15-16th September: Snorkeling...... Again!

Prachtig lenteweer en bijna geen golven, dus opnieuw een excursie naar Gordons Bay op zaterdagmorgen.

Iain onderweg met Allan van Coogee naar Gordons Bay.

Perfecte snorkelcondities, de zon scheen tot op de bodem van de baai.

Inktvis, de oranje zuignappen zijn zichtbaar, ik zag hem pas toen hij bewoog, zo goed was de camouflage.

Sergeant Baker, bijzonder kleurrijke vis die we bijna elke keer zien.

Port Jackson shark, ruim een meter lang, deze haaien slapen met hun hoofd in rotsspleten. Allan trok hem aan z'n staart om hem te laten bewegen maar zonder resultaat.


Zondag gingen we met een groep van 9 naar Maitland Bay, een snorkelplaats ruim anderhalf uur rijden ten noorden van Sydney.

Onderweg vanaf de auto's naar het strand, met Peter Brotherhood. We hadden meer dan genoeg eten bij ons....

Omkleden op een verder verlaten strand.

Wobbegong shark, deze was ongeveer 2,5 meter lang. Dit exemplaar lag te slapen op de bodem en was moeilijk te zien vanwege de zeer goede schutkleur.


Big Black Stingray; hij was ongeveer een meter in doorsnede, met een erg lange staart.

Een school vis waar we midden in verzeild raakten, ze waren duidelijk niet bang.

Port Jackson shark.

18-19th August: Royal National Park Coast Track

The 23 km long Coast Track in the Royal National Park has been on the list for quite a while. After a careful planning process we decided to do a car shuffle, parking Bill's car at the end of the walk and mine at the start point in Bundeena.

So far so good, the weather was decent and we walked past some pretty beaches.

Still wearing sunglasses, although the cloud was certainly increasing and the end of the day was appoaching rapidly.

One of the cliffs we passed was covered in a layer of fine sand, somehow stuck onto the underlying rock.



End of the afternoon, it was getting dark and it started to rain, and the campsite where we were supposed to camp was still quite far away. In the end we descended to Garie Beach in the dark and camped on a random flat piece of grass.

At night it started to rain properly, it wouldn't stop anymore before the end of the walk. We had enough to laugh/smile about though.





The end of the walk, we probably walked about 28 km in 2 days. The trip wasn't quite over yet though.... A crucial bit of the car shuffle plan went wrong, so we spent most of the afternoon at a birthday lunch in a pub in Scarborough before making it home, with a little help from Bill's friends.

12th August 2007: City 2 Surf

Although I didn't reach the starting area until about
25 minutes before the start, I managed to get quite close
to the front of my starting group by jumping from
a wall at the side of the pack. The winter sun was nice and
warm even though the run started at 9.00. It was a
huge event with 64,000 runners, divided over three
starting groups. I finished the 14 km between Hyde Park
and Bondi in about 67 minutes (forgot my watch for a
more accurate time...).

The finish was right at the sea front,
with plenty of space to cool down.

Vincent, me and Vince's mate Bob.

5th August 2007: Walk in Blue Mountains with Bill

We were planning a big walk to Mount Solitary in the
Blue Mountains and set off at 7am for Katoomba. From
Narrow Neck Plateau we descended the Golden Stairs
into the rainforest down in the valley.
It was all easy walking until we had to climb Mount
Solitary, which very much looked like a plateau, but it wasn't
quite like that. In fact we had to scramble a lot and had excellent
views throughout. We couldn't work out where we were exactly
on the map, so after lunch at about 1 we turned back to make it
back to the car before dark.

Pascal, Sandra, Kim & Anouk in Sydney

1. Aankomst in Sydney om 9 uur 's morgens, redelijk fris!

2. Gelijk de eerste dag al druk, wachten op de boot naar Manly.

3. Strand van Manly.

4. Featherdale Park.

5. Walibi aaien.

6. Zee-aquarium in Darling Harbour.

7. Zaterdagmorgen: snorkelen met "The Boys".

8. Port Jackson shark.

9. Pascal had de wet suit, was wel nodig in water van 16 graden.

12. Op de rotsen tussen Gordon's Bay en Coogee.

13. Narrabeen.

14. Royal National Park, bij Wottamolla.

15. Garie Beach.