Goulburn-Jervis Bay-Fitzroy Falls

Back in June, we decided we needed to finally start taking advantge of Canberra's location and do some of the day and weekend excursions in the area. Top of the list was to go to Jervis Bay on the coast to watch the whales migrate north. The waters of the Antarctic get too chilly for them in the winter, so for two months every fall you can watch them swim up along the Australian coast (or back down it every Spring). We decided to make a weekend of it and stopped at a few places along the way.

 

The first stop was Goulburn, which was Australia's first inland city. City, of course, being used very loosely here. Goulburn's economy was, and still is, powered by the local wool industry enabled by the importation of a large number of Merino sheep from England at the turn of the century. To honor this tradition, the city of Goulburn has constructed "The Big Merino." Isn't he majestic?

 

 

There is a small musuem and gift shop. Laurel got some really nice leather gloves. You can also walk up inside and look out the sheep's eyes. Totally worth a stop. The Big Merino is part of a, mind the pun, grand tradition in Australia where small towns build large monuments of ordinary things as a way to boost tourism. There are giant bananas, prawns, the list goes on and on. Laurel's co-workers insist that this is just one of the many things Australia is world famous for. That's a little bit of a stretch.

The town of Huskisson is the nearest town to Jervis Bay and we stayed in a very cute Bed and Breakfast right off the main stretch of town. The following morning, after an amazing breakfast that included homemade poached fruits, we set out to the bay to meet our whale watching boat, and for an ice cream snack.

 

Our boat! We were on the Whale Watching Extreme tour, because that's how we live our lives- EXTREME!!

Australia is a very rugged country, and it does not have the long, sandy beach coastlines that we associate with the ocean from east coast United States. It's more sheer cliff-face, with small beaches and bays nestled in here and there. It's understandable why there were so many shipwrecks back in the day and why Sydney Harbor was such a prized area in the exploration and colonial days.

The ocean current (the same one immortalized in "Finding Nemo") runs right off the coast, flowing south, so the whales swim right up next to the rocks to avoid swimming against the current. Lucky for us since it makes it way easier for us to see them.

After a few misses and getting quite a few pictures of nothing but ocean, Laurel figured out the rhythm and started getting some great pictures. We figure we saw about seven different whales, most of them Humpbacks (thanks Star Trek IV!). Laurel also saw a seal, but Greg was looking the wrong direction.

The ultimate in whale pictures- the whale tail!

When one of Greg's coworkers came to Jervis Bay it was apparently a very windy day, and the boat was rocking so much that some people got seasick. Apparently, this is a great time to see whales, as their guide said, "Whales love wind." They saw several whales full on breach out of the water, and slam back into the ocean. We didn't have any of that, but we saw planety of whales, and it was a beautiful day. We'll consider it a success.

After saying hello to the whales we drove a little farther down the coast to see Hyamm's Beach, which supposedly has the whitest sand in the world. I'm not sure if it's the whitest, but it's pretty white. Also very rare, since the whole beach was maybe 40-meters across.

What is it about rocks that just make you want to stand on them?

This is the greatest sign ever. Beware of cliff.

On Sunday, as we were driving back, we first went a little farther south to enter the Jervis Bay National Park to visit the old lighthouse on the cliffs. It's also a great place to look out for whales.

This lighthouse has a great story behind it. When it was decided that a lighthouse was needed due to the frequent and catastrophic shipwrecks in the area, no one bothered to consult anyone with a nautical background. Instead the engineers just built the lighthouse and figured any high point was fine. Not so fine. Turns out, they put it in about the worst possible place, as the number of shipwrecks actually went up. Mariners followed the light, and it promptly led them into the rocks. It was also considered to be haunted as several of the lightkeepers and their familes suffered unfortunate tragedies. Eventually, the lighthouse was torn down, well blown-up actually, and a new one, after proper surveying, was constructed on the other side of the bay. 

Some of the nefarious rocks below.

On the return drive home we made our last stop at Fitzroy Falls. It's funny, you are driving along the highway, stop in the carpark, and only as you begin to walk along the trail do you realize that you've been driving pretty high up over the valley. The land just opens up, it's incredible. The Falls couldn't have been more than a half kilometer hike.

It's also interesting just how much of a change elevation makes to the climate. When we stopped for lunch in a small town in Kangaroo Vally it was sunny and hot. We had coats, but didn't need them. Just a thirty minute drive up the road, granted a road that took us up about 600 meters of elevation, it was quite chilly with a fair amount of wind. A very nice scenic walk, just a surprisingly cold one. We kept an eye out for platypus, but once again, sadly, we didn't see any.

Below the falls stretches the immense Kangaroo Valley. Such a beautiful country.

We went to Sydney!

Man, don't we look happy? It's because we went to Sydney! After four months of trying we finally coordinated our calendars with our friends Alex and Matthew. We went for a weekend of fun and sightseeing in Sydney back in April. This picture was taken at a cute little waterside cafe where we had brunch. Brunch- the greatest meal ever in Australia.

After brunch, we went for a stroll along the walkway which was populated by lizards on the rocks. Here's one guy just saying hello.

This lizard seemed to be very interested in the surf.

After our brunch we started in on some super touristy stuff. Alex and Matthew were nice enough to not roll their eyes too much at us while they came along. We drove up to Manly beach, which is one of Sydney's more iconic suburbs. It even has its own rugby league team, the reigning premiers, the Sea Eagles. Alex said that people from Manly tend to be a very insular crew. Her co-workers from there pretty much associate only with each other, and only go out in Manly. It was a pretty nice area and beach. We rode the ferry back to the Inner Harbor, snapping some great pictures of the city and the Opera House on the way. Riding the Manly ferry is high on the list of things to do in Sydney, we'd recommend it.

From there we walked over to the Museum of Modern Art. Along the way there was a group of Aboriginal Street Performers. Laurel donated a few gold coins and we got a great picture!

Matthew hates the Museum of Modern Art. That was even before we walked in and discovered that all modern art is terrible and really not what any of us would classify as art. When the building was soliciting design ideas, he submitted one, which was not selected. The building they built is not great (which matches the art inside, so maybe that's what they were going for?), but it did have a rooftop cafe which had a great view of the city. Here's the harbor bridge on the horizon.

On Sunday, Matthew had to go into work (booooooooooooo), and we discovered that Alex is many things, but tour guide is not her forte. She actually took us to great places, but didn't sell them very well. Example:

Greg: "So where are we?"
Alex: "The Gap. This is where people go in Sydney to commit suicide."

That does explain this sign and the subsequent phone booths that we came across about every 200 meters.

Amazing, right? Alex took us to the Sydney Harbor National Park (refered to as The Gap), which consists of the cliff face that separate the Sydney harbor from the Pacific Ocean. It is beautiful and majestic. Also, how great is the picture warning that there is a falling hazard?

We were there, and it was awesome. Definitely another Sydney must see.

Looking the other way, great views of the city from there too.

The three of us, enjoying a great day.

This is the anchor of one of the, what sounded like, hundreds of ships that have shipwrecked in the area as a monument to those lost at sea.

Oh, and giant spiders liked to build webs over the walking paths, which is terrifying. These pictures do not do the size of these spiders justice. Australia- a welcoming place.

We finished off our day with a trip to the other famous iconic Australian beach- Bondi. It's definitely a very social and touristy hang-out. Stores and shopping line the beach and a major road goes right by it. It's a big beach for surfing. We were surprised that there wasn't a giant Oporto restaurant right in the middle of it though. Oporto is a local fast food chain which makes chicken burgers, and its entire advertising campaign is centered around Bondi Beach. Their main sandwich is even called the Bondi Burger.

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend! We did a lot of the touristy things in Sydney we hadn't done yet, even though we've been to the city several times before. Sydney is just a gorgeous, picturesque city, that while we don't think we would want to live there, is definitely a place that deserves regular visits.

Multicultural Festival and Bangladeshi Fair

A few months ago, (April I think) it was time for Canberra's yearly Multicultural Festival. We forget why we missed it last year (I think it was raining), but we made sure to go this year. From Friday at noon to Sunday night downtown Canberra is taken over by arts & crafts booths, food carts, and performance stages. The festival breaks into basic geographic areas covering the entire world. We went on Saturday and kind of just entered at random and milled around, eventually finding ourselves in the Polynesian section. We watched the shows and dancing a little bit before peeling off to find more food.

We would not advise messing with the guy on the left.

The place was absolutely packed. We had no idea Canberra even had so many people. It seemed like every country in the world had a booth too, most of them with food or something to sell. We're pretty sure they were all sponsored by the local embassies. Strangely, the US stand was not selling hot dogs.

Each booth had their country's representative flag displayed above, so that you could more easily identify them through the large crowds.

Polynesian woodcraft for sale!

While the women were working the booths, the guys were hanging out here drinking something from coconut shells. Whatever it was, it looked very exotic.

Clearly, we came for the food. It's one of those events that no matter how hungry you show up, and no matter how long you stay, there is just no way you can stuff in all the delicious things there are to try. We had a plate of West African rice and beans and pork, an Eastern European honey liquor (terrible), turkish snacks, and then we turned the corner and found the booth we had been looking for- Finland! Look how happy Laurel is with her pulla!

The next day, another local embassy was sponsoring an open house/fair. This time it was Bangladesh, a country we don't really know all that much about. We still don't know a whole lot about it, but we do know that they have very friendly people, delicious food, and adorable babies, as demonstrated below.

Now, the first thing to remember about fairs like these is you can't just dive in and go eat at the first table you see. Rookie mistake. You need to make a circuit and see what your options are in order to develop a gameplan. Although, we did decide we needed some chicken kabobs while we did that.

Success! This was an orangey, rice pudding. Amazingly good, but ridiculously sweet. It probably took us the better part of a week to finish off the whole container.

This, my friends, is why you have to scope the whole place out. In the very back was a family selling smorgashbord plates with small servings of about a dozen different dishes. For people like us, who want to sample as much as possible, it was perfect. Wow, was it good. After licking the plate we went back to tell them how good it was, and we took a picture of Laurel with the family.

Hmmmmm, sweets. I'll have one of everything.

Those are some happy, well-fed faces.

One of Greg's co-workers went as well, and ate at the same family table that we did. She said that it was one of the better meals she's had since she's been in Canberra. We don't think we would go that far, but it was fantastic. So, if you come cross a Bangladeshi restaurant in your neighborhood, we highly suggest you eat there.