Family feelings

Yesterday I ended my trip to the Blue Mountains with having a nice morning walk to Echo Point and The Three Sisters once again. The mountains and canyons appeared very different in the morning light than in the evening light.

My journey back to Sydney was a bit more complicaded than the trip I did to the Blue Mt. They were working on the tracks and the train line was not in use. But they had arrenged it well and they were provoding a bus to another town where to catch a train. I lost 30 minutes but I gained quite a lot of money.

In Sydney I met Gabriella's brother. I got to know the city even better cause he work in the town planning department and had some interesting things to share. We had a walk to Darling Harbour where we hopped on a ferry - had a nice view of the city. We went to Circular Quay from where we headed towards Opera House and the Botanical Gardens, places where I didn't have a proper walk earlier. From close by the Sydney Opera House isn't so magnificent but from far away and in the sun light it looks very very beautiful. Botanical Gardens were beautiful - place where the people gather to watch the fireworks on New Year's Eve. Me and Sebastian still had a small walk in Rocks and had a drink; I finally had a glass of white wine I was very much dreaming of in China.

Leaving from Sydney I did bit in a haste. We didn't realize what the time was and needed to take a taxi to the train station, run to pick up my things and run again to catch the train. Sebastian was gentleman enough to run with my 20kg backpack.

The welcoming here in Bateau Bay was nice. I was offered dinner and we chatted for quite a while, me, Reijo and Margharete. I got to sleep in Gabriella's old room where I found a photo album from Costa Rica. I didn't ask permit of Gabriella but just saw it through. Those good old times in C.R.

Today has been a busy day! Margharete needed to work so I've spent the day with my Finnish hoast - with whom I've only talked in English! We had a walk in the surroundings which included cliffs and beaches. We went really like bush walking, were making our way down on a steep down hill where it was growing a lot of taller and smaller bushes. We didn't come immediately to the sandy beach but to huge sand stones and sand rocks. We were climbing on those whilst the waves hitting the rocks next to us. Must say that Tauni-family has an ideal place to live. The actual beach has fine white sand and blue sea.

Later we went to see pelican feeding in a town close by called The Enctrance. If you have seen the movie called "Finding Nemo" so you know how pelicans look and how silly they are. Must admit it was fascinating to see them eat and act how they act. Every day there is a feeding at 3.30pm. The pelicans are wild, sometimes they are many sometimes none. Today they were enough to have nice shots.

Bateau Bay lies between Sydney and Newcastle. Newcastle has the largest coal harbour in the world. The ships might need to wait for two weeks before they get into harbour to get loaded - we saw only one big ship waiting today. Central Coastal is around 200km long and has quite a few beaches. We made a small sightseeing and I can understand why people wanna come to the seaside on their holiday.

That's that. I have had a great day with Reijo. Have heard many interesting stories of his younghood and immigration to Australia. Quite an interesting short history what this land has and the backgrounds the people have. Didn't know much before but I am very interested to learn some more about this land and culture.

Erika