellow

 

But there was way much more fun for us just cooking barbecue on the beach.

Be Darth Vader

Why Darth Vader, you will ask. Because of The Grand Canyon in the Blue Mountains. Not only your legs feel tiredness from endless descents and ascents, your ears feel quite weird as well. My ears did anyway. I’ve been hearing this heavy Darth Vader like breathing all three hour it took us to go through the track.

It seemed easy to get to Canyon – only three hours by train. It turned out that from a village train goes to we had to go another hour and half in the heat till the starting point of The Grand Canyon track.

 

 

We walking and walking and walking enjoying the scenes of Australian rural life and amusing how much imagination the Australians put in design of their mailboxes. Just for illustration:

This pic is not mine, just random one from the net. Somehow it didn't occur to us to make a picture of this crazy creativity.

When we finally made it, that was great!

The whole park of fern trees to prove my point about The-Country-Of-Fern-Which-Won.

 

 

Eucalyptus wear pajamas too.

It is weird to see cockatoo instead of pigeons.

The sun was already setting, and the wind brought such a delightful, crisp coolness. No one has left around but us. Pure happiness of misanthrope!

I’ve hears not very pleasant things about these guys. When magpies are in breeding it is dangerous to be around. They can hurt you terribly if decide you are threatening safety of their nestling. Like in Hitchcock’s movie.

And last but not least here are some pics from Minnamurra Rainforest where we have been with our friends on Australia Day (it was a hot day and this park in three hours driving from Sydney had been promising some shadow).

  

(Next stop – Taronga Zoo. Stay tune!)