Bogey Holes, Bird Attacks and Surveillance Towers

I’ve been taking a leadership seminar off-campus for the last few months. The program meets in the conference rooms of a prestigious hotel called Noah’s On The Beach, which offers an amazing view of the surf just outside the windows. It’s a bit mean-spirited to spend the day cooped up inside with the beach just feet away, so I asked Bryan to meet me after the last session for a walk down the coastline.

I’d taken this route earlier with a co-worker and she pointed out a local attraction nearby that we had yet to see. The Bogey Hole is a nearly two hundred year old pool carved out of the rock by convicts for Major James Morriset (you can check out the fascinating history here) . It’s one of the big tourist attractions for the city, but since this was during the middle of the week (and in 22C winter weather – Brrrr) there was no one else around.

Unfortunately a bird decided to ruin the fun after we checked it out, which cut short our walk a bit. We ended up climbing Shepherds hill above to check out the Missile Surveillance site. It’s a popular wedding site now, but looks like an old jail (strange allusion). Anywhoo, check out the pics and if you want to go on a virtual tour, click here

This is the view along the walking path along Bar Beach

More Bar Beach

A look down the coast

Looking down at the Bogey Hole, a private bath dug by convicts

The ocean water feeds into the Bogey Hole

This is only way in and out of the water

A look at the cliff from the base of the Bogey Hole

At the top of the Bogey Hole, we suffer the wrath of nature

Here’s the villain!

When a second bird appears, we beat a hasty retreat

This plaque memorializes the surveillance station on Shepherds Hill

A batter look at the surveillance tower

It looks more like a jail than a station, no?

Looking down into the entrance to the tower

A view of the tower from afar

Some info on the history of Shepherds Hill

A view from the top of the hill, down towards Bar Beach

Long Weekend: Merewether Beach

As you may remember from the last post, Australia celebrates the Queen’s birthday as a national holiday in early June. On the Saturday we ventured to Blackbutt Reserve. On Sunday we decided to take a long walk to Merewether Beach which, according to Newcastle City Council, is one of the city’s most famous beaches.

This area of the city is currently in the midst of a coastal revitalization project. Merewether is part of a 2010 public domain plan designed to protect the beach, improve the area and make it more pedestrian friendly.

Perhaps because we’re so close to “winter”, the waves were absolutely ginormous. This – combined with warm weather – meant that there were lots of people out surfing and enjoying the boardwalk (Bryan and I nearly got run off the sidewalk more than a few times by spandex-clad speed-walking moms).

Take a look:

This picture does not do these swells justice. The surfers were quite impressive, though we did witness a few spectacular wipe-outs

There were a few fishermen trying their luck

There’s some real beauty in the rock parts of the shore

This is the Merewether Baths – an external pool filled with salt water from the ocean. There’s one for nearly every stretch of the beach (Bryan has already tried the one at Bar Beach)

In truth it was not our original intention to walk all the way to Merewether (it’s approximately 45 minutes away on foot). We were actually on a mission: looking for tennis courts. Unfortunately all of the courts that we’ve found have been shockingly expensive ($14 an hour?!), which is a difficult price to swallow. Perhaps the free (though admittedly poorly maintained) courts back in Ottawa have spoilt us?

The tennis court search was part of a desire to discover new areas of town, and eventually led us to a steep hill near Cathedral Park, a heritage site containing the city’s first burial ground. We didn’t go in (perhaps another time), but we did discover some other fun stuff.

This prison-like structure does not contain convicts. It’s actually the water corporation.

There was no one around. Perhaps this is why it gives off such a foreboding vibe

Here’s your history.

I just got out after serving 15-20?

This is the playground of the public school across the street. It was very fancy – this court was HUGE

Across the street from the water corporation is this random castle turret. Why is it here and where’s the rest?

Here’s your history.

And finally (because I’m obsessed with trees) here’s the view going down the hill. Pretty

Long Weekend: Blackbutt Reserve

This weekend is a long weekend in Australia thanks to the Queen’s birthday (June 10). To celebrate the extra day off, one of my co-workers, Tammy, offered to take us to Blackbutt reserve to see some “local” wildlife.

The reserve is a zoo located within the city limits. It’s free to the public, which is kind of shocking for Australia.

Here are some pictures of the day, which despite an early rain turned out to be quite enjoyable!

Co-worker Tammy checks out the birds in the first major section of the reserve

This area was FILLED with birds (plus a special furry friend)

The birds literally had no fear. At one point one nearly dive bombed us. We’re pretty certain they would have landed on us had we given them the chance

A regal bird?

Bryan spots the special guest

KOALA! Sooooo cute

Cute until you get a closer look at the razor sharp talons. Thankfully he uses them primarily to climb trees to get to leaves

He’s a bit plump, which makes it surprising how limber he is at the top of the tree

A bunch of birds, hanging out

This picture makes the wallaby look a little like a big rat, but he really looks like a mini kangaroo

Rat wallaby?

This guy’s just hanging out. There’s not much scale here but he’s quite big

The reserve is located in town, but the foliage is dense enough to make you forget

Cockatoos? The black headed guys are pretty memorable. They look like something Disney would love to develop a film around

Parrot enclosure

This guy was filled with personality. It’s hard to tell but he had a big mullet and a dainty walk

As we were exiting the animal section of the park, Bryan spotted what appears to be turkeys hanging out in the trees. It was strange to see such big birds 20 ft off the ground

Near the end of the raised platforms, there was a hang-out around a set of park benches. These giant ferns are just part of the local foliage

A few feet away from the ferns were four peacocks. You could literally just reach out and touch them if you wanted to

We went for the photo op, but maintained a safe distance. They’re beautiful, but we didn’t want to risk getting bitten

In another section of the reserve there’s a large enclosure with emus and kangaroos.

The kangaroos were interested in getting up close and personal…until they figured out we didn’t have any food. As soon as the jig was up, they were bouncing away

My “arty” shot – which is code for the camera focusing on the fence rather than the true subject of the shot!

It seems as though the emus spend a little too much time near the fence because they were all missing hair on the sides of their head. If you look closely, you can see this one’s ear (completely exposed). It was so weird because it looked like an open wound in the side of its head!