Lost in Sydney.

I started off this weekend going to a Sydney event called Night Noodles Market. It's basically a lot of asian and indian food stands in Hyde Park with some beer tents and music. It was a very pleasant way to spend an evening eating out in the park.

Here you can see Allen looking shocked at the number of stands of cheap food available. Even Wagamamas had a stand where you could buy their food. I ended up having some roast duck on rice with some salt and pepper chilli squid.

Allen had hired a car for the week so on Saturday morning Deirdre, Allen and I went to the Royal National Park just an hours drive south of Sydney.

We went there to do one of many planned bush and jungle walks. The one we chose was rated difficult in level and was about 10k long. We parked the car up at the beginning of the walk and then set off with plenty of water and Subway sandwiches.

The walk started of with a steep descent down to the beach. Allen just had to take a dip in the water when we got there while Deirdre and I watched. The sea was a little too rough for our liking. That and there wouldn't be a hunky lifeguard to save us. :-)

The first walk picture is of the view looking back at the beach where we just were. The landscape really reminded me of several scenes in the TV series Lost.

I really could imagine that we were the characters in the series just heading inland from the beach.

Here is Allen and Deirdre walking through some of the jungle. I'm not sure whether I was more worried about walking into a spider or a snake. I think the spider came top but I put it to the back of my head and carried on.

The walk was really good and not too difficult either. I was expecting something much more strenuous. The only thing that was annoying though were the flies that bothered all of us at the start of the walk.

Once we entered the jungle section of the walk which was quite shaded there were hardly any flies about at all. I suspect all the spiders had eaten them. Fortunately they were probably too full to manage to eat me for desert as well.

Here is the view from a lookout point ledge at the end of the jungle walk. Again you could walk right up to the edge of the ledge and look down into more jungle.

There were even some secluded houses by the beaches. We guessed that the only way they could receive supplies would either be the long walk or by the sea. They definitely didn't have connection to the mains or running water.

Below is a picture of a couple of waratah plants. The emblem of
New South Wales. They reminded me of sunflowers because of how high they grow.

Once we got back to the car we drove further south to Wollongong. Allen used to live here when he was a medical student and studying here for a few months.

We had his grand tour of where he used to live and also which hospital he worked at.

On Sunday we all met up at Manly beach for a swim and to also meet Roger's sister and her friend who had arrived in Sydders on their way to New Zealand. I decided to cycle down to Manly from the CBD as it would be quite good fun and there would be a welcome sea for me after the long cycle. It only took me an hour this time round as I went the direct main road route and only stopped a couple of times.

The swell at Manly was quite big and I distinctly remember watching Allen in the sea with a big wave behind him which was almost twice as tall as him! It was quite good fun for a while watching the waves come in and diving below them just before they hit you. You couldn't really swim much but just trying to stand in the waves was fun.

The day was finished off with another trip to the Orbit Bar and then we went to a 24 hour cafe/restaurant at Circular Quay for a late night dinner. Don't worry I made up for the late night dinner with an extra long 90 minute session with Quentin on Monday morning.