Sydney (part the first)

Arriving in Sydney was a bit of a culture shock after spending a week in Western Australia and then three days on a train. This is a big city, and home to more than 4 million people, which isn't that far short of the entire population of Scotland. Getting to my hotel was quite easy – it's only a couple of stops on the local rail system and the hotel is about 50m from the station. And then it was time for a wander. Seeing Sydney Opera House for the first time – almost by accident as I came round a corner – is quite an experience. Everyone knows what it looks like; everyone's seen it hundreds of times in pictures or on film or TV, but suddenly there it actually is. It's like being in Paris and you cross a street and suddenly there's the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly you go from being in just another modern city to being in Sydney. My plans were fluid and day 1 was just a wander-round sort of day. The next day started with Church as yet another Sunday had come round. As it happens, my hotel is directly across the road from the Scots Presbyterian Church – a very grand building in honey sandstone: The interior has been beautifully restored: The service was, well, long. It turned out to be the church anniversary – 187 years – so there was a lunch after the service but I wanted to get on so didn't stay. My destination was the Sydney Tower. This is basically an observation tower offering spectacular views of the city. Ironically, the one structure that's difficult to see is the Opera House – it's just visible between two other buildings: Just to its left is that bridge: Going the other way, you pass the Botanic Gardens – you can also see the route out to the Pacific Ocean: Then there's the Art Galley of New South Wales: St Mary's RC Cathedral: And Hyde Park: One thing that you can't help noticing here is how beautiful old stone buildings are hemmed in by the new concrete and glass structures. On the far side of Hyde Park you can see the Australian Museum. Here is the old Post Office (now a posh hotel): Or this picture where the lovely copper domes are dwarfed by the towers around them: Look at the picture of the church again – those grey bits at the top are not some other building – they've been added on top of the original structure. I'm not sure they're an improvement, but I bet they do wonders for the church's account books. The ticket to the Sydney Tower was part of a three-way deal which also included entry to Wildlife World and the Sydney Aquarium which are next door to each other in Darling Harbour. Wildlife World was surprisingly good. The tour begins gently with butterflies: (Did you spot the alligator on the left of that last picture?) Before moving on to some of the (many) creatures in Australia which will go out of their way to kill you. The most dangerous spider in the world is the Sydney Funnel Web Spider – note the city name there. This thing lives in the city! Australians seem to take a rather cavalier attitude to these things though, pointing out that no-one has died from a funnel web spider bite for 30 years and, anyway, there's an anti-venom available. Incidentally, cats and dogs are immune to the venom – as I said, there are beasties here which seem actively to be out to get people. Next are snakes: Or the salt water crocodile: (that guy was about 3 or 4 metres long). Things get better after that – finally you get to the cuddly aspects of Australian fauna. Most of us probably know that Koala Bears aren't really bears (they're marsupials, like kangaroos) but they're seriously cute. They spend up to 20 hours a day sleeping – it's not just laziness, their diet of eucalyptus leaves is nutritionally very poor and takes a great deal of digesting, so why waste energy running around the place? Now, koalas are seriously cute – probably up there with quokkas (remember them?). Let's just check: Quokka: Koala: And the gold standard for cuteness: Just to prove that koalas do actually move occasionally, here's a short clip (you'll have to turn your head on its side to watch it, I'm afraid): After the koalas, it's on to the kangaroos. This guy was taking it easy: This is a wallaby – the kangaroos were about 5' tall (1.5m) whereas the wallaby was only a couple of feet tall (about 60cm). They're a bit cuter, though: The wombat wasn't cooperating with the photography – he was intent on digging out under a log: And then, just in case you'd forgotten that this is an actively malevolent land, you come by the top of the crocodile pool: Which brings you back down to earth. Next door to Wildlife World, is the Aquarium. This is on a much larger scale than the aquarium in Singapore. Both Wildlife World and the Aquarium make a point of pointing out the effect that humans are having on the Australian landscape – mainly through destroying habitats. Water is one of the major issues facing the country now; there simply isn't enough of it. Aquifers are being emptied faster than they're filling; rivers are being dammed and the water tapped off for drinking or irrigation. As the flow in a river decreases, the salinity of the lower reaches increases, thereby making it unsuitable for species that have lived there for thousands of years. The Aquarium continues the theme of Australia's dangerous creatures – here is a list of the symptoms of a box jellyfish sting: Note that last one, casually dropped in - "victim may stop breathing". That seems to me less a symptom of a jellyfish sting and more a symptom of being dead! As in Singapore, they have underwater walkways here. And, as in Singapore, they're very hard to photograph. They also have dugongs here – two of them. Their diet is usually sea grass, but it's not possible to provide it in large enough quantities in captivity, so these two eat lettuce – cos lettuce for preference. They get through 180kg per day! The leaves are threaded on to frames and these are put on the bottom of the tank so that it is as similar as possible to the natural situation. As well as the dugongs, the aquarium has another tank for sharks: (Have I mentioned that Australian wildlife can be very dangerous?)