Thursday 17 May: Chinatown Sydney through to Possum Spotting at night

I started the day doing my usual stretchies…a combination of yoga and karate moves that I have done for years and I have given up worrying what other campers think….and it is such a good feeling stretching away under a canopy of gum trees overlooking a green ferny gully, with birds singing.

Then off to the train station with Dave, this time we went to Chinatown, which is in the Darling Harbour area. I got into trouble from Dave because I got "lost"….there were beautiful huge ornate leadlight windows in the old fashioned tram/train station and I forgot to move onwards, gazing up at them. Never mind…we got on a light train/tram in time, and found an oriental supermarket in Chinatown after asking a local. Dave was in his element finding special oriental herbs and spices in packets for some camp meals and I found good quality Chinese green teas. The green teas in normal supermarkets just don't do it for us!

We browsed through Paddy's Markets…named after the early Irish who started them but all the store holders are now Asian. Lots and lots of the same sort of stuff…and surprisingly, lots of stores selling wigs for women...why? Plus the most awful looking Japanese stuffed toys….something for all tastes. For $5 I got a pair of good thin gloves to replace the pair I have lost.

We managed to resist many spruikers trying to entice us to have goodies ranging from free one minute massages through to special portraits done. Then we were worn out with walking and came across the Chinese Garden of Friendship. This has been designed and built by Chinese landscape gardeners and is governed by the Taoist principles of "Yin-Yang" and the five elements-earth, fire, water, metal and wood.

Our entry to this place was a cheap Seniors price again, and included a morning tea of green tea and dim sum. Yum! We didn't plan to stay long in this garden but it captivated us, as it is so beautifully done. Dave went mad taking lots of "textures" photos and the bonsai garden section was amazing to see. Every sight was a delight….and so hours later we broke the spell and made ourselves leave this tranquil entrancing garden right in the middle of bustling Darling Harbour.

Dave wanted to show me Fishermens Wharf area, so off we tramped, buying fish and chips nice and fresh, plus Dave wolfed down fresh oysters, then we explored this market area with every kind of sea creature available. I felt sorry for a bank of big live crabs, each one tied up ready to be cooked….bad karma to be born a crab! We had to be careful walking as the floors were being hosed down by fisher people in high gumboots…it was closing time of day.

Home again in the sunset, quickly shopping at the train station Coles again for more camp food, then taking care to scurry through the cemetery again to our Shangri-La.

At 7.30pm we went on a free "Spotlighting Tour" around our National Park caravan park. A cute little Ranger lady with a powerful spotlight torch took us around the place, showing us brush tail and ringtail possums who were trying to hide from us. The brush tail possums are naughty and are trying to steal campers' food…they look like guilty children when caught. We saw bush turkeys roosting way up the top of gum trees…they look like big black chooks and have a funny flight path to get up to the trees at night. They also try to raid your food if you leave it unattended. We also saw flying foxes winging it across cloudy skies.

Our lady guide is a wildlife rescue helper and she told us fascinating stories about her work as she showed us night creatures in our park. She loves bats and explained a lot about them to us, saying they are very intelligent and much maligned animals. The cutest thing we saw was 3 kookaburras roosting in a tree all huddled together…the middle one would've been the warmest.

Our guide also told us that where we are camped is the same site that is shown on the TV show "Home and Away"; Summer Bay Caravan Park. Dave and I have no idea of this, as we have never watched Home and Away, but others knew about it. So, the Intrepids have been camping as seen on TV!

We finally finished our tour about 10pm, happy but worn out. Tomorrow is the day we to Taronga Park Zoo. Expensive, but I've had my heart set on going there ever since I left Perth.