Our trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens did not begin well.
I still had a cold, and the cold medicine had not kicked in. We had planned to catch one of the free lunchtime tours, but the tour was nowhere to be found. 'Why the hell don't any of the websites in this country have accurate information?! This is ridiculous!" It turned out we'd come in through the wrong entrance. I was cranky.
It even took a while for the fact that it was finally gorgeous out after weeks of rain and clouds to register; but slowly it did, and ultimately the sunny weather and spectacular views began to shift my mood. Then we saw this little guy and things began to change.
After that I found a very welcoming tree, and I had no other choice but to climb it . . . and you really can't feel too grumpy when you're sitting in such a fabulous tree.
From that point, the day just got better and better. We saw cool things everywhere! We sat by a pond for a while and watched some adorable moorhens building a nest in the middle of the pond and tending to their chicks.
We also saw an eel and there were bats hanging from trees everywhere, even in the middle of the day. Luckily, they were far up above trying to sleep and didn't really bother with anything going on below them.
We grabbed lunch at the Botanic Gardens Cafe in the center of the garden, which was fairly reasonable priced. My chicken wrap was little dry, but luckily G's tasty chicken schnitzel had enough mayo to spare a little for my lunch.
After lunch we were a little drowsy, so we lounged for bit on bench under a tree before continuing to explore the park -- and there is enough here to explore for days. This is a city with A LOT of park land. The Gardens begin just beyond the Opera House and they just seem to go on and on. Where the Botanic Gardens end, the Domain begins and offers up even more grasslands and recreational areas. Just as with Centennial Park, there are bikers and runners everywhere. We just go on strolling around, taking it all in.
Some of the best views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge can be seen from the eastern side of the park along the water. They get even better when you hit Mrs. Maquarie's point. Mrs. Maquarie was the wife of an early governor of New South Whales and she enjoyed this area so much that a chair was carved into a rock so that she could sit and look out over the harbour. To get the most spectacular views though, it's best to walk down to the rocks by the water.
From here we started to make our way back, however, we were sidetracked by a flock of cockatoos. If the little guy we saw at the beginning of the day was cool, this was just jaw-droppingly awesome. Soooo many cockatoos just chilling under a tree.
These guys are making out on top of my map!
There were other beautiful birds as well, and they're all clearly very used to people because none of them seemed at all fazed by all the spectators that had gathered to watch them. This Rainbow Lorikeet came right up to me and hung out on my jacket and purse for while.
At the center of the flock of cockatoos was this very zen gentleman just calmly feeding them and giving them water from a water bottle.
G and I were sprawled out taking millions of pics of all the birds, and eventually the guy came over and gave G an handful of nuts to feed to the cockatoos. Within seconds he was covered under flock of feathers.
A few moments later, the guy comes back and hands me some nuts and an in an instant I'm covered in birds. This was simultaneously amazing and completely overwhelming!
Full disclosure, you are absolutely not supposed to this. There are signs everywhere warning you not to feed the birds because they bite -- and they do, although thankfully, not hard. The second the nuts were gone, I closed my hands so that they wouldn't nibble my fingers; but those little guys are determined and don't give up right away. Still, they are so cute and have such clear personality that I would not have traded getting mobbed by them for anything.
I have slight hesitancy around birds because one once nosedived at my head -- this is huge for me!
So the day started out a little rough, but turned out to be one of our most fantastic days in Sydney so far.
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