Sydney...is there time to build an ark?

We arrived in Sydney under cloudy skies with a temperature of 21 and raining.

We quickly dropped off our luggage and started walking in the direction of the harbour.

The BLUE Hotel can be seen on the far right. BLUE is perfectly located on the Wharf at Woolloomooloo, Sydney.  We were not staying at the BLUE but at The Mariner's Court Hotel  once home to naval sailors and officers. The area known as Woolloomooloo (more 'o's then in a box of Cheerios') is fast becoming a contemporary area of Sydney.

We stepped into the NSW Art Gallery to get out of the rain and even better the entry was free!

The Botanical Gardens in Sydney was our next stop on the walk. The Botanic Gardens are situated overlooking Farm Cove, directly east of the Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay and Macquarie Street. It is 30 hectares in area.

Is this a poisonous spider? It looks harmless to me.

Encephalartos altensteinii a plant from South Africa

the cone looks like a triade and the seeds are soft and bright red in color.

 Then we turned into a path where the trees had these suspicious looking fruit....on closer inspection we quickly recognized that they were very large  fruit bats also known as flying foxes...and in almost all the trees!

The Botanical Gardens are await approval to relocate the 7000 flying residents however there is no way of knowing what will happen if they try to evict them or where they will go. These bats sleep during the day and begin flying around sunset. They weigh 1kg and their wing span is 1metre from tip to wing tip.

The Australian White Ibis are really ugly birds...they are a commonly seen bird in Sydney....it has a predominantly white plumage with a bare, black head, long downcurved bill and black legs and they are quite indifferent to people.

This angle is not the most photographed view but we are walking up from the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The Opera House's roof is constructed of 1,056,000 glazed white self cleaning granite tiles imported from Sweden.

John is very happy, this was the most important moment for him being in Sydney..seeing the Opera House and booking the back stage tour.

It stopped raining long enough for Peter to take this picture of me.

Sydney skyline looking away from the Opera House.

There is a walkway underneath with shops and restaurants.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coat Hanger" because of its arch-based design.

The end of another great day and tomorrow we are coming back to do more exploring and hopefully it won't be raining!