Maclean to Sydney travels...................
We travelled further south and spent some time in MacLean – the official Scottish Town of Australia! It was great to walk the streets with a variety of painted tartan lamp-posts! Most of us were treated to a hair trim and a chat from a friendly lady called Nancy who was great at welcoming us to the country and recommending places to see! It was very strange to be amidst Scottish tartan and the possibility of haggis once more! We found the McKenzie Tartan lamp post and were amused as we asked the first passer-by to take a photo of us all, stood by our post. Phil explained that we were McKenzie’s and he said – “so am I!” How very strange – so they decided to shake hands!
We stayed at Woolgoolga at the Sunset Caravan Park and we had a great walk around the park at dusk. There were hundreds of Fruit Bats (or Flying Foxes), heading for the fruit trees and the sky seemed to be full of wings!
The Pet Porpoise Pool at Coffs Harbour provided yet another fantastic day out for us all! We were honoured to receive a kiss from a resident sea - lion and a dolphin too- What a great experience! We saw how playful and lovable these creatures are, as they played football around the pool during their free time! Their show consisted of magnificent leaps, twists and tricks, to the skill of balancing a ball on a beak. This centre is home to the first EVER dolphin to perform this trick as he taught himself by watching the sea- lions at work! It is obviously much more difficult for a dolphin to perform this skill as they have a completely different shaped beak to that of a sea- lion.
Each performance was fact-filled with strong messages of how to recycle and how to be a part of saving our planet from destruction. One of the sea –lions is even trained to pick up litter and to throw it away in the correct dustbin!
We stayed at the Koala Villas and Caravan Park after an amazing day.
Thankfully we managed to have an uneventful Friday 13th (there does seem to be a lot of them planned for this year!) and we travelled south and set up camp at Stockton Beach near Newcastle. Jemma and Ben enjoyed watching rabbits around the campsite, and met Tristan and his grandparents. Many thanks for their useful travel tips too!
On Valentine’s Day we arrived at Lane Cove National Park (10 kms from the heart of Sydney). We could not believe the vast number of beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets all around this site and around our pitch too. They even sheltered on our table and chairs right underneath our canopy. They have such amazing colours and are definitely on our ‘to do’ list for when we get home!
As the weather was wet we stayed around camp and did not complain as we realise just how badly rain is needed in these parts. We did manage a quick bush and river walk, in -between showers and we were pleased to chat with a gentleman named Bob Potter who told us interesting tales of his life and time spent in England.
We took the bus and train into Sydney and were stunned to actually be standing outside the Sydney Opera House in all its tiled glory, with views across the harbour toward the infamous bridge. Thoughts of Billy Connolly came flooding back as he climbed the outside of the Opera House during his tour ‘down under’!
We really enjoyed listening to live and traditional Aborigine music with the Didgeridoo! The children had a picture taken as they helped accompany the music with good ‘ole Uncle Max! We added some lovely traditional souvenirs to our collection. We took the foot ferry over to Manly Island which is 7 miles from Sydney but – as they advertise – A thousand miles from Care! We went to see the world famous Manly Beach and enjoyed the local sights before sailing back to Sydney! Phil managed to find a great Australian observer bird book over there too!
To celebrate Ben’s 7th birthday we visited the Sydney Aquarium, at Darling Harbour. We had a great day and Ben particularly enjoyed the sharks (typical boy!) and seeing the corals that we would love to see naturally, soon, at the Great Barrier Reef! It was great to see so many Duck- billed Platypus and to find out about their very unusual features. The whole aquarium was once again jam packed with interesting facts and was very educational. It was great to be able to see the ‘original mermaid’ –a most mystifying sea creature – called the Dugong. This placid mammal eats sea grass in the natural environment and Cos lettuce at the Sydney Aquarium! These two dugongs (the only ones on public display in the southern hemisphere) chomp their way through about 20 boxes of Cos lettuce (with replicated nutrients to sea grass) – EVERY DAY!! It is believed that the mermaid legends have spiralled from their sightings by lonely pirates or sailors. Even though it may look a bit like a cross between a dolphin and a hippo, it actually remains most closely related to – WAIT FOR IT – an elephant!! Ben was over the moon to be able to hold a shark’s egg, as a special birthday treat! There was over 100 metres of underwater tunnels and over 650 species to observe, throughout the whole aquarium.
We took the train ride out of Sydney as far as Holsworthy and then returned back to Sydney, just to be able to say we did!
The birthday celebrations were completed by getting back to Lane Cove for a night walk with a wildlife ranger around the camp grounds. We saw Bush-Tailed and Ring-Tailed Possums, Kookaburras, a Green Frog, as well as Bandicoots and got some spotlighting practice!
We packed up and went on our way towards Dolphin Point. On the way we drove through the Royal National Park which was a very scenic drive. Many thanks to Dave and Meg (our Lane Cove neighbours) for taking the time to write some top visiting hotspots and for even giving us a disk full of photos to go with the notes!
FACTOIDS-
· Professor Michael Dodson is recognised as a proud, courageous and humble leader who has spent his life trying to explain how and why people should help Aboriginal Australians. He has recently been named 2009 Australian of the Year and he received a prestigious award from the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, at a ceremony on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. The National Australian Day Council said Dodson’s lifetime contribution to reconciliation and ongoing commitment to indigenous people and bringing all Australians together was inspirational.
· Grey-headed Flying Foxes occur only in Australia. They may appear to be plentiful but their survival is not assured. Their total population has been observed to drop by one third in just 10 years. The forests of Eastern Australia depend on flying-foxes’ ability to travel far, spreading seeds and pollinating distant blossoms. Flying foxes need forests for shelter and food and now the species are classed as “Vulnerable”.
· In 2008, Australia welcomed 5.6 million tourists, who spent 34 billion dollars on travel and transport.
· Australia has the world’s largest stocks of Uranium.
· Australia has some of the oldest vines in the world. Many of Europe’s established vineyards were destroyed by disease (phylloxera) in the 1800’s. The vines that were bought to Australia survived.
· Termite damage is a major problem for many homes in Australia.
· The letters of POME – as an Englishman is known! – stand for –“ Prisoner of Mother England”.
· Lane Cove National Park has over 600 hectares to explore. It has a eucalypt forest abounding with native birds and animals and was officially named and opened in 1938 (with only 125 hectares at that stage).
· The Southern Brown Bandicoot is a medium sized ground dwelling marsupial weighing between 400 and 1600 grams. It is now only found in Northern Sydney and the South – East of New South Wales, and it is now endangered.
· Maclean is the ‘Scottish Town in Australia’ due to the town’s early settlement by the Scots and it has an incredible community spirit. Each Easter there is an organised Highland Gathering at Maclean and April 2009 will be the 105th year of the celebrations.
· When the first Platypus specimen was sent to England for classification, it was considered a hoax because of its strange combination of features.
· The Platypus is a mammal, but a fairly unique mammal in that it lays eggs. It belongs to the smallest order of mammals called Monotremes, which also includes the Echidna and together these are the ONLY egg laying mammals in the world.
· The Platypus is protected, but its survival is threatened by habitat destruction.
· Crocodiles have salt glands on their tongue to enable them to shed excess salt.
· The temperature at which crocodile eggs are incubated determines the sex of the hatchlings.
· Jelly -fish contain up to 94 % water.
· Approximately 180 species of sharks live in Australian waters but only about 10 of these are considered potentially dangerous to humans.
· The Dugong is a mammal that is able to stay under water for 6 minutes before surfacing!
· The Dugong only feed on a particular species of sea bed grass which has slowly been disappearing due to sediment and pollution runoff – they are now also on the endangered list.
MORE WILDLIFE HITS:
· Australian Wood Duck
· Silver Gulls
· Gold Finches
· Terns
· Black Headed Magpie
· Torresian Crow
· Little Black Cormorant
· Great Cormorant
· Cattle Egret
· Bandicoot
· Green Frog
· Australian White Ibis
· Blue Billed Duck
· Whiskered Tern
· Crimson Rosellas
· Rock Dove
· Red Wattle Bird
· Common Bronze Wing
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 06:07:31 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
Australia