Kazie Oz Pictures (Part IX, Final Installment)

My friend lives in an inner northern suburb. But she has daily visits from a collection of wildlife, which she feeds as if they were her children. Here a native brush turkey.

This is a wallaby. Not the best one of me--in slippers first thing in the morning. But I include it to show how tame he is--eating a piece of apple right between the two of us.

A sulphur crested cockatoo waiting for his breakfast.

One morning I was doing dishes, and looked up to find these two rainbow lorikeets sitting on the edge of the window outside, wondering where their breakfast was. They were still there after I ran to the bedroom to get my camera.

A fruit and veg. shop in a shopping mall near my friend's house. Prices are per kilo. I was astounded at the high cost of food in general in Oz this time. The continuing drought is blamed, but compared with here, I'm sure the cheap (often illegal) labor is what keeps prices down for us.

A marina at Brooklyn, a fishing/resort village just outside the northern extremities of Sydney. We were at a seafood restaurant eating the catch of the day for lunch.

Another of my son's shots, just to show something else you don't see in tourist brochures: a garden in Sydney's downtown Hyde Park with St. Mary's Cathedral in the background.

Sydney's newest major bridge: the Anzac Bridge. And yes, there was a lot of haze that day. Behind it is the city skyline and the Sydney Tower with its viewing level and restaurant at the top.

Crossing the Anzac Bridge. There are statues at each end of an Australian soldier, but I wasn't fast enough to include him in this photo. A-N-Z-A-C is an acronym for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and Anzac Day, April 25, memorializes their valor on that day in 1915 in Gallipoli. It is Oz's equivalent to Veterans' Day but is a public holiday for everyone. There are lots of Anzac avenues, parades, streets, roads and lanes in Sydney's suburbs.

From Kazie:

So that's it, C.C! I regret not having got more digital pix of Sydney, but I really felt I wanted to avoid the touristy stuff and concentrate on people while I was there this time. There were a couple of shows in a travel series late Saturday night on the "Create" channel, first on New Zealand, and then on Oz. I wonder if anyone else caught them?

Kazie Oz Pictures (Part VIII)

Sydney skyline from Benelong Point, the site of the Opera House.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932, also from the Opera House. At the time it was, and maybe still is, the longest single span arch bridge in the world. If you can zoom far enough, people doing the arch climb are visible at the far left side and at the top near the flags.

Does this seem odd? Yes, In Oz we drive on the left. You'll see a train on the left side, and a separate lane on the far right, which is an expressway to the Eastern Suburbs. It used to be for the trams which were taken off the road in the 1960's. More climbers are visible on each side of the arch.

This shows both the bridge and the "uproar" house from the north side.

Opera House seen as I walked from Circular Quay towards it.

From the quay, showing one of the many ferries that ply the harbour.

One of my son's shots at night in 2006, from the north shore, or possibly under the bridge.

The bridge from the approach to the Opera house. Really, I do have some like these, only not digital. But I thought they were worth showing because I always used to love the challenge of taking night shots too.

Fort Denison or Pinchgut Island. A former island prison --though certainly no Alcatraz, and as the name suggests, also a fort in the middle of the harbor. The distance to shore would not be impossible for a strong swimmer, but the sharks would prevent a successful escape.

From Bennelong Point, looking towards the Botanical Gardens, location of the original settlement, where convicts tried to grow vegetables in conditions that were totally unlike any they had known in Britain. To the left is the skyline of some of the eastern suburbs.

From Kazie:

Above are my Sydney Harbour shots. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are well known symbols of the city, but here I think you'll get a few different views of them. I'm including a couple taken by my son when he went in 2006, because they are night shots like those I took myself with 35mm film years ago.

Kazie Oz Pictures (Part VII)

A view of some of the bushland we hiked through to get to a lot of the rock art sites visited.

Some strange rock outcrops

More rocks--the one on the right looks like a two sided face.

The East Alligator River, the one we'd forded the day before, now we were cruising on

A good reason to observe the signs saying "Don't enter" and "no entry" which we saw on many of these beaches.

View along the river

One of our Aboriginal boat pilot/guides demonstrating some of their spearthrowers.

Some of the spears. They threw them into the water using woomeras (spear throwers, then retrieved them floating on the water from the boats as we left to return to the landing place.

Construction equipment crossing at the same ford we'd used the day before. The upturned vehicle was still in the water on the other side of the crossing.

A drive past the huge open cut uranium mine with piles of tailings in the background.

From Kazie:

The above are the last ones of the Northern Territory, still in Kakadu.

Kazie Oz Pictures (Part VI)

Crossing the East Alligator River at the ford, we saw what happened a few weeks before when it wasn't quite the "dry" season yet.

The garbage (snake skeletons) from an eagle's meal. His nest was in a tall tree on the other side of the road, so he didn't eat where his nestlings were.

More of the same, only tortoise shells

An Aboriginal artist at work in Arnhem Land. Things for sale there were cheaper than in the many stores in towns.

Our resting place away from the heat.

Drawing of a pregnant woman in a sheltered area under a fallen rock. This was a primitive birthing center.

Same place. the women hung onto the vines during the birth. There were bats flying around in there too.

Zoom in to read this: some of the art is used to teach things to children...

...Some is to show what there is to eat where you are: crayfish

or long neck turtle

and some is a warning: This one shows swollen joints, the affects of a disease they call Miyamiya. They believe disturbing things in this area causes evil for everyone. What do you think is just over the hill? A Uranium mine. Our guide said the stuff is essentially lying on the ground there. The mythical beliefs are the main reason the Aboriginals were unwilling to give up the land for mining. Money means very little to them.

Landscape from a very high rocky ledge we climbed on.

From Kazie: Day 2 on Kakadu tour: We cross into Arnhem Land.

Kazie Oz Pictures (Part V)

Kangaroo rock art at Nourlangie Rock. Art often shows what is available to hunt in the area.

Dancing figures

Dangerous mythical figure who attacks women and eats them after hitting them over the head with a yam.

One of the many signs along the way which explain the art. Double zoom to read it all.

The actual painting that goes with that sign.

View of Nourlangie Rock's escarpment

Brolgas on the Yellow Water cruise. Aboriginal dances often depict their "dancing' movements.

Pied cormorant

Saltwater or estuarine croc. They were mistaken for Alligators by the first explorer in the area, hence the name "Alligator River".

This one was trying to hide under the log and creep up on a bird on the shoreline.

From Kazie:

These are the first day of the Kakadu Tour which I took out of Darwin. On the first day we visited Nourlangie Rock and cruised the East Alligator River's "Yellow Water".