Sydney and Brisbane

We've had a very enjoyable few days in Australia. We spent our first day in Sydney with Friends from our Mediterranean cruise in the fall of 2013. They drove down from Canberra to spend just a few hours with us - we felt very honored. We all took the ferry to Watson Bay and walked out to the lighthouse at South Head, then enjoyed sharing fish and chips from Doyle's Takeaway at the Beach. It was a beautiful sunny day.

On our second day in Sydney we headed out to Manly and rented a tandem to ride out to North Head. The day started a bit cloudy and misty but cleared and was a great riding day. We ended our ride by riding along Manly Beach before returning the bike and enjoying some free WiFi at the library.

We left Sydney at 9:00 pm, but with a very full moon (the moon has been lighting the sky all night the past several days). We enjoyed the very smooth sail out of Sydney Harbour and through the headlands. It was a beautiful evening.

After a day at sea, we arrived at the commercial port in Brisbane. It's a very long way from the city. We had decided to opt for the ship's tour to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which had been recommended. We could have managed it independently, but this was much easier and with more history along the way.

We saw a wide variety of Australian animals, though the koalas are definitely the focus. We found a few awake, but they generally spend their lives sleeping - very cute. There was also a large, open enclosure with lots of kangaroos and wallabys. They were very close and wandered freely but they weren't hungry enough to come close to be fed. Another highlight was the platypus area. We've been to a natural platypus area in Tasmania, but they are rarely seen in the wild. The sanctuary has windows below waterline where we could watch a couple of them swimming - very fun. We also saw wombats (bigger than I expected) and a variety of pretty, native birds. This small sanctuary is focused entirely on Australian species, which is very nice for a quick visit to this world of unusual fauna.