CELEBRATING MY FIRST WINTER BIRTHDAY IN AUGUST
As my family knows all too well, I encourage the celebration of my birthweek or even birthmonth© as opposed to a mere birthday. I'm sure I don't need to start listing the advantages, but two of the top ones are the potential for multiple cakes over this time period, and lots of fun activities - unfortunately I've not been able to convince people to give multiple gifts yet. This year didn't disappoint either, programs ranging from nature walks with dolphin sightings, a visit to a submarine and getting a different perspective on the Southern skies at the Sydney observatory.
MANLY AND THE NORTH HEAD
We started the weekend with a trip to Manly beach and headed to the North Head via the Sydney Harbour National Park, located in the Southern end of the peninsula, which has historically been the guard of the entrance to the harbour. It was a convenient 1.5-2 hours walk with scenic views on the cliffs and the ocean on the East and the entire city on the West. On the way, we stopped for an ice cream at the atmospheric Boathouse restaurant on scenic Shelly beach, The weather was so warm, I was even convinced to dip my toes into the ocean, but quickly realised not having brought a swimsuit with me that day was not going to be a problem! A rule of thumb I subsequently heard was that daylight savings time is the cut-off point for when swimming is practical for most people (obviously excluding the diehard athletes you can see swimming across the various bays in the open ocean) as currently the water temperature does not exceed 18-20 degrees. This is my first birthday celebrated in the winter or early spring, and I am still to get used to this drawback.
After climbing our way up to the Shelly Headland Lookout we were treated with some gorgeous views over Manly beach and the cliffs along the Eastern coast. Then we gradually made our way to the old fort guarding the entrance of Sydney Harbour. An interesting feature of nature walks we've seen here is that they are frequently on metal grills 5-10cm above the ground, apparently to protect the fragile environment. Reaching the North Head at the end of the peninsula you can see the other side of the harbour, endless ocean vistas and even some frolicking dolphins below! Very close to this point we even saw a wild echidna, the hedgehog-like local animal that we've written about before! Feeling lazy on the way back, we decided to wait for one of the 3 daily public buses to take us back to Manly, and use the waiting time to reward ourselves with some desert at the cafe by the Fairfax Lookout, a popular picnic spot with great views.
Along the way, we saw the old quarantine station, which was where ships that wanted to dock in the city had to wait until the authorities could be certain they weren't sick and they were cleared to enter. Anyone who was found to be ill (such as the plague) was put ashore here until he got well or he passed away, which is why there was a sizable cemetery here too - at least they are resting in peace, with beautiful views over the city.
After our hike, while munching our well-deserved dessert, we were cornered by two schoolgirls doing a survey on long-nosed bandicoots (Pest or Protected Treasure?) for a school project. We dutifully filled out our opinions (Have you ever experienced problems with bandicoots eating the vegetables in your garden? Has your dog ever killed a bandicoot?) under the vague assumption that it must be something like a mole. When we handed the survey back and asked what exactly a bandicoot was, the girls at first couldn't believe we didn't know what it was, and then clarified that it's a 25cm long (+tail) mouse-like marsupial, so close enough, I guess.
THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
On the Sunday, we headed across to Darling Harbour to visit the Australian National Maritime Museum, which hosts a number of old ships, as well as a temporary guest exhibition for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 awards. I was more interested in the ships, while Renata favoured the photography, so there was something for everyone. We started off with a proper military destroyer ship put in the museum in the 1980's, which experience resembles a bit to the HMS Belfast in London. However, there is also a military submarine (decommissioned in 1999) which was an absolutely worthwhile visit
In the Harbour you can also visit the replica of the HMS Endeavor with which Captain Cook discovered the Eastern coast of Australia, I didn't envy the sailors spending weeks or months at a time on the cramped ship, but it was a luxury compared to the submarine, where 60 people were locked together for weeks on what was really a 50m long hallway! We found out that the replica of Captain Cook's ship is actually seaworthy, and you can join for 300 AUD / night when they sail 1-2 times a year, sleeping in hammocks. Just bear in mind that the height of the deck is only about 120cm, so don't expect the ballroom parties seen in the Titanic movie.
OBSERVING THE SOUTHERN SKY
I received another birthday present, a night tour in the Sydney Observatory. A couple of PhD students work at the observatory as tour guides on astronomy in general and the night sky in the Southern hemisphere. It was funny listening to the different perspectives to what we had heard in Peru earlier this year, with the Australian aboriginal people seeing emus in the Milky Way while the Inca saw a llama! At this point our guide apologised but he had to check if anyone in the group did not know what an emu was, as it seems he has met several oversees visitors struggling with this question. Hmm, do you all know what an emu is...? Although this experience had some similarities to our visit to the Planetarium in Cuzco, it still revealed much additional information, some of which are for enthusiasts (hence it was my birthday present). Here are a few exciting facts you might want to hear (warning for non-enthusiasts, while the next section is not technical at all, you may want to skim it if this isn't your cup of tea):
In the Northern Hemisphere, we are lucky in the ways that the stars are aligned with Earth, so we have a single, quite bright star which always points the way North, which is called Polaris or the North Star. This meant that travellers in ancient times could always tell which direction was North and thereby the other points of the compass were) However, you can't see this star in the Southern Hemisphere, there is a slightly more complicated method of determining South, using a constellation that is today called the Southern Cross (and which is on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa - and also Brasil). On the other hand, the downside of being in the North is that the view is a lot more limited: only a small part of the Milky Way is visible, while in the South you see the entire ribbon magnificently splitting the sky in two.
Another amusing aspect we learned was in relation to the Southern Cross. The constellation played an important role in the aboriginals' lives, but not having been exposed to Christianity, they didn't attribute any particular significance to crosses and saw different shapes instead. Our guide explained that people living in the tropical Northern Territory around the city of Darwin saw a stingray being chased by two sharks. And when the Southern Cross was positioned in the Milky Way 'river', people knew that was the season sting rays (which aren't really dangerous) swam up the river, but it was better to avoid going for a swim to avoid the bullsharks which follow them. The aboriginals didn't have a written language, so they used stories like this, created around the stars at night to carry their oral traditions and educate the next generation. If you remember our post on the Cuzco Planetarium from February, the Inca also used the position of the stars relative to the Milky Way to determine seasons (the dry season occurs when the big llama in the sky starts drinking the Milky Way river).
Photo credited to Mike Salway, astronomy photographer
We also found out that astronomy students no longer actually spend time physically looking through telescopes: First of all, to do professional work, the telescope needs to be located far from cities since the city lights at night drown out all but the brightest stars. Our guide told us that the telescopes he is using are located in 3 remote regions in opposite parts of Australia. Luckily in the modern age he can instruct which way the telescopes should point via the internet and see the images from the comfort of this sofa at home. Secondly, there are only 3 big telescopes in the world that operate with visible light we can see with our eyes. To avoid the distortion caused by clouds and the atmosphere these need to be as high as possible, which is why they are located on top of a high mountain in a desert in Chile, above the clouds on top of a 4200m mountain in Hawaii, or in space on the Hubble Space Telescope respectively. Modern discoveries are often made using spectra other than visible light, sight as infrared radiation or X-rays, which allow astronomers to deduce all kinds of fascinating insights even if they can't actually 'see' the star with their eyes. Of course we were looking forward to actually seeing with our own eyes through their amateur telescope, alas, the cloudy skies completely foiled our attempt, and the only stars we could see were on the Australian flag flying on the Harbour Bridge!
All in all, I must say it was a quite active and educational birthday. I was lucky with the weather too - being born in August leads you to have all kinds of expectations about the weather you are expecting, and Sydney didn't disappoint at all, despite it actually being the middle of winter! We're both looking forward to the continuously improving weather and perhaps visiting some of the natural parks nearby Sydney - and our next article!