This week’s post features photos from the trip and text from Chapter 2.  The photo (above) shows the walkway on the eastern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from where I took the featured pic in my previous post.

‘… The day started with my favourite Sydney activity. I caught the train to Milsons Point, climbed to Cahill Walk, and set off across the bridge, a great way to see the harbour’s sparkling waters and pretty foreshores. It is nonstop activity, a crisscross pattern of bow waves and stern wash as boats go about their business: ferries and rivercats, water taxis, pilot boats, cruise launches, charter boats and private craft. The bridge is always moving, rumbling with traffic and trains, and expanding and contracting with changing temperatures. I stopped halfway, 60 m above the water, feeling the vibrations of the massive steel structure …’

The bridge from the pylon lookout

‘… I reached the southeast bridge pylon and climbed 200 steps to the lookout and visitor centre. … From the pylon lookout I enjoyed panoramic views of the city – the Opera House gleaming against the many greens of the Botanic Gardens, skyscrapers dwarfing Circular Quay, and the bridge arch to the north. In recent times, climbing the bridge has become the thing to do – three groups were going up, one coming down – but the pylon has a display, audio and views – and it’s cheaper. …’

Skyscrapers dwarfing Circular Quay

‘I left Cahill Walk and detoured through the historic Rocks precinct. It dates back to the beginning of white settlement following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.

It’s where old and new Sydney meet

Transported convicts were housed here; now it’s where old and new Sydney meet: narrow laneways and worn sandstone stairways slip between two- and three-storey brick terraces against a backdrop of steel and glass high-rise. …’

‘I continued to the Opera House, its white tiles glistening. It was conceived in the late 1940s, a few years after I was, though life for a house of opera didn’t begin until 1955 with an international design competition. Two years later, Danish architect Jørn Utzon

Opera House: mitre-shaped entrance hall and windows

was named the winner. This slow birth of the Opera House was nothing compared to its growing pains, which provided daily fodder for the media. Utzon’s visionary plan baffled designers and engineers for years.’

‘The Royal Botanic Garden is next door. The gardens display a traditional pattern of sweeping lawns interspersed with clumps of botanical exotica, massive shade trees,

… clumps of botanical exotica …

quiet nooks, lily ponds, misty fountains and ornate sculptures. Being close to the city, the gardens provide a shady respite for locals and visitors alike.’

‘The flying-fox colony was a sight to see, and smell, and hear – restless and chaotic, the large bats agitating, irritating, stretching, scratching, and folding and unfolding wings.

A flying-fox colony is a sight to see, and smell, and hear.

They couldn’t settle for long before a neighbour would disturb them, causing a noisy spat with teeth bared. Some had both wings outstretched, exposing rufous bellies. …’

‘Nurses Walk, a series of stairways commemorating Sydney’s first hospital, led to Cadman’s Cottage. It was built in 1816 for the government coxswain John Cadman, who

C adman’s Cottage is one of Sydney’s oldest buildings

managed the activities and crews of the colony’s boats. The cottage – one of Sydney’s oldest buildings and now a historic site – is now the Sydney Harbour National Park information centre.’

‘Snorkels bubbled and flippers splashed at Shelly Beach, and wetsuited students learnt to scuba dive, while toddlers piddled and paddled in the shallows.’

Approaching Shelly Beach from Manly

‘Sydney Harbour National Park is a small area with a big impact, adding a soft green edge to ‘the finest harbour in the world’. I walked the Blue Fish Track, named for the military installations built to protect Sydney.’

Sydney Harbour National Park adds a soft green edge to ‘the finest harbour in the world’.

‘At North Head Road, I took Fairfax Walk to its namesake lookout, with views along the harbour. Three kayakers struggled in the swell below while a dozen yachts arched in

‘ … the distant city a histogram of hazy high-rise …’

the breeze, the distant city a histogram of hazy high-rise. Forested headlands and green foreshores framed the cloud-shrouded water.’

That’s it for this week.

Happy travelling

The photo was taken from the footpath on the eastern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Behind the ferries, it shows the Sydney Opera House, Government House in front of the Botanic Gardens, and city office buildings. We walk the bridge in Chapter 2 and discuss the harbour and its many attractions.

From time to time, I will use text from the book in my posts so readers can get a feel for the story and also get to know my writing style. And where  better place to start than the beginning. Here is Chapter 1.

‘I love trains: I read, write, chat and do sudokus, visit the buffet car, or just gaze out the window. And today there would be plenty of time. The 300 km trip from Canberra to Sydney – from the national capital to Australia’s most populous city – takes four hours. So why not take the faster bus? Simple: trains are more fun.

The three-car Xplorer left Kingston station at midday, the pleasant rolling motion of wheels on track soporific. We added passengers at Queanbeyan, then started climbing through Molonglo Gorge – native pines and scraggly gums clinging to rugged slopes. I opened my map book and began navigating. The train slowed, then stopped, still in the gorge.

After a few minutes, an attendant announced ‘the engine is busted’ and told us we were ‘reversing back to Canberra’. Passengers shook their heads in disbelief, searched for mobiles, changed plans.

Twenty minutes into my round-Australia odyssey and I was going backwards! Who said catching trains was fun?

Two of the train’s three engines were broken; we were to be transferred to buses. ‘The coaches have just left Goulburn; they’ll be here in one and a half hours.’ More phone calls.

Unfortunately, I had boarded the second of the two buses. It called into every whistlestop station along the railway line while – I later discovered – the earlier bus raced nonstop along the highway to Sydney.

Most of us hadn’t eaten since breakfast, as we had planned to buy lunch on the train. It was now midafternoon; stomachs were rumbling. We finally stopped in Mittagong, next to a cafe in a park. Laden with junk food, we sat at grubby picnic tables – a kind of desperate camaraderie, born of adversity, was developing amongst us.

I chatted to Anne, a 30-something New Zealand artist. ‘I combine my art with a gypsy lifestyle’ she told me, ‘it just pays the bills, but more importantly, it keeps me sane.’

Anne was travelling to Sydney to catch a London flight. ‘I lived there for several years; have lots of friends, though this will be my last trip for some time. Flying generates too much carbon pollution. Why are you going to Sydney?’

‘It’s day one of seeing Australia by bus and train. I wanted to travel by public transport, but some long-distance services are privately owned so it’ll be a mix of public and private. I plan to visit national parks, hopefully see lots of wildlife, and write about it.’

‘That sounds great. Is it some sort of personal journey?’

‘I grew up in the flower-power ’60s so I think I’ll call it a “long trip”.’

‘I like that; is it going to be a guidebook?’

‘No, it’s more a story about different experiences, snapshots of interesting places, and chats with people I meet – like you.’

Driver Gary called us to board. Nine hours after leaving Canberra, we reached Sydney, where my brother-in-law Alois met me. By the time we arrived at my sister Bronwen’s house in leafy Artarmon, dinner had become supper.’

Australia is famous for its distinctive mammals, none more so than the kangaroo. Kangaroos are entrenched in our national psyche, they are part of our folklore, our ancient and recent histories. A kangaroo adorns our coat of arms. Our national airline, Qantas, is nicknamed ‘The Flying Kangaroo’, a stylised kangaroo is its logo. Our national supporters flag for all sports is ‘The Boxing Kangaroo’, while individual sports either use the name or variations of it. Our national rugby league side is called the Kangaroos; our men’s football team, the Socceroos; our gold medal-winning women’s hockey team, the Hockeyroos, and our men’s basketball side is the Boomers (a slang term for a large kangaroo).

A television series, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, was one of our most popular programs, with over 90 episodes produced. Fortunately, little Skippy was multilingual, so when the show was sent around the world, Skippy le kangourou was a hit in French-speaking countries, while Spanish speakers enjoyed watching Skippy el canguro.

Kangaroos belong to the family Macropodidae, the word coming from Greek words meaning long (or large) foot. Macropods occur naturally only in Australia and New Guinea. Of Australia’s 45 macropods, seven are extinct. The largest is the red kangaroo of outback Australia. The species that roams Canberra’s hills is the eastern grey kangaroo, the second largest of the family. A standing male typically is about 1.4 m (4’7’’) tall, though big males can reach 2 m (6’6”) and weigh 66 kg (146 lb).

So how did Canberra become the ‘Kanga Capital’? Kangaroos have been here for millennia, surviving hunting by Aboriginals, and land clearing and shooting by white settlers. The founding of Canberra gave them protection, provided a secure water supply in times of drought, nature reserves for them to live in, rangers to look after them, and laws to keep marauding dogs under control.

And Canberra also provided a human community that loves kangaroos, none more so than the city’s panel beaters, those hard-working chaps who repair smashed cars. Canberra’s kangaroos are not restrained, they move freely between reserves via the vast areas of open space described in my previous blog. The only danger ‘roos face is when crossing roads, and, as any Canberran can tell you, seeing dead kangas on roadsides is not unusual. These sightings often equate to smashed cars; even small dents are expensive to replace (nothing gets repaired these days, does it?).

Having an afternoon snooze

As the crow flies, I live about 10 km (6 mi) from the city centre. My house backs on to an artificial lake; the boundary of Mount Percival Nature Reserve is just 200 m (220 yd) away. Every day, I walk my dogs along, but outside, the reserve boundary, beside a creek, below the lake wall. Every day, I see kangaroos. Yesterday, I saw about 30, and took some photos; the day before, about 80. At other times, I have seen over 100 in this fairly small reserve.

Can you find the Joey in the pouch?

The photos show some of the kangaroos I saw yesterday. They were initially lying down, but when I stopped walking to take photos, some stood up. Between the houses and the kangaroos is a busy road. Telstra Tower is in the background; it is close to the city and located in Black Mountain Nature Reserve.

Canberrans are great users of our nature reserves – walking, jogging, picnicking, bird watching – and every day, my experience at Mount Percival is repeated in the other nature reserves. There are thousands of kangaroos in and around the city.

This is why Canberra is the kangaroo capital of the world!

We all know Canberra is the capital of Australia – yes? ‘No’, I hear some unfamiliar accents say. I’m not surprised. Many folks overseas think Sydney is the capital. After all, it is our oldest and largest city, with a population now exceeding 4 million, and is fondly remembered for doing a wonderful job hosting the 2000 Olympic Games. Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales (NSW).

Some people think Australia’s capital is Melbourne. It also has a population nudging 4 million, hosted the 1956 Olympics, and regards itself as the sports capital of Australia. Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria.

Located between these two great rivals, Canberra (population 380,000) is the purpose-built national capital, and is also Australia’s largest inland city.

That’s fascinating, I hear you say, but what about the kangaroos? We’ll get to the hoppy things soon but first some more history.

Canberra is a young city, conceived in the early 1900s to house the Federal Parliament for a newly formed nation – it celebrated its centenary only last year. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), an area of 2358 sq km (910 sq mi) of federal land, was excised from NSW to house Canberra. The city sits in the foothills of the Australian Alps – yes, it snows here, quite a lot in fact – and includes hills and ridgelines supporting a mix of native forest, shrubs and grass cover.

For pointing the development of Canberra in this direction, we can thank Chicago architects Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin. The Griffins won an international competition to design the new national capital, and incorporated significant areas of natural forest into the plan. Subsequent planners have continued this approach, rather than converting our hilly areas into high-priced real estate.

Most of these timbered hills and ridges have since been declared nature reserves. As Canberra expands, more are being established. There are now 34 reserves throughout the city, and collectively they are known as Canberra Nature Park. The combined area of these reserves is approaching 10,000 ha (24,700 acres). It is for this reason that Canberra is often called ‘The Bush Capital’. The city also boasts other large areas of open space: landscaped parks, lake foreshores, playing fields, golf courses, creek lines, horse paddocks, and so on.

The nature reserves and open space areas, together with water from artificial lakes, former farm dams, and rivers and creeks, provide ideal living conditions for kangaroos – and other animals, especially birds.

At last we’ve got to the kangaroos – but more about them in the next post!

Happy travelling.

Stage 1 of the Southern Cross Safari website was launched on 8 July 2014 and has already received a swag of hits. The guys at Pondr, a Melbourne-based IT company, did a great job developing the site – it’s clear, colourful and easy to navigate. It includes a German page if that is your preferred language.

Stage 2 will be launched when print and e-books are available for purchase. The site will also have some new features including chapter-by-chapter photo galleries to complement the written narrative, and an interactive Google map displaying the route.

I’m currently expanding the book’s last chapter to include a few final thoughts. That may push back the end of July completion deadline, but not by much as my editor Maryanne has finished proof reading the other 20 chapters.

As soon as the manuscript is finalised I will start exploring publishing options – and thinking about the next trip!

In the meantime, instead of watching the world go by through a bus or train window, I’m looking out my office window at a cold and cloudy midwinter morning in Canberra. As the forecast is only 8°C, I will have to rug up before taking the dogs for their daily ramble.

Happy travelling

Welcome to this first post of the Southern Cross Safari blog. It is linked to a website of the same name, which is also the name of my travel narrative book. If you have read the website, then you know about the book, so why the blog?

The blog has several functions.  It allows me to tell people how the book is progressing. The answer: slowly but surely!  So, as I sit here, tapping the keyboard, my editor-in-chief, Maryanne, is sitting somewhere else, proofreading the final manuscript. The deadline for completion is 30 July (that’s 2014 in case you were wondering!).  Then it will be time to find a publisher.

The blog also gives me a chance to talk about the book, the stories behind the narrative, both the travel and the writing. The first draft of the manuscript was a brain dump, and produced over 400,000 words. It would have been a very big book, too big. So I spent over a year making many tough decisions about what to keep and what to cut, ending up with about 255,000 words. More rewriting and heavy editing since then has reduced it to its current size of around 240,000 words – it’s still a good-sized read, but then Australia is a big country, with many national parks to explore, wildlife to see and backpackers to meet.

Another function of the blog is to allow readers to ask questions or post comments – so please do.

Happy travelling.