To Little Marley Beach, Royal National Park

We just can't stay away from the Royal National Park. For the third time in 6 weeks we set off for a trek, or bush walk you could say. The weather cleared up beautifully after a solid 14 days of rain, which is largely unheard of. The news claimed it was not since the early 90s that there had been so many consecutive days of rain. The bad weather records just keep falling this year! To be fair though we've had so much sun that we haven't gotten too bitter when it's rained.

We'd learned that the coastal walks in the national park offered some spectacular views and we weren't to be disappointed. We took a pleasant ferry ride from Cronulla in Sydneys south to Bundeena in the north of the national park. Bundeena is a quaint little town, Chris' boss is of the opinion that all the residents have six toes. Regardless it'd be a beautiful place to live, isolated enough from the city in a spectacular natural setting but also on a short drive away from civilisation. And they didn't look all that inbred.

There were a few disagreements over navigation including Chris chucking a tantie when we went 100m up the wrong street and Dave refused to consult a map more closely or ask for directions. We got onto the coastal path and got hiking without too much delay. The views were beautiful, dramatic cliff faces and rock formations with the vastness of the Pacific on one side and the dense bush of the other. A pleasing lack of bothersome wildlife, no flies or mozzies or spiders and only a few lizards. There was a curiously large birds nest and some pretty butterflies.

We reached our destination Marley Beach in about an hour and half and sat down for a spot of lunch. The waves were huge, violently crashing against the rocks making bathing extremely dangerous. It's prohibited on Marley Beach actually and although you can on Little Marley we gave it a miss as it was really mucky(poor attempt to use surfing terminology, feel free to correct!)

There is a youth hostel in the park around 10kms further down the coast. It's basically just a few cabins with no facilities so you need to bring your own camp gear. We'd love to do that but don't have the resources or time at the minute as the trek there and out the other side of the park you really need 2 days.

Take a look a the photos, some of our best in ages.

To Marley Beach Gallery

ANZAC Day 2008

Aussies, you have to say rightly in spite of the, at best, mixed emotions we have about military service, make a big deal every year for their veterans and those currently in the armed forces.

The big pay-off for us was another public holiday. In NSW at least they get a bit greedy and take most of their bank holidays by April. We've had about 5 so far this year and we reckon it's maybe October before the next one. Foolish if you ask us although there's World Youth Day this year where hundreds of thousands of 'pilgrims' will descend on Sydney to see the Pope, choking up the transport system making it impossible for an honest Joe or Jane to get to work.

On ANZAC morning they have dawn services all round the country, the commitment that getting up at 4am shows is pretty special, it'd be unheard of back home. They even went so far as to recreate Gallipoli beach on the Gold Coast complete with a big mountain of sand an everything. These guys don't do things by half measures. Thousands of ANZAC fans, loads young barely out of school, even made the trek to Turkey and France to mark the occasion.

In residence at the Gold Coast ceremony was Australia's most patriotic and therefore best musician John Williamson (not to be confused with the Oscar winning film music composer John Williams, Chris would not be happy.) He did some favourites like Waltzing Matilda that went down a treat and also dropped a little nationalist gem True Blue containing some tremendous lyrics such as those which ponder if a cockatoo is in fact 'true blue', check the video out below it's well...dreadful (note how the only non-white face appears in the last few seconds.) Dreadful though it may be it does depict a side of Australia that we're curious about and hope to experience during our travels: the outback spirit, small towns, inhospitable vast land, mateship, sheep-shearing and all that.

Plant Watch 4

Right. ET is dead. Chris is hoping for a miracle but realistically he should be put in the bin. While Chopper is actually flourishing!

Sunday Morning Swim at Watson's Bay

Feeling depressed after watching the last ever episode of The Wire we went for another Sunday morning swim – it could be our last as the weather is getting colder! The ferry ride to Watson’s Bay as always was great and the customer service was excellent!


It was lovely being on Camp Cove again as we have not been here since September. The water was beautiful too and the sand was so clean – or so we thought! We were just about to run along the beach when we found a needle! But to be fair if we were junkies we can’t think of a better place to ‘get high’.


After chatting to some American/Canadians about jobs we decided to get some grub. After good recommendations from Doireann and Stephen we finially treated ourselves to a Doyles. Dave had whiting and chips while Christine had hake. Yes. Christine had fish and didn’t die!


We went home in good time as the afternoon thunder and lighting was attacking the city. It was an amaazing storm as the sky turned dark but it was a shame that we didn’t get our washing off the line on time. DOH! If only Dougal was tall enough to bring in the clothes!


Later on we watched El Orfanato which is a really creepy thriller set in an orphanage in Spain. It was brilliant. A tad different from Cloverfield that we watched the day before which is not as scary but still enjoyable.

Watsons Bay Gallery

Scruffys Madness

On Friday night we met up with another of Christine’s school friends Karen McClellend who was visiting Doireann. Although the night was short Chris still had fun acting the goofball!

Scruffy's Gallery

On Our Bikes in Centennial Park

We went down to Centennial Park to get a go on a bike. We could have also went on horses as they are back working again now after the dreaded Horse Flu back in September.




The Bikes were great! It was exciting being on one again and we could go really fast and take over slow people. Even wee Dougal got a go! We have decided we want to get bikes when we go home.

Cycling at the park Gallery