Phoctober Day 2 (Or Sunday in da City)

Second Phoctober Post: Today Adam and I went back for our repeat of the unproductive whale watch tour in August. If you don't see a whale, you can go back for free. Northern migration is over. The big boofer hump backed whales move north to Harvey Bay in Queensland to warm up, calve and frolic then head back south to Antarctica in October/November. They hug the coast to avoid Orca and shark attacks on their young.

Adam and I this time took ginger extract rather than Travel Calm which made us totally trippy last time and headed out in quite a swell. Not as choppy as before but boy that boat was rising and falling like the Dow Jones! It's a four hour sojourn through the harbour and beyond the heads into open ocean. Today it was boaties day. The harbour was jam packed with pleasure craft, tour boats, sailing races, jet boats and hoons in wannabe speed boats. We identified at least five different kinds of yachts competing for goodness knows what in a spinnaker raising wind and a few ending up in the drink. So here's our glorious 30 degree spring day in arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I'm not precious about Australia, it's just another country, but the harbour? Totally awesome! You can click for various bouts of bigness.


SO Sydney, popping into Circular key, one of the regular ferries in green and gold and a cruise charter longship exchanging greetings and that gorgeous lady in the background is of course the Sydney Opera House


This little Lady dwarfed the skyline . . Rhapsody of the Sea . . just popping in of for the day trippers (the big rectangular thing on the back is a rock climbing wall!)


Pulled into Circular Quay, the main ferry terminal to pick up others. Jet Boat boy was waiting for punters who feel comfortable in purple dry suits . . I'm sure he drives a Subaru Impreza!

Little boats were capsizing all over the place . . .these guys had about 4 attempts to right their skiff!

Fort Denison, "Pinchgut" to the locals was built to dissuade Russian would-be invaders during the Crimean War . . um the Russian's weren't coming. Never been there but it's on your travel agenda Notsoanonymous!

Many prefer to watch from a cliffside vantage point. There are cliff walks on both sides of the harbour and beyond . .

Look at all those tourists crowding onto Bondi beach . .possibly the most overrated beach in the world next to Copa Cabana . . . but you all wanna go there!


Then a little spurt and a brown bit!


Then a little tantalising glimpse . .we were pitching so hard on a 1.5metre swell (look at the horizon) that staying steady meant one hand on the bars and single handed camera work.) These dudes were 500metres away . .they're BIG


Something interesting down there . . .six week old calf needs a breather.


Baby fluke . . there was a very shy but enormous mum who insisted on holding her breath longer than the younglings so I missed her big breach and flap thanks to the selfish little cow who jumped up in front of me. There were three but so hard to see. Mum, a juvenile 6 year old and a tiny calf . . .Ok nothing like the gorgeous breach shots of Southern Right's that AV has on Absolute Vanilla (seriously if you like whales she's got some amazing shots) but I put my camera down for a while to look (and hang on) rather than just photograph.

Travelling back through the heads there was a swag of seaplanes heading north.
How the rich and famous go home from Catelinas Restaurant at Rushcutter's bay or Doyles at Watson's Bay . . nice flight home after a slow lunch!


Back at Darling Harbour and the thunder clouds were rolling in while the sun still shone from the west. Centrepoint tower gleamed gold . . .I like this shot and if you make it larger, you might just be able to see Egyptian Ibis in the palm trees (dirty smelly honkers - hate 'em)


One of the fountains at Darling Harbour, when we rushed over to King Street Wharf there were children paddling in the stream. Adam commented that we have to fence any pool deeper than 400cm but for some reason kids can splosh around in this. We were running late so no time for happy snaps. Darling harbour is a weird place. There's an Imac theatre, convention centre (the Motor Show was on) and one half is decidedly westy and appeals to the working class. The other side - lovely restaurants and Monaco boats. Today the Dragon Races were on which are great and really colourful but I was saving memory and we were running late so I didn't snap 'em.


We needed food and a toilet. The signs were pretty but of no use . . so we succumbed to MacDonalds (they have clean loos) and ate our Big Macs on the steps outside.



Bloody seagulls are big around here . . .and they go 'honk' not 'mine'