BEAUTIFUL SYDNEY – DAY ONE (PART II)

TOUR, BONDI BEACH, DRAGONBOATS, CHANGING BERTH

Australia is the World’s largest island and smallest continent! Syndey is the largest city (population of 5+ million) and is also the oldest city in Australia.

Most of us have heard the story that Sydney began “life” as a penal colony. Britain had a history of sending overflow criminals away from its shores. They sent convicts to the American colonies for years until the Revolutionary War cut off that option. The search was on for a new location for a penal colony.

In 1788, Admiral Arthur Phillip arrived with the First Fleet. They carried between 1,400 and 1,500 people. There were convicts (750 - 780), but they were only part of the landing party. There were also crew members (550, including ship officers, seamen, and marines), soldiers and their families, and military and government officials. They had traveled for eight months and approximately 15,000 miles.

Phillip had been instructed to establish a colony at Botany Bay, where Cook had landed in 1770 (is there anywhere Cook didn’t touch in his 11 exploration sailings? It Doesn’t seem like it!). Phillips found the bay too exposed for safe harboring and the surrounding countryside unsuitable for settlement, so he continued a few miles north to Port Jackson (named but not explored by Cook). Phillips established the first settlement in a cove that had a good supply of fresh water from a stream and a safe, deepwater harbor. He named it Sydney Cove in honor of Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, then British Home Secretary. The area of Sydney Cove is now known as Circular Quay and is home to the Overseas Passenger Terminal. In the years between Phillips's landing in 1788 and 1863, more than 164,000+ prisoners were sent to Sydney Cove.

After the Opera House tour, we continued with a bus tour around greater Sydney. Sydney is a modern city where glass skyscrapers are side by side with 18th-century row houses. There were many quaint neighborhoods of older homes on hilly tree-lined streets. Most were self-contained communities with small groceries, bakeries, pharmacies, and restaurants/cafes. There were many lush, green park areas and the irregular coastline created numerous small, picturesque bays. After we toured greater Sydney, we headed to Bondi Beach.

There must be a regulation that states to go to Bondi Beach, you must be young & tanned with great bodies, long legs, and long hair (preferably blond)! Bondi Beach is also a “top option” beach, but we didn’t see any of that. There were many “sights” that John felt were photo-worthy, but he didn’t want to seem like a “dirty old man,” so he resisted. He did take pictures of one beautiful, four-legged blond who was more than happy to pose – “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”!

After dinner on the ship, we sat on our balcony, enjoying the view of the water. We were surprised when a group of six-man Dragon boats came by. They came back and forth several times, and we could hear the instructions they called out to the oarsmen in their boat.

During the night, the Zuiderdam moved to the Overseas Passenger Terminal. Originally, the Captain announced the Zuiderdam would be moving at 8:30 PM; the gangplank would be taken up, and guests ashore would be able to reboard the ship in its new location after 10:00 PM. Later, the Harbor Authority, because of concern about the Zuiderdam’s clearance under the Harbour Bridge, asked the Zuiderdam to wait for even lower tide, so the move was pushed back to 10:30 PM. John has a Navy Sea Story about one of his ships, USS Suribachi, barely clearing a bridge in Jacksonville, FL. That is for another time.

We awoke the next morning to a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House from our balcony!