Sunday, July 29, 2007

Royal National Park

Photo gallery: Royal National Park
Google Earth Position: 34° 7'53.83"S 151° 4'57.17"E

Royal National Park is the world's second oldest national park (after Yellowstone in the USA).

We enjoyed not only riding through and observing fauna and flora but also swimming in the sea, breathtaking lookouts, walking,... and picnic of course :))

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Cronulla

Photo gallery: Cronulla
Google Earth Position: 34° 3'59.81"S 151° 8'46.05"E

Here are several shots from Darook Park in Cronulla.

Cronulla is a beachside suburb in southern Sydney located 26km south of the Sydney central business district (CBD) directly reachable by a train.

The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of ethnically motivated mob confrontations which originated in and around Cronulla. Soon after the riot, ethnically motivated violent incidents occurred in several other Sydney suburbs, including Bondi Beach.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Sailing Whitsunday Islands (Great Barrier Reef)

Photo gallery: Great Barrier Reef - Whitsunday Islands
Google Earth Position: 20°17'35.79"S 149° 3'29.55"E

We spent 3 beautiful days and nights aboard the luxurious Alexander Stewart.

This tall ship is made from rich timber and has really a classic sailing charm. It is 21m long with 9 private double A/C cabins, inside dining room, showers etc. We appreciated the huge open deck area, just a few people aboard and fresh prepared food during the whole trip. Daily we ate from 9am to 10pm actually :).

The starting point was in the port town of Airlie Beach that we reached by airplane from Sydney and where we spent two nights. We especially enjoyed good food and midnight swimming in the local lagoon.

Our cruise led around the Whitsunday Islands that are a collective of continental islands of various sizes situated within the Great Barrier Reef including e.g. Whitehaven Beach. This 6 km long beach is recognised as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world because of brilliant silica sand that belongs to the purest in the world. Yeah, it was indeed one of climaxes of our cruise!

The sailing was divided into various activities e.g. walking through interior of islands, visiting breathtaking lookouts, swimming or just basking on white beaches.

But most of all we were impressed by snorkelling among many types of local fish. If we were fast enough we could touch several ones after all. Or when the crew threw feeds into the water just next to us we could immediately see decades of medium and hundreds of small fish all around us. Simply amazing!

The trip finished in Airlie Beach again and we felt fantastically relaxed and in a good mood from doing many other activities besides basking on the deck, eating and drinking.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Sydney Aquarium

Photo gallery: Sydney Aquarium

I spent several amazing hours with my Slovak mates in the Sydney Aquarium in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

It is one of the largest aquariums in the world with more than 6000 different Australian fish and other sea and water creatures displayed in their natural habitats. We walked "on the ocean floor" through 145 metres of several underwater tunnels.

I enjoyed especially these sections a lot: the Great Barrier Reef Oceanarium, the Open ocean Oceanarium and the Seal Sanctuary.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney

Photo gallery: USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) has arrived in Sydney Harbour for several days, accompanied by four other US navy ships. The ship holds about 5500 sailors and can carry up to 75 aircraft.

The huge extensive clearway (no-stopping allowed) and no-parking provisions have been put in place around the naval base in a bid to avoid a traffic chaos. Thousands of people wanting to catch a glimpse of the mighty craft are forced to use public transport.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

North Head

Photo gallery: North Head

North Head is a headland south-east of the suburb of Manly as a part of Sydney Harbour National Park. It is situated just opposite to South Head.

We found that this area is really nice for a walk, look at both the city and ocean and also for a picnic of course :)