Day 3 in Sydney - part 1

Our body clocks are not yet re-set, so we were up early on Friday morning. We had planned to see several things, and one of them were the Botanic Gardens that opened at 7am, so we decided to head over that way, leaving our hotel before sunrise.

The sun was rising just as we reached the Botanic Gardens.

At the entrance -- the gardens were established in 1873, so they are over 150 years old.

Beautiful plants, and many of them had identification labels

We headed into the succulent garden in honor of our friend from Venture Out, Dan...

Many of the plants in this area looked "otherworldly" to us...

This was the "Alluaudia procera" up close; notice how the leaves grow in measured rows along the stems/trunks of the plant.

This plant reminded us of the Medusa that had snakes for hair or the Hydra that would grow two heads every time one was cut off (why were we thinking of Greek mythology? I can't answer that!).

This plant was so interesting looking...

... here's a close up -- from a distance, it might look like leaves, but it was more like an organ pipe cactus.

This one was so feathery it didn't look real.

Carl surmised that if you trip and fell on this, its black spikes would kill you!

A view of Sydney Tower Eye from the Succulent garden

Another interesting design on a plant

While we were in the Succulent Garden, every few minutes flocks of large, very noisy white birds would fly overhead. They would land high up in trees nearby, and soon take off, again calling out very loudly. At one point when they had landed on the snag of a tree nearby, I thought I could see top-knots on their heads. We asked a worker at the garden, and he confirmed that Cockatiels are native and wild in the area, and they are very noisy -- so we're pretty sure we were seeing a flock of Cockatiels.

In the distance, we could see Sydney Harbour Bridge (with a palm tree seemingly growing up through its middle)...

... and the high-rises of downtown Sydney.

We think that this was an Ibis.

We walked out along the peninsula that extended beyond the Botanic Gardens -- there were 3 Australian Navy ships docked along a base on the other side of the water...

...with the sun behind, it is hard to see the ship well, but we thought this was an amphibious landing ship.

As we got around to the other side of the peninsula, we could see the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge -- with the sun only recently up, they were beautifully lit. There were *lots* of people out running and enjoying the beautiful day, so we were able to get another tourist to take our picture.

Another view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge -- this time nicely framed with tree limbs. There were also a large group of kayakers below us -- it appeared to be maybe a class or a tour group.

By this time, we were getting a bit hungry, so were happy to see a Coffee and Gelato stand -- it was unfortunately closed, but Carl pretended to be getting an ice cream provided to him!

The benefit of jet lag is that we're getting up early and starting our day!