The first settlers came ashore near present day Sydney in 1788, landing at a place called the Rock. Today, there are a number of shops and merchants there selling all kinds of wares. In my mind I was imagining a different place called the Rock with a number of shops built into the cell blocks of an ancient prison. (A number of early settlers of Australia were convicts from England, by the way.) The Rock actually turned out to be very much like St. George Street in St. Augustine, but with steep hills. We looked through a number of shops and in one I found my Aussie hat.
I never thought about what I might look like to the locals as I walked out of the shop wearing my hat, inspired by Crocodile Dundee. The next day our guide to the Blue Mountains said that only tourists around Sydney wear hats like mine, usually either Americans or Germans. Guilty on both counts, I thought, being an American of German descent. Still, I think I would have bought it anyway.
We took a ferryboat across Sydney Harbor to Taronga Zoo in the afternoon. (That's where the photo with the red kangaroos was taken.) It's a regular zoo with most of the animals in natural environments and some where people can actually interact with them. The most exciting part of the zoo experience was the bird show. The birds actually fly around free, some buzzing right over the spectators heads: owls, falcons, kites, hawks, cockatoos, etc. It's amazing how quietly owls can fly. It's practically impossible to hear them coming.
By crikey, Mates, it's time to end this blog and find my Way Out.
Next up: the Blue Mountains
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