Koala at West Pennant Hills
Kangaroo with Joey
On display
Looking out towards Manly from Dobroyd Head
Sorry, wrong way up! Dobroyd head Some days you win some days you don’t. Monday was most definitely a non winner. It started well enough. Ruth and Stephen and I set off in the morning to visit a Koala Sanctuary in Pennant Hills.
However, when we arrived there, there was a NO ENTRY sign and it soon became clear that the site had been brought by property developers. After several ‘phone calls we found another Koala Sanctuary in the opposite direction. We could have gone to Taronga Zoo which is very near Ruth but none of us was happy about seeing animals in cages. So we decided to make for the other “Sanctuary”. When we arrived, we soon discovered that we would have been better to visit the Zoo. Although many Koalas were free to roam the trees in the place we visited most of the animals were kept in poor condition with little natural shelter and the birds were in small cages. We were very glad to have seen Koalas but felt that the conditions in the place were horrible and left as quickly as we could. We dove back to Balmoral for lunch which took an age and on the way I managed to pull the zip off Ruth’s handbag.
After a some what morose lunch, we cheered up with a walk round Dobroyd Head which is part of Sydney Harbour National Park, overlooking Manly, with a view from Arabanoo Lookout over the Australian town of Fairlight ( see pic). Abaranoo was an aboriginal man who was captured by the British and kept in chains. His captors said that he adjusted very well to the European way of life but the poor man only lived for about nine months after captivity because, like many aboriginal people who had no immunity to European infections, he fell prey to smallpox and died.
There were some wonderful bush plants and flowers on the walk, including the Sydney Flannel Flower which has petals that feel like winceyette sheets and is quite beautiful (see Pic).
On the way back, we were unfortunate enough to be stationary, waiting to turn right on a major carriageway, when two cars crashed into the back of us. We were all a little shocked and suffered a bit of whiplash as a result but fortunately no great damage was done to our cars nor to ourselves. After returning to my sister’s, I cooked supper in order to unwind. At last we sat down to eat, when my chair completely collapsed and I fell on the floor! Finally, when we thought all the disasters had finished we came indoors and switched on the TV whereupon there was a flash and it blew up! We quickly went to bed.
However, when we arrived there, there was a NO ENTRY sign and it soon became clear that the site had been brought by property developers. After several ‘phone calls we found another Koala Sanctuary in the opposite direction. We could have gone to Taronga Zoo which is very near Ruth but none of us was happy about seeing animals in cages. So we decided to make for the other “Sanctuary”. When we arrived, we soon discovered that we would have been better to visit the Zoo. Although many Koalas were free to roam the trees in the place we visited most of the animals were kept in poor condition with little natural shelter and the birds were in small cages. We were very glad to have seen Koalas but felt that the conditions in the place were horrible and left as quickly as we could. We dove back to Balmoral for lunch which took an age and on the way I managed to pull the zip off Ruth’s handbag.
After a some what morose lunch, we cheered up with a walk round Dobroyd Head which is part of Sydney Harbour National Park, overlooking Manly, with a view from Arabanoo Lookout over the Australian town of Fairlight ( see pic). Abaranoo was an aboriginal man who was captured by the British and kept in chains. His captors said that he adjusted very well to the European way of life but the poor man only lived for about nine months after captivity because, like many aboriginal people who had no immunity to European infections, he fell prey to smallpox and died.
There were some wonderful bush plants and flowers on the walk, including the Sydney Flannel Flower which has petals that feel like winceyette sheets and is quite beautiful (see Pic).
On the way back, we were unfortunate enough to be stationary, waiting to turn right on a major carriageway, when two cars crashed into the back of us. We were all a little shocked and suffered a bit of whiplash as a result but fortunately no great damage was done to our cars nor to ourselves. After returning to my sister’s, I cooked supper in order to unwind. At last we sat down to eat, when my chair completely collapsed and I fell on the floor! Finally, when we thought all the disasters had finished we came indoors and switched on the TV whereupon there was a flash and it blew up! We quickly went to bed.
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