14 November 2009

Today a friend from Sydney met me at the Helensburgh Railway Station and we did a drive along through the Royal National Park, we finished up at Sutherland where I got the train back to Dapto

Looking north toward Sydney

South to Wollongong

12 November 2009

Today I travelled to Sydney to apply for my visa to China on my Trip to Taiwan had had to be there early as they are only open from 9am to noon, got there at 11 am and the queue was so long but moved fairly quick like a production line and I am sorry to say was treated like an item on that production line, have to return on Tuesday to pick it up I had all the afternoon left so decided that it being 28c to go for a trip to Manly on the ferry I got the bus to the ferry, and witnessed something I have never seen before the bus became quite full, and one elderly man was taking up two seats, and when asked to move over became very obnoxious firstly verbalising the other person then attacking them threatening to throw them out the window, he did throw a few punches the other man did not retaliate, after some time it settled down until he got off abusing others, he was a well dressed man.

Herewith are some pictures taken on my ferry trip

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the Ferry at wharf

Popular legend has it that "Pinchgut" got its name because convicts were placed there to starve on bread and water, or nothing at all: these tales do tend to get embroidered! The origin of that yarn could lie with "Bony" Anderson, a convict who was kept in solitary on Goat Island for two years, chained to a rock on the southern side of that island. The "pinched guts" yarn goes as far back as the 1830s, but nobody seems to have identified any convict who was actually starved there, although at least one unfortunate was hung in chains on Pinchgut. Lieutenant Collins speaks of convicts being confined to a small rocky island at the mouth of the Cove, but this could equally well be Goat Island as Pinchgut, so the question is still open to debate.
"Pinchgut" is actually a naval term, referring to the narrowing of the harbour, a term which can be found in use in other parts of the world, I'm told. So there is no need for any yarns about starving convicts. The fort on Pinchgut is properly called Fort Denison, but most Sydneysiders (other than those who are fraffly refeened) prefer the name "Pinchgut". Technically, it is a Martello tower, like the one where Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan lived in James Joyce's Ulysses (which is celebrated each June). The fort had enough guns to control the whole harbour, yet it never fired a shot in anger

Sydney Harbour Heads

Manly Beach Looking north to Harboard

On Way back

On my Manly Ferry trip across the Sydney Harbour today I did meet a nice young man who was sat next to me, His Name is Gilles and is from Belgium he is dong a one month trip around the east coast of Australia

06 November 2009

Waiting for bus at Moss Vale Station; returning home after spending afternoon with Julia, James and their two daughters Angelina & Teresa; Angelina gave me the cutting in my hat