Red Hands Cave

The Shark Tank with the morning sunlight in the harbour

This morning was the first of a few excursions with my Marine Environment class.  We met at the Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour at 9am and had 2 hours to walk around and answer questions. Originally, I thought that I would really enjoy it and take a lot of pictures of all the cool animals there, but with the question sheets taking up most of my time, it was hard to really appreciate how awesome everything was. I'll need to go back again for sure, with no time frame or agenda.  I saw signs for clownfish all over, and even had to answer a question about the anemones where they live, but did not actually see one in the tanks...I guess Nemo is still MIA. (Although they had nice plush versions of him in the gift shop!)  The best part of the whole aquarium is the Shark Tank, which is actually floating IN the harbour so it's lit by sunlight.  The exhibit makes a circle around and through the tank so the sharks, fish and giant manta rays swim directly above and around you.  We also got to see them feed the sharks in the biggest tank that they have, the Great Barrier Reef Oceanarium.  I'm still not quite sure how they know to only eat the frozen fish that are dropped in and not one of the thousands that are swimming around them all the time...

Campfire Creek Trail

After we left, Mona and I had made plans to do some hiking so we got on a train in Sydney and headed towards the Blue Mountains to a town called Glenbrook.  On the way, we ate our PB&J, did crosswords and watched the scenery change between big cities, small towns and finally the mountains.  As we stepped off onto the train station, the rain clouds that we had been worried about drifted apart and we were left with blue, sunny skies the rest of the day.  Once we found the trailhead, we started off on our 3K hike along Campfire Creek Trail and found that the beginning of it that crosses the creek, actually just IS the creek...so we had to do a little wading and jumping from rock to rock before we finally got on our way.  We quickly found out that this was not your average walking trail, as it involved a lot of climbing over rocks, ducking under fallen trees and dodging all the exotic tropical plants.  The trail was relatively quiet except for the occasional groups of backpackers and it was a perfect time to chat, listen to the creek as it ran next to us and marvel at the rainforest we were walking through.

Finally, we made it to the end of the trail at Red Hands Cave, a small cave that had Aboriginal paintings on the walls.  Done with ochre paint (the reason for the red color), they had made handprints and stencils of their hands all over the wall.  We learned that ochre is found in rocks or clay and was one of the Aborigines' most prized possessions.  The paint is made by mixing powdered ochre with water and animal fat which helps it adhere to the rock walls.  The signs near the caves estimated that the first hand print had been made over 1600 years ago.  The cave was blocked off by a fence and viewing glass, but after some searching we found a few that were outside of the fence and took some pictures with them.  For awhile I just sat and stared at the cave, my mind travelling to the past imagining what it was like when the first hands were being painted there.  Since we were both in such a contemplative mood, we climbed up above the caves and laid on the rocks to watch the clouds and listen to the birds and the breeze.

Red Hands Cave; Aboriginal art made with ochre paint

The walk back, which was mostly downhill, went much faster than we anticipated so when we got back to the trailhead we decided to check out another place called Jellybean Pool, a part of the river that widens and serves as a local swimming hole.  By then it was too cold for a swim (sorry Michiganders, "too cold" here means about 60 degrees...) so we just took in the view and more of the fresh air and then headed back towards the train station.  Before we could get back to the main road, I saw something dash across the road in front of us; a wild wallaby! (Here I wonder, do they use the phrase "like a kangaroo in headlights" instead of saying deer? Just a thought..) The wallaby was so cute even though it seemed scared of us, but it let us get close enough to take a few pictures before hopping out of sight.  After napping on the train, catching a bus back to Coogee and grabbing a quick dinner, we arrived home just in time to miss the evening's pouring rain.

Tomorrow my plans include sleeping in, making a big breakfast, taking my studying/paper-writing down to the beach and then heading to church in Maroubra :)