Mosman Trail

We just spent a beautiful 4 day weekend in Sydney, taking advantage of having Thursday off for Anzac Day.  The highlight of our trip was a 10km hike we took on the north shore, in the suburb of Mosman. 

We started by taking the ferry from Circular Quay to the Taronga Zoo.  We walked NE, past the zoo, and headed along a trail that took us to Bradleys Head and then Chowder Bay.  The walk is really well laid out, with stairs cut into the pathway and nicely cleared with no spider-infested branches hanging across the trail at face height!  The scenery along the pathway is beautiful, with views of the city, lots of little harbours and beaches and trees and flowers everywhere.

The Opera House on Anzac Day (note the planes in the upper left hand corner)

The city

 

On the loop back we cut through some fantastic parts of the suburbs of Clifton Gardens, Mosman and Cremorne, to get to the Cremorne Ferry terminal and back to the city.  These suburbs are quite stately and homes with ocean views are positively estate-line!  The strange part of the walk was that the official pathway actually involves walking more or less right up to a house and then veering off onto a hidden path.  We actually missed a couple of turns at the first pass because we thought we were being too cheeky about walking up to these houses.  Apparently, that is just how it is done.

Bay View along the pathway

Entrance to the Harbour

Chowder Bay

We enjoyed this trip and walk so much that we are already planning to walk from Manly to the Harbour Bridge and back into the city on our next visit, a hike that will take us at least 6 hours, and that is only if we walk on a straight a route as possible, with no wandering off the sea at any point.  This may take more than one visit to complete but luckily we are more than happy to spend as many weekends as possible in Sydney!

Footy galore

Australia is truly a sports-mad country.  It seems like everyone has a sport, or sports, they they play on a regular basis.  Not just kids but adults of all ages, swimming, cycling, running, playing tennis or netball and, the most popular sport, Australian Rules Football.  The part that gets confusing with the sports is that Aussie Rules Football, Rugby League, Rugby Union and soccer all referred to as "footy".

Of the 18 teams in the Australian Rules Football League (AFL), 10 are in Victoria.  Anyone from Victoria will mean AFL if they say "footy".  In Queensland, there are two AFL teams, but there are also both Rugby Union and Rugby League teams.  Rugby League is massive in Queensland and usually, but not always, someone from Queensland saying "footy" will mean Rugby League.  It also depends on the time of year because in June there is the first game of the 3 game State of Origin tournament, played between Queensland born players and New South Wales born players.  During this tournament, everyone calls it footy.

Watching the Lions play the Crows (Brisbane vs Adelaide)

The Lions came close to winning this one!

We really like going to the Brisbane Lions games in the AFL and the Reds games in the Rugby Untion League.  We may not always know what is going on, but it always a nice way to spend some time sitting outdoors and enjoying the weather.

A lovely sunset at the Reds match, played at Suncorp Stadium only 5 minutes from our house

The Warratahs (Sydney) warming up

The other complication with footy is that anyone from Europe or South America, and there is a large European influence here, will call soccer "footy".  Sometimes it is easier just to nod knowingly, rather than keep asking "What do you mean by footy?" 

The one sport that is never, ever called footy or football, is North American football, which here is referred to as "grid iron football' or just "grid iron".  Australians really seem to love watching grid iron, and it is hard to get a seat in a pub when they show NFL games.  They love the size of the players and the hard hits (which is why Aussies also seem to love hockey...referred to as "ice hockey" here, never just hockey) but they just can't get their heads around having offence and defence as different teams.  When we try to explain it, we get the same blank look back as when Aussies start talking about footy.  Sometimes it is easier just to cheer for the ball!

Long weekend

One of the many wonderful things about living in Australia is that we get four days off at Easter!  And since autumn in Brisbane is a lot like summer in Brisbane, it means we get four days to enjoy the sun and be outside.

As we have gone away for the past two years, we decided to spend the Easter weekend at home.  We used to spend most long weekends in the city when we lived in Calgary, as it was usually uncrowded and relaxed.  It was pretty much the same here.  Most people headed for the coast, leaving those of us who stayed with plenty of open spaces and lots of choice seats in restaurants!

Beautiful River View

Quiet Day on the Brisbane River

We spent part of Good Friday in the Southbank suburb, not in the pools but at a restaurant nearby with a nice view of the river.  It was pretty hot so we really needed a sit-down after the long walk.  We have been taking the train so much lately that we have forgotten how hot it can really feel in the sun at 30+C with humidity in the 85% range.  In other words, it was melting!  We had good walks on Saturday and Monday too, but, this being the subtropics, it was bucketing on Sunday and there were weather warnings going on all day.  We didn't get hit too badly, but the warnings made us pretty wary about going out on Sunday evening.

We watched this guy try to waterski for about 5 minutes and he never did stand up...still not a bad way to spend the day

A lovely bridge in West End

We probably wouldn't stick around every long weekend, but it was really nice not to worry about fighting traffic or rushing home late Monday to get to work on Tuesday.  The nicest part is that we are having a four day weekend in Sydney in just a couple of weeks, so we are getting away on our own terms!