Sydney, Australia
4 March 2026
Cockatoos. We’re in the land of cockatoos. That’s the main thing I take away from our first day in Australia. The big white birds are everywhere here, like pigeons or crows at home. David Bowlin has pledged to have one soon in Pocahontas. We’ll see.
We signed up for a 7-hour tour of “The Blue Mountains.” It turned out to take 8 hours, and worth it. Our bus took us about 90 minutes and a whole world away from the city of Sydney, Australia, population 5.5 million.
The Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney, are about 600 feet/180 meters higher than Mount Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas. So we were in ear popping territory, looking down on clouds today. We saw the Australian version of the Grand Canyon, but with waterfalls and a rain forest, and a wonderful boardwalk that took us along the huge boulders and trees, birds and waterfalls.
We were served a great chicken and roast beef lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the mountains and canyon, then rode an inclined railway down the mountain, a cable car back up, and another cable car past one of the great waterfalls.
I was worried that the day was a failure, since David slept all the way there and back, but, well rested, he seemed to enjoy every conscious moment of the trip, and Linda, who stayed awake, got to see the site of the year 2000 Olympics here in Sydney. Twenty six years later, the city is still growing and booming around the Olympic site.
Blue Mountains Inclined Railway Video Inclined Railway Ride Video
Blue Mountains Tramway Ride Video
We’re all agreed that Sydney is the first big city on the trip that we’ve really liked. Their city leaders have obviously had vision, and made their city a nice place to be. Pocahontas could learn a lot from Sydney and their pro-humanity attitude. Pocahontas doesn’t dream. Pocahontas just tries to maintain the status quo. That’s a recipe for decline.
We’re overnight in Sydney harbor. Tomorrow we plan to stroll the botanic garden and the “Old Town” section.
5 March 2026
We’re now in the second month of our three-month voyage, and looking at the famous Sydney, Australia, Harbor Bridge. The bridge, affectionately known as “the Coathanger,” is a world-renowned steel arch bridge opened in 1932. I’d always assumed it was a modern bridge, built about the same time as the Sydney Opera House. But no, it’s nearly 100 years old!
Our guide from yesterday said it’s the longest single arch bridge in the world. I won’t doubt that. It’s more impressive than the double arch M bridge in Memphis. You can pay to climb to the top of it, though I don’t see any reason to do that. As my brother wisely taught me, some things, like the Statue of Liberty, are better viewed from below. I wasted a day one time in New York, taking a long line to get to the top of the Statue of Liberty. You get up there, look out the window, and say, yep, that’s New York City, the same view one can get from the bottom of the statue!
Today we strolled a while in the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden, since it’s adjacent to the Sydney Opera House where our boat docked. The gardens were started in 1816, so the oldest trees are over 200 years old, and huge. We also saw a garden of every cactus variety in the world, and some of them look unworldly. The gardens are beautiful, and a peaceful oasis in a huge city. Unfortunately, none of the photos I made show up on my camera, for some unknown reason. Maybe Linda will post some. She and David took a lot of photos.
After the gardens, we Ubered to “The Rock District,” also near the Opera House. It’s the oldest part of Sydney, dating to when the first English settlers moved into the area, about 1780. Our guide from yesterday explained that England loved to exile their worst criminals. Originally, they sent them to America, but a certain disagreement between the Crown and North America caused the English to begin sending their criminals to Australia, and the original buildings and prison were in The Rock area.
Though originally a rough dockside neighborhood, The Rock is now a rehabilitated area of shopping, restaurants, pubs, and apartments. We had lunch there before returning to the ship and calling it a day. It wasn’t really hot here, but it was humid and that’s just as bad! Tomorrow is a day at sea as we head north to Brisbane.
I met an interesting sort of human in the King’s Grill today. The Grill is the place on ship where you can order a burger or hot dog and they custom make it for you, with whatever you want on it. They give you a little pager you take with you, and it lights up and vibrates when your order is ready to pick up.
I was seated at a table beside a table that had an old guy who looked about 80. He was reading a book. After a while, his pager started vibrating. He kept reading, apparently not hearing it. It stopped after a while, then a minute later it started flashing lights and vibrating again. I waved to get his attention and pointed to the pager. He snapped back, in what I’d judge to be a middle class British accent, “I know! I’m not deaf!” Well, excuse me for trying to help (and trying to help is generally not in my nature)! He was alone, and I can see why.
I attended 3 lectures today. The first was horrible. An Australian man telling about a local bandit in the outback, and he spoke to us like we were all Australians and knew the background of his subject and the details of the little villages where the story took place. David slept through it, and I tried to also. Walking out, everybody around me, even the Australians, were complaining about how bad it was. He has 4 more lectures scheduled, digging deeper into his story, but I won’t be there!
The second lecture was by an Australian police investigator with 35 years experience investigating murders, arson, and all the other crimes in the western half of Australia. He was not a good public speaker, but the cases he presented were interesting, and the police methods described were educational.
The final lecture was also by an Australian, and he spoke about the first voyage of Captain Cook, the British explorer who was the first to really investigate and map the islands and harbors of the Pacific, as well as the continent of Australia. Australia is the same size as the continental USA. Very entertaining speaker. He spent his career as a ship pilot, like the ones who come aboard to guide Queen Mary 2 into and out of the harbors we visit. He has several more lectures scheduled, and I’ll definitely be there for those!
