Slimy Jewfish in Sydney

16 November 2009

Sydney, at last! Last stop on the Oz Express. Camped two nights at Lane Cove River National Park, which is Eco friendly and zero carbon and all that hippie junk. Also home to insanely unafraid animals who clearly spend too much time quality with people. Bandicoots chased us away out of our own chairs and away from the beer—little buggers with their freaky glowing eyes. Ugh. Isis birds (the big nasty ones with long, curving black beaks), magpies dive bombing brush turkeys. Crikey! I don't trust any animal that isn't afraid of people. It's just not natural.

Took Sydney's very nice trains into and out of town on Saturday and Sunday, in between sorting out the campervan—actually cleaning it for once, what to keep (pink sheets), what to drink lots of (wine), etc. Gave unopened stuff to some nice Germans, ten minutes later offered a similar pile of food and wine by other Germans also leaving their campervan behind. Maybe it's a Teutonic instinct. Ja. Sorry to leave Charlotte, actually, she's been brilliant and good fun. We would definitely campervan ourselves around Australia again—I can't imagine a better way to see this country.

We seem a bit travel fatigued—not in a huge rush to see Sydney itself, instead we're taking out time and stretching some leisurely sight-seeing over the four days. Saturday we got to see the iconic Sydney Opera House, which is beautiful. But strangely disappointing—I think maybe it's more impressive in pictures. In real life it's sort of beige and mounted on brown granite, so it's a little reminiscent of a 1970s school cafeteria. It always looks so white and stunning in photos. Still, cool. Have booked ourselves into an all-female production of 'The Taming of the Shrew' there tomorrow night.

Took the ferry to Manly, across the harbour, and one of the lovely beach-side suburbs surrounding Sydney proper. The ferries are included on the travel day pass, and run constantly all over the little coves and harbours on Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour to you people who aren't, you know, here). Spent some time in The Rocks, the gentrified and lovely historic district, home to a craft market that the Lonely Planet is scathing about and which I therefore loved, had a pint with all the other tourists in the Oldest Pub in Sydney, saw the Sydney Museum. Last camp meal, pork steaks in a mustard and balsamic sauce with baby spinach and a bottle of shiraz. We are spoiled.

Today we took Charlotte home to her Depot, argued with the toll people who won't let you pay cash for tolls and then charge you twice as much to pay them online or by phone than if you have an e-tag thing—this amounts to just punishing tourists as far as I can see, and finally checked ourselves into the first real hotel in 5 weeks. I do not consider the roach motel in Moree a hotel, and prefer not to think about it at all, actually. Currently we live in the Metro Hotel Sydney Central, which is clean and has a TV (unfortunately showing American football) and a bathroom and is making the loss of Charlotte much more bearable. She did about 9,500 kilometers with us here, making 37,700K or so, so far.

Walked across Darling Harbour this afternoon to the Sydney Fish Market, where we gorged on a massive plate of beautiful seafood. The market also still sells fish, including lots of kinds we're not familiar with. I think my favourites are the 'Jewfish' and 'Slimy Mackerel.' These have recently been renamed 'Mulloway' and 'Blue Mackerel.' Again with the naming--the local delight? Balmain Bugs, sort of prawn-lobster things.

The Maritime Museum is free and very good. They've got loads of boats moored outside, including the HMAS Vampire, which is such a good name for a boat. None of your 'Missouri' or 'New Jersey' boats here. Also a lovely 18th-century style tall ship called the Endeavour; a destroyer, a sub, a Vietnamese boat-people fishing boat, a Japanese fishing boat used to lay mines in sneak attacks in Japan in WWII, etc. The best part of the Australian Maritime Museum, however, is that the first thing you see when entering is the United States of America Gallery, given by guess-who for the Aussie bicentennial in 1988, and celebrating our traditional close links, forged over happy events like whale killing and the illicit resupplying of Confederate ships. It covers the entire bottom of the museum. Ship-shape.