Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House
After a stop at the RV dealers to give them final instructions on the height we want the table cut off to, and to check when we can pick up our motorhome tomorrow morning, we drove the rental car into Sydney. We turned the wrong direction as we left the freeway, but were able to sort out the right route really easily. We got the car back to the rental location in time that we got a reduction of one day on the cost.
We took the train into the central business district where we stopped at the bank again to get our purchase of the car finalized, and get a debit card. There is a free shuttle bus (number 555) that travels around the central area of Sydney, which we took to Circular Quay, the harbour front, where we ate lunch beside the Sydney Opera House.
Daylily, Sydney Botanic Gardens
We spent the afternoon in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, which have a large variety of plants. Most of the plants are not indigenous to Australia, but were imported by early colonists. As well as the plants there were a large number of big fruit bats, “Flying Foxes” that were hanging in the tree tops, and flying about. They are a pest and the park is trying to cut their numbers down. They have stripped the leaves from the tops of many of the trees.
We continued on around the park for several hours, then walked back to Wynyard Station where we got the bus back to our cabin. We got off the bus one stop too early, so had to walk an extra 500 m, which we really didn’t need to do, since we had a lot of walking in the heat today already.
When we left the caravan park this morning we saw our first parrot, and a number of different birds in the botanic gardens, including some cockatoos. We stopped at the gift shop in the gardens and bought a field guide to Australian Birds. We also wanted a field guide for flowers, but couldn’t find one that we really liked.
It was the first really hot day we’ve had, with a temperature that was forecast to go to 27°C and it must have been close to that. Some large thunderclouds built up later in the afternoon, and on tonight’s news they showed large hailstones falling somewhere in Sydney.