It took some time but I
finally managed to get my parents into the Hollywood. The day had
been long and tiring but very exciting getting the chance to see all
sorts of weird and wonderful native wildlife, be it in a park.
Featherdale Wildlife Park, and we also spent the morning in the Blue
Mountains, a very scenic location on an hour or so away from the
city.
To maximise the
potential for the day, we left early. After sun rise as we had some
sleepers amongst us. Dom and Nina had hired a people carrier so that
we could all go out with ease. With there being six of us, an eight
seater made light work of the bunch. Even with it being an automatic
with so much torque that at every stopping it left its mark of burned
rubber on the ground.
Trying to get everybody
ready and out in time or at the same time was a very difficult task.
Making sure they all showered, got dressed, did their make up if they
needed etc... was quite a chore. Even with my parents getting up at
about 6am daily, they still took their time in getting out of bed,
dressed and washed or whatever they needed to do. Mainly my mum
actually, utilising the apartments free WiFi. Instead of getting up,
dressed and ready, she'd often lay in bed, playing on her phone. Most
likely scrolling down the news feed on Facebook, spying on her
friends, seeing if anyone was up to no good. Seeking out any hot
gossip or making some of her own, or simply posting photos to her
profile. I don't know and don't really care, as long as she
eventually gets out of bed and dressed and we leave at the time we
said we would. We left maybe half an hour after we'd planned but with
it still being just after 9am, the whole day was still there for our
taking.
First things first.
Coffee and some food before we set off on the long journey towards
the clouds and into the blue haze created by the eucalyptus oil all
over the mountains. So much eucalyptus that there is even a scent
called 'Blue Mountains Air'.
On one of the many ways
out of the city, we stopped off at 'Bourke St Bakery', possibly the
finest breads in all of Sydney. Not that I have had much, it's known
to me because of these amazing little sausage rolls. The famed 'pork
and fennel' sausage rolls contains what looks like carrot, good
quality pork meat, fresh fennel bulb and fennel seeds, all that
packed tightly in the most flavoursome, flaky pastry. Almost a meal
in itself, the best sausage rolls I have ever tried, easily. I've had
many in my time, even some gourmet home made ones from an excellent
caterer who once worked in the kitchens of an old job of mine. After
spilling crumbs of the delicious pastry all over myself, the back
seat and the floor, I sipped at my coffee and we were all ready to
go. Obviously they weren't waiting for me to finish my food before
they set off, it just so happened that I finished at roughly the same
time as my brother and he was driving.
En route to the
mountains via the Parramatta Rd, we passed by Leichardt, my old hold
town. Further and further along the road we came to car showroom
after showroom. It seems that as you get out of the city along the
Parramatta Rd, you first come across antique shops around the
Camperdown area, then wedding dress shops around Leichardt, then the
further you get are contemporary furniture showrooms then what must
be mile upon mile of car showrooms. There must be more cars for sale
than the whole population of greater Sydney. How can the be so many
cars for sale. Passed them it becomes more or less the open road for
nearly a hundred kilometres.
The closer you get to
the mountains, you can clearly see how the surrounding area changes.
The altitude secretly climbs to well above sea level without you ever
really knowing. The start of the trip was in mountainous Surry Hills
which is what, maybe fifty metres above sea level give or take. This
increased to what was about seventeen hundred metres,, which I
noticed on a sign as we pulled into a villages shopping precinct. Dom
needed the loo. Others took advantage of this stop and wandered the
streets, popping in and out of shops and disposing of excess urine
into the toilets provided.
The air was thinner,
only slightly, much fresher. It is quite an off thing to say and
think but the further you get away from the city and into the bush,
the air quality improves ten fold. You can feel it, pure mountain
air. Crisp, scented and mostly pollutant free. You start to notice
yourself breathing more deeply as you realise the purity of the air,
a higher quality, to get better still the closer we get to the
mountains.
We weren't much further
from the mountains, you could see them under the horizon. The hue was
the distinctive blue that is so associated with the Blue Mountains
which is obvious in the name. You really need to see them for
yourself to truly understand why though. It is quite easy to explain
but is something altogether quite special to see. It wasn't looking
to great and I wasn't optimistic about it but the weather was a bit
poo. Clouds concealing the happy glow of the sun.
Not once has there been
a time where I've been to the mountains and it's been a clear and
sunny day. It is always overcast or wet and miserable. Today was
certainly no exception. I've only been twice before though so that
claim wasn't much to go on. There were small patches when the sun
came out, briefly blasting us with its cancer causing rays, heating
up small portions of our arms and faces making them redden slightly,
then it disappeared once again behind the dense and miserable looking
clouds.
By the time of our
arrival at maybe 11am, the sun had pierced the sky, dissipating the
smaller, inferior clouds with its immensely powerful heat. The
darker, denser clouds remained but the gaps between them were now
large enough for the sun to shine through illuminating the mountains
showing them in the most desirable light, to the extent that they
actually did glow a shade of blue. A deep rich blue similar to that
of a late evening sky after the sun has already set and the birds and
over creatures of the day have returned to bed and just before the
blood sucking insects and nocturnal creatures have their time. We
drove around a bit to find a parking spot in Leura, the place with
the walk down to and around 'The Three Sisters' a formation with a
mythological story of lust, jealousy and cowardice ending in the
infinite petrification of three sisters. The moral of the story of
the three sisters is to not fall in love with a member of a rival
clan/tribe, nothing good will come of.
Well, things have
certainly changed now but the sisters are still cast in stone for all
eternity.
Like every other time
I've been to the Blue Mountains, one or more parts of the path. This
time not due to recent weather but because of an inconveniently times
bit of maintenance on one of the paths. We walked down part way
towards the waterfall but only made it a few hundred metres. The path
became waterlogged and slippery, my mum and grandma weren't finding
it easy so we went back up to the top. It was lunch time I think,
we'd spent the late morning at the Blue Mountains, taking in the
sights, basking in the occasional blasts of sunlight and watching the
hoards of tourists with curiosity.
We drove back into the
town of Leura to have a little wander along the streets and get bite
to eat for lunch. We'd all agreed on buying various bits and bobs
from the supermarket to make sandwiches and stuff like that, olives,
cheese, cooked meats, bread and semi dried tomatoes... yummy.
Apart from the usual
souvenir shops, Leura actually had some really cool and different
boutique shops. One specialising in candles with fragrances to
excited anybody's olfactory glands into making their noses twitch
uncontrollably. I thought it was quite funny that the only thing my
mum and grandma were interested in the candle shop was some branches
of fake leaves, they were talking of putting the leaves into a big
vase making it look all pretty. I left empty handed but a head full
of scent.
There was this shop or
shops a few doors down, a boutique clothes and other stuff shop. One
for men and one for women right next door to one another. I was drawn
in by a couple of books, and some other various man things. One of
the books was about beards, not much interest to me as I tend to have
a cleanly shaven neck and chin but the other was about moustaches. I
do have a moustache, quite a big one that I'm growing and trying to
maintain. The books were quite expensive but the shop had so many
other facial hair related goodies. I walked away with a small tin of
moustache wax made in Sydney. It wasn't the most fragrant wax but it
did the job and wasn't unpleasant, it simply smelled of bees wax.
There were so many amazing little things in the shop that made it
hard to leave, we had to though as we had lunch to eat and the animal
park to get to before it the day ran away from us.
We made our sandwiches
in the car, on the move. The best possible way to save time and
maximise mess is to eat without plates, handmade sandwiches in a
moving vehicle. I managed to used one of the meat wrappers as a
rudimentary plate to minimise the amount of crumbs going on me or all
over the floor. After the sausage roll in the morning though, there
was already a bit of a mess. The animal park we were going to was a
bit less than halfway between the city and the mountains, being
slightly closer to the city.
Driving through the
suburb of Bankstown, you go past a school or recreational park and
then there it is. Featherdale Wildlife Park. This special little book
that Dom has gives him access to offers at various venues all over
Sydney, including bars, restaurants and a buy one get one free offer
for Featherdale. We took advantage of this offer and somehow managed
to get hold of two of these magical little dockets. Outside the place
in the pick up/drop off are a were big coaches from all over, some
smaller coaches similar to the ones you see all over Sydney. The
small coaches all seem to be dropping off groups of Asian tourists,
whereas the big ones are people from all over. I imagine that some
are even on excursions from cruises or other package holiday deals.
It would have been
quite possible and probably very easy to sneak in with these groups.
They must all have pre booked tickets as they walked straight in. In
fact it was harder to find the tiny, almost hidden booth where you
bought the entrance ticket. Once found, I purchased two and went in
with my grandma who took her time using the toilet just passed the
main entrance. There was a gate to get in that had to be kept shut, I
imagine so the animals get the wrong idea and think that they can
walk out willy nilly and/or escape.
As soon as you walk in,
you see these little marsupial things bouncing around. They kind of
look like a cross between a wallaby and maybe a possum. Some were
really small, about the size of an average bunny and some were as
large as a dog like a Jack Russell. They were such cute creatures
though, you could even buy ice cream cones stuffed with hay or
whatever it was, instead of ice cream. You wouldn't want to eat one
but the cones labelled as 'Kangaroo Food' went down a treat with the
locals, not referring to the people. I had a look on the website to
find out what the cute bouncy things were but I couldn't find any
information on them, lets just assume that they were some kind of
wallaby.
Behind a big and solid
fence was a most peculiar and prehistoric looking bird. Huge but not
ostrich size with a bright blue mohican thing on its head. A
'cassowary' the most bizarre looking flightless bird I have ever
seen. Massive muscular legs with claws the size of paring knives and
I'm assured they were equally as sharp. If I hadn't stumbled upon a
nature documentary about animals down under, I would never have heard
of or seen these things before. Even with knowing very little about
them I found them most peculiar. The stare one gave was actually very
scary and sinister. Thankfully there was a fence keeping us apart
otherwise I fear things would have been very different and I or some
poor child might have their bowels torn apart and spilled all over
the dusty floor.
Through the next gate
there were dozens of the little wallaby things bouncing around or
lazily sitting on the floor being fed by hundreds of tourists. There
were even small kangaroos standing upright with their pectorals
flexed with arms hanging down looking almost ready for a fight. Some
bird cages around the edge with some parrots and a pigeon called a
'topknot pigeon'. Anybody aware about the current trend of hispters
rocking a topknot. There's this one guy in South Africa daring to do
what we all want, by running around cutting off peoples topknots as
they seat eating eggs Benedict or drinking a flat white. On the far
side opposite the gate was a small covered area about the size of a
standard one car garage. In that space were three stumpy tress with
fork shaped branches. On two of those branches were a couple of
koalas. Not like the sleeping ones in sheds or the occasional one
munching on some eucalyptus leaves. These ones were awake and
allowing themselves to be humiliated by the hundreds of tourists,
poking eucalyptus branches under their noses making them eat. Almost
force feeding them so that they can get up close and stroke their
thighs and get a perfectly positioned photograph. It was terrible...
so I had a go.
Koalas are incredibly
cute things, it's not surprising that they were apparently used in
the design of the most popular cuddly toy in the world, the teddy
bear. Their fur was not as soft as I expected though, I thought given
how cute they were, their fur would be like fluff, like one of those
little cute fluffy bunnies or Guinea pigs. It was coarse, bristly,
quite thick hairs, thicker than a cat or dog in fact. It was almost
as disappointing as stroking a sea lion thinking that it was going to
be as smooth as the finest suede and softer then a water bed but in
actual fact was rough and hard, more like a cow. The cuteness of the
koalas saved them though, especially the one that was getting tired
and decided to go to sleep meaning that he was no longer allowed to
be stroked, instead he probably drifted off into some kind of
eucalyptus induced lucid dreams. Most koalas bear a strking
resemblance to my great uncle, they had the same shaped head, face,
body, everything. They almost look identical, if he were to sit in a
tree and eat leaves he would blend in so well that nobody would even
notice that he was a human, not a koala.
The next enclosure had
bigger kangaroos, not the human or larger than man sized red ones
that would give even the best heavy weight boxer a good fight.
Wombats hiding in holes or under logs. Popping out for a moment then
running, or more likely waddling back to the hole they emerged from.
They were fat round lumps, big heads, stumpy little snouts and wide
bodies. They were cute, really cute. There were a lot more birds with
many different kinds of parrot. Some you see in the wild, others you
only see in films starring Johnny Depp as a pirate. More wallabies
and small kangaroos.
There were a few
different eagles in big cages. One looked like the typical eagle you
see, white, gold and brown feathers with a sharp, hooked beak and
massive talons as large as an adults hand. Another was a small one,
and then there was a huge black fluffy thing. It was not cute but
menacing looking. Although it was slightly comical in the way it
looked like it was wearing a pair of black M.C Hammer trousers. A
square tailed thingy. All of the birds of prey were tearing apart
cute little yellow balls of fluff that were once upon a time living
chicks. Once a cute baby bird that might one day come to laying some
delicious eggs or even become somebodies roast dinner, was in fact in
several bundles of flesh and feathers and in the mouths and talons of
bigger predatory birds.
I went to go and see
the Tasmanian devil. I'd only ever seen them on TV and wanted to know
if they were as violent as the shows made them out to be. They were
actually really cute, really cute, squashed little bodies, big bear
shaped heads with lots of small but very sharp teeth. I missed the
feeding but got to see it laying on the floor, running around and
dragging its arse on the ground like a dog riddled with worms. I did
hear how they got the name, when they are aroused or threatened in
some way, blood rushes to their ears causing them to turn bright red
and to an inexperienced naturalist, seemingly resemble a beast of the
underworld. It was getting late, the sun was slowly beginning its
decent over the horizon and the park looked as if it were nearing
closing time as most of the groups of tourists had left or were
leaving.
We took that as a sign
to start making our way to the exit via a large kangaroo paddock and
through the reptile hut thing.
It couldn't have been,
too public, right out in the open, in front of so many watchful eyes.
The one of the male kangaroos had two smaller females around him, one
very close almost like he was receiving a piggy back from her. Oh,
they were having sex. With his big torso and massive upper body
strength, he held her in his arms. Pumping back and forth and
occasionally slipping out or repositioning her. It was so similar to
watching pornography in a non arousing or sexual way. Sorry, that
sounds disgusting and wrong but it was such a spectacle it was hard
to turn away from. The similarities to some kind of human mating
ritual was unreal. If they didn't have a dear shaped face, big rabbit
like back legs and a long furry tail, it would be easy to mistake
them for humans. The Onlooking tourists that remained were either in
hysterics or were simply appalled by what they were seeing, surely
these animals should be doing that behind closed doors. I thought it
was amazing, I admire the guys confidence, I wish I could be like
that. The other female looked on with jealousy, she wanted a piece of
the action but he was far to interested in the other one, the one he
was currently boning.
We left through the
reptile hut. I'm so glad there was a thick pane of glass separating
some of the snakes and us. A few were ranked very highly on the
'worlds most venomous' list. One held the number one spot, a Taipan
of sorts. The 'Inland Taipan', presumably because it is more into the
bush and desert, not a coastal species. I do not want to ever cross
paths with one of those if I come back to Australia and decide to
venture into the wilderness. I would run a million miles back to the
ocean to seek refuge among the sharks and jellyfish.
A good day, seeing the
natural beauty of the mountains and the natural beauty behind glass
walls or wire fences at the wildlife park. The sun had set and it was
getting darker by the second. We left and went back to the city.
You may be wondering
why this is featured on a beer blog and quite rightly so, it's more
of an essay on the beauty the Australia has to offer. However the day
did end with a trip back to the Hollywood. I had to take my dad there
at least once before we went back to England. Not only was it
imperative that he went because I used to work there but because of
what a brilliant pub it is. We had some dinner, went for a walk and
then popped into the Hollywood. A wonderful way to finish such a
lovely day. Probably one of my highlights so far actually spending
some good time with the family.
Unfortunately Marc
wasn't around but no matter, we stayed and had a few beers. My
grandma stayed at the apartment as she was tired, it had been a very
long day. My mum and dad came, along with Dom and Nina. We started on
Coopers green, an Australian classic, my mum had Café Patron, the
coffee flavoured Tequila based liqueur, Nina had a wine. My dad was
undecided if he wanted another or what he wanted so I got him another
Coopers. My bro and myself went for a beer from Murray's, 'Moon Boy',
a brewery from the wine country. Moon Boy is an Australian Golden
Ale, bursting with tropical fruit and highly perfumed. It was a very
delightful beer, I had another before we left. It had been a long
day, we were all tired so retired to bed.
If your short on time but want to see what weird and wonderful animals Australia has to offer then checking out Featherdale is a must.
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