Lush weather

Friday-Saturday, Feb 12-13: So….37 degree temps during the day and water dumping out of the sky in the evening. Guess what that means? I woke up at 3 a.m. with a mosquito literally feasting on my arm. Seriously. We tussled (this was a good sized bug) and I won. Small victory after his (his? is the sex of a mosquito discernible?) many battles won. I counted 16 bites! I couldn’t help but think that there are lots of young folk all around here, and this mosquito chose my room to find a feast! I have since bought a spray, and pounce with it as soon as I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Saturday, Feb 13: I thought I would walk to Balmain, an area north of Leichhardt (about 4-5 kilometers) located on a peninsula which juts out into Sydney Harbour. It is supposed to be wonderful: a cultural haven for writers, actors and artists, with great views, history trails, old homes…I haven’t seen it yet, as I took a wrong turning and ended up crossing Iron Cove (a bay on the Parramatta River, which is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour) into Drummoyne. Oops! This after walking and walking and walking in the rain. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, and I found the most wonderful bakery on Victoria Street in Drummoyne where I had the best Danish pastry I have ever had…with real cherries! and just the right amount of that hard white icing! and a much needed cup of coffee. I had thought about taking a bus back, but all of the busses would have taken me to Sydney city center, so feeling fortified, I decided to walk back. And it stopped raining, and I discovered Leichhardt Park! I was somewhat startled on entering to see a sign that said “Acute psychiatric hospital area. Please respect …” (can’t remember the rest of the sign). It is quite a good sized park, just about a kilometer and a half from “home” here, and with great views of Iron Cove Creek (creek? I’ve seen rivers much smaller than this, one that we all know in Madrid!) and Rodd Island, which was full of spectators watching the regattas. I was amazed to see how many regattas were taking place on a Saturday here, both on the bay and on the creek. Quite a sight. And I still have Balmain to explore now that I know how to get there!

Sunday, Feb 14: Elena and Richard picked me up at 9.30 a.m., and we drove up to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, to a place called Katoomba, which has the most incredible view of a valley…except Sunday it was all fogged in! Still, I got a distinct impression about the height of the bluff we were on, looking down into the white mass into what seemed like a bottomless pit. We could clearly see the Three Sisters, formed by three very tall formations of rock, standing side by side. We ate lunch at a place with an incredible view (in spite of the fog!) of the most amazing cable car I’ve ever seen. From where we were sitting, I could see across to another high cliff where there was this tiny tram car inching itself at a 60 degree angle down (down ? of course, there is a cable, but not visible from where I was sitting!).






How's this for clinging tenaciously?


Then, after lunch, we drove south east, towards Wollongong, and stopped at Austinmer Beach (hey, my first close-up view of a beach!) and from there we drove north along Lawrence Hargrave Dr. (he invented the box kite, and thus helped aviation along its way to where it is today). The drive is beautiful, especially the Sea Cliff Bridge, which is actually an off-shore part of the road, rather than a bridge. The original road hugged the cliff face, but falling rock caused too many accidents, so they built the road out over the sea. Then we drove onward towards Royal National Park, and stopped at a vantage point called Bald Hill. Again, the fog meant I had to use my imagination…and my hopes to return someday to see it in bright sunshine! When I got home, I googled it and found a picture
which shows that indeed the view offered extends all along the coast.






I haven’t seen any koalas or kangaroos (I’ve been told I have to go to the zoo for that), but Sunday I did see quite a few spectacular cockatoos!


Monday and Tuesday (Feb 15 and 16) were head down and work days. Though Tuesday I tried a new route home for U Sydney and hit gold in terms of highly pleasant walks. I walked all the way down Glebe Point Road, a road that begins just north of the U Sydney campus, and which goes all the way down to the harbour, angling northwest (the key part of that word being ‘west’, in which direction lies Leichhardt). I have to admit that Glebe Point Road might beat out Norton Street for interesting cafes and restaurants. Plus it runs almost right into Bicentennial Park, which I have now written about twice! So this wonderful road took me right down to this wonderful harbourside park, which then deposits me about 2.5 kilometers from Norton Street. And the walk through the residential streets from the park to ‘home’ really is delightful. The weather turned this week, cooler temps and the humidity has dropped. But all of the rain and heat last week have made for lush growth, and there is, in addition to a rich green color, the most incredible smell of honeysuckle everywhere. Added to that is the smell of barbecue (a favorite Australian way of cooking), making for a delightful walk home. Also, there are a couple of other smaller parks along the way…this is one of my favorites, with the huge tree right in the center of the pathway that cuts diagonally across the park.

Today I went over to Macquarie University (on the north side of the harbour) and gave a talk. It was delightful – everyone was so welcoming, and quite a bit of very fruitful discussion got going, which continued after over some food and coffee, and then continued some more on the train back to city center. All of this good stuff does help me to forget the mosquito bites up and down my arm!