Capertee Valley Camping With The Gang

Friday afternoon we headed towards the backside of the Blue Mountains for a bit of a camping bonanza with the gang ... the first hour or so was however spent on Parramatta road wondering why all the other people living in Sydney had decided to leave at exactly the same time as us.

Got to the campsite at around 8pm just in time to join an action packed game of card so thrilling that Gemma managed to stay awake until nearly 12 o'clock - guess the means the jetlag excuse cannot be used anymore :-)

Early morning in the Valley gave a rare display of Australian frost - some readers of the blog might find the sighting of frost a non-event, but living in Sydney it is one of those things you have to travel to experience :-)

Even the welcome swallows had found the winter coats to stay warm :-) After an early morning bird and photography walk it was time for some good solid camping breakfast. So impressive was the amount of action going on that it attracted a couple of younger campers and we all learned how well A + J and uncle P deal with fire and sharp equipment in presence of tiny fingers.

Despite having walked close to 4 hours in the morning, the energy intake during breakfast .. and/or that fact that the camping site was as busy as a Sydney beach suburb made us seek the comfort of the hiking boots and the tranquility of the bush again. This time heading heading up the Newnes track.

After returning to the campsite we were joined by Dr I who had decided to join the party, great guns, no names mentioned but I guess a few of the happy campers thought there would be a chance of gaining a bit of glory during the card game in the evening having a(nother) virgin "500" player in our midst :-D

To be continued ..

... And A Bit Of Sydney

After our early morning trip to the cliffs of Coogee, we decided to push the tourist theme even further and do the Circular Quay with Opera house and Harbour bridge combo followed by The Botanical Garden - the chance of seeing the Barn Owl down there might have added just enough energy to the equation to let us squeeze above the activation barrier and suddenly we found ourselves sitting on the bus heading towards the absolute tourist hotspot of Sydney.

Had a great few hours in the Botanical Garden. Great spot, lots of stuff to be amazed about. The flying-foxes are always worth an extra look and we managed to find a part of the garden where neither of us have ever been ... but we did not see any owls.


After using a bit of time running around in the fern house pushing all the most arty buttons on the camera doing portraits of everything from Gemma to Staghorn Ferns we took of towards China Town - we were going shopping :-)

Paddy's markets! My Danish tourist book failed to tell about this place and therefore obviously did not put it on any "what to see in Sydney" list either. I would probably rate it as one of the things to see if any of the readers should decide to visit Sydney. There is a bit of everything and if you dare I can recommend going Sunday afternoon somewhere around 4.30pm to see the absolute mayhem taking place 30 min before closing time when all the fruit salesmen goes ballistic in an attempt to get rid of the last bit of fruit that still is sellable, but will not have a chance the day after.


Near perfect day! I always wonder why we need to carry 10 bags of fruit home, but must admit that it is tasty and great to have in the house and many boys out there will probably envy me for carrying bags home after a trip to town with the girlfriend not much more expensive than $1/kg ;-)

By pressing the little picture below you will be taken to the Picasa album where there will be a few extra pictures from downtown Sydney.

A bit of Sydney

A Bit Of Coogee

A Sunday winter mornings around Coogee is not to shabby; blue sky, no wind and good waves. Unfortunately the waves ruled out snorkeling, but nothing wrong in finding a cliff top with a bit of vista potential and just enjoying the views.

Having all of that water and those rocks less than a 5 minuet walk from your front door nearly makes it a crime not to take advantage ... luckily Gemma is here now so that I remember to run around and behave like a tourist :-)

Botany Bay National Park - Southern Emu-wren Country

Once again the shining bonnet of the Magna was pointed towards the south end of Sydney on an early Saturday morning. Again the destination was the scrubby bush covered coastal area between Kurnell and Boat Harbour, with a planned rendezvous with the Shasha + Amoore cycling team conveniently pit-stopping at the mangrove viewing platform few kilometers from Kurnell.

Flanked by an Eastern Curlew, some Bar-tailed Godwits, the little Solomon and once again an upbeat Sintic I was in great company, which was of great value, since apparently the peloton had started the morning stage at a rather leisurely speed.

Well worth the wait, the newlyweds were in fine fettle and the conversation very entertaining. As usual a volley of topics were dealt with in an appropriately humorous style, including sorting out the migration pathways of the various waders, the quality of old Nikon glass and more importantly where to go camping next weekend - amazing how a few minuets of face to face chat can solve what would otherwise need 15+ emails ;-)

As the peloton headed west, we took off towards the windswept coastal scrub - The land of the Southern Emu-wren! To shorten an already quite long story - "Yes" luck was once again smiling our way! Sintic saw his Albatross ... next time it will hopefully be less than 1 kilometer away :-D But more importantly we had excellent views of first a single male Southern Emu-wren and later a brief, but close encounter with a pair.


Great guns - I had seen the SE-w before, but did not have a picture, so glad to sort that out. My two companions were equally thrilled and I am afraid a spark has ignited what will turn into a raging fire ;-)

Pitt Town and Bushell's Lagoon - Again with an American twist

Some of you might remember the action-packed triple feature Sunday Lagoon bonanza previously described here at this site, where the Sintic and yours truly combined forces and managed to cover most of the birding hotspots of the north-western end of Sydney in only one day.

The American ticking machine had read both the Pitt Town and Bushell's Lagoon posts and demanded to be taken there already on her second day in Sydney .. impressive speed of the little American tornado :-) I was easily convinced due to the lack of Pink-eared Ducks at our last visit and there was always the chance of the Bittern :-)


No Bittern, but we sorted out the Pink-eared Duck and saw a few Australian Shovelers, tick-tick! :-) Also, my companion managed to finish of the Ibises, indeed we saw all three during the trip including the Glossy.

Bushell's lagoon proved less vibrant than it had been on my previous trip. However, there are always good opportunities of a bit of BIF photography and a group of nine Goldfinches was in charge of the entertainment, only interrupted by yet another Black-shouldered Kite flying back and forth, seems they are all over the place at the moment! How many do you have to see, before you claim one of them as a Letter-winged equivalent? ;-)

Botany Bay With An American Twist

Got up early Saturday morning, I had a little package flying in from America - not bad at all :-) After dragging the usual +70kg of luggage up into the apartment and a bit of whining about the level of jetlag. We soon realized that unless the rest of the Saturday was going to be conducted with closed eyes, we had to get out where there was sunlight, a gentle sea breeze and preferable a bit of excitement happening ... well, well off to the south end of Botany Bay National park, where recent rumors would know, that a bit of wildlife action was going on.

First surprise was the spotting of a bewildered cyclist obviously dropped by the peloton, but with the usual cyclist attitude, claiming that he would be able to catch up with the break-away after a little rest. Unfortunately he had managed to scare away any sign of wildlife around him - probably due to the heavy breathing - and after a few polite greetings we continued south and saw him head back towards the vibrant suburb of Marrickville.

We had a great walk along the coast, the pure beauty of the place made it difficult to fall asleep and when the vistas were not enough, a bit of balancing along the cliffs edge made sure we were all alert :-)

The Grass Owl was hiding, which gives me a one up on the American ticking machine, but boy does she attract wildlife!! :-) It was all happening at sea, on land and in the air.

We managed to get sufficient views (but less than impressive pictures) of a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater taking a bath. Saw a few albatrosses and a Southern Giant-Petrel, which was very nice after having used quite a few month at the cliffs around Long Bay only being able to spot the northern cousin. But the highlight of the day was no doubt having eye-to-eye contact with a Black-shouldered Kite.

Great day down south, impressive effort to get off the plane and hit the bush straight away ... have a sneaking suspicion though that those binoculars were held high once and a while to sneakily hide a closing eye or two ;-)