My visit to the Australia Museum by Josh!

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This is me on a bike. It shows you how your bones move when you cycle.

This is the skeleton of a huge snake!  They have lots & lots of bones. 

This is a skeleton of a swordfish!!! Swordfish live in all Australia waters.  They come to the surface at night time & stay deep in the day. Swordfish are black & brown on the top & light brown underneath. Adult swordfish have no teeth or scales.  They use their sword to protect themselves & to catch food! 

This bear is huge! There are no brown bears in Australia! 

This is a platypus! You can only find them in Australia.  They spend time in the water & on land. When they are in the water they close their eyes, ears & nose.  They use their bill to sense movement.  They can stay under water for 30-140 seconds. They lay eggs in a burrow and once they hatch they stay in the burrow for up to 4 months.  They have webbed feet for swimming, but once on land they roll their webs up and walk on their claws. 

Skeleton of an Asian elephant! This elephant would have weighed about 6 tones.  Their trunk is super sensitive.  Girl Asian elephants don't have tusks. They mostly live in India. 

Wedge-tailed eagle

This is Austrailia's largest bird of prey and one of the largest Eagles in the world. They like to eat rabbits, lizards and birds.

European Fox in Australia

He is the number 1 preditator in Australia.  Some Australian animals like the rock-wallaby, numbat, brush-tailed betting & the bilby are endangered because of them.  

Check out the claws on this guy!!!!

This is a boat made by the Aboriginals.  The Aboriginals are the people who lived in Australia before the ships came from England.  It's made from the tree bark.  The bark is made really wet, then they shape it like a boat and put it over fire to dry it to make it hard.  They use the boats for fishing & transporting goods. 

The Sydney's Harbour Bridge & The Opera House made of shells! 

Boomerangs!!!!

Taking a closer look at some shells. 

They actually have penguins living at Manly. 

         Don't want to meet this guy when we are swimming at the beach!

                  These are some of the sealife & shells you can find around Sydney's beaches. 

        Dinosaur time!! 

We spent all afternoon in the museum and would recomend a visit if you ever come to Sydney!! 

Rushcutters Bay Tennis Champ!!!

As we are here for a wee while Josh joined a tennis club. He had his first tournament this weekend and he came home with the trophy for the Orange Ball group! One very happy boy!!!

Seven weeks in Sydney!

Can't quite believe we are in our seventh week in this gorgeous city! 

Sydney Opera House 

Always surrounded by tourists trying to get the best picture! I think the best place is from a ferry.  It does look a it like its floating around in this picture above. 

Sydney Harbour Bridge in all its glory!! It is huge!!! It should be imposing but it just seems to fit, like its always been there! We are still in awe every time we float under it on one of the numerous ferries or walk over it. The workmanship is so impressive even a girl like me finds it impressive! 

Josh just hanging about! 

These not so little fellows (water dragons) can be found just hanging out in the bush or along the coast.  You really do have to be very careful not to stand on them as their camouflage is so good!!! This one was on a tree about head height, just watching us hikers pass by.  I've never seen Gary move so fast!!! 

Most walks we venture on usually pass through or finish on a beach.  We have come across some glorious ones, some of which we have had all to ourselves.  The water is so clear & clean a quick dip or a paddle is a great way to cool off & relax after a long hike in the Sydney heat!! Needless to say we pack a towel in our backpack wherever we are going!!!! 

This is one of the rocky beaches en route to one of our favourite beaches Shark Bay, contrary to the name the whole beach has a shak net surrounding it so it is one of the beaches we can really get swimming in!! 

The following pictures are from The Blue Mountains. They are named due to the visible blue haze overhead.  The photos do not do it justice, it is a truly beautiful place to visit.  I would highly recomend checking the weather forecast before you head off on the 2 hour train journey as we had to make a second trip due to low fog!! (Couldn't see a blooming thing the first visit!!!) It has a number of tracks to explore on foot passing some gorgeous view points, plants, wildlife & waterfalls.  You can also take a bus  to Scenic World where there are two cable cars and the steepest train in the world.  The cable cars give you a view of the land below, especially the one with a glass bottom, not for the faint hearted. One of the cable cars & the train take you down into the forest where you will find a trail taking you amongst the trees.  The train itself comes with three seat positions, normal, laid back & clifhanger!!! Unfortunately for Gary & Josh I had access to the controls so it was cliffhanger all the way!!!!!! White knuckles upon exit!!!!! 

The next few pictures are from a walk we did from Watsons Bay.  We fuelled up on some of the very best fish & chips & headed off on our 2 hour adventure. We walked along the cliffs, up & down boardwalks including a number of steps & took in the views of the ocean, trying our best to spot whales & dolphins but no luck.  We always have fun on these coastal walks picking which house we would choose to live in as they are just, in Josh's words, awesome!!!!  We can all dream, right?! We successfully walked all the way to Bondi where we spent a couple of hours cooling off splashing in the waves, building a sandcastle & obviously eating ice cream!!!!!! 

Behind Josh to the left is the ferry wharf at Watsons Bay.  You can see the city skyline to the right. 

Our final destination Bondi!!! 

Yummy!!!! 🍦

Well I think we are settling in well.  Josh is enjoying hanging out with his old mum & dad & is working hard to keep on top of his school work.  He has made a really good friend at tennis, they are both in our pool at this time messing around. His mum has even mentioned having Josh for a sleepover which would give Gary & I a chance to have a child free evening!!! I'll let you guess where we will end up?! We are also dealing with the temperature so far, we have had the odd cooler day which is a nice break.  It is great getting up in the morning & going out onto the balcony and it being warm every day!!!!  Especially when Face Book posts from home are all complaining about the cold, rain & snow!!!!!! 

Gary has just booked a short cruise for Josh & I to go on in December as there was a sale on!!!  We are both very much looking forward to that, it goes to Moreton Island just up the coast, where we can do sand tabbogining and snorkelling, Josh & I are very much looking forward to this!!  Will definitely need to be posting some pics of that experience!! 

Thanks for reading!