Swamp wallabies at Ku-ring-gai

It's been an action-packed week here, although I still haven't managed to do things I'd intended to do. I've been to West Head and Garigal in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, I've climbed the Harbour Bridge and been to the Royal Botanic Gardens. I didn't get to do the tour of the Opera House or see the Aquarium or any of the museums and galleries.

On my first day here - Tuesday (arrived on Monday afternoon) Wendi drove us up through the Ku-ring-gai NP, up to West Head where there are amazing views of the harbour and islands. We drove up past the Hawkesbury and Pittwater - familiar names to me from reading Peter Carey's '30 Days in Sydney' before I came out, but places I never expected to actually be near! We drove past Waratah, which Wendi pointed out as being the place where Skippy (the bush kangaroo) used to live and where the series was filmed. After looking at the Views from West head we drove to Garigal and went for a walk. There are quite a few Aboriginal rock engravings up there and we went to look at these - pictures of people hunting and of their prey. Ku-ring-gai is a vast area - there's just bush as far as the eye can see. Though the Bahai temple was just visible as a white blob on the horizon.

We had just rounded a bend in the track when Wendi let out an exclamation -there was a wallaby in a small clearing to the left of the track. It sat there, motionless, watching and listening. I took a photograph before it hopped off. Then as I turned around to face the direction we were walking in I caught a flash of black as an something moved across the track in front of us just around another bend. When we came around the bend, there was another wallaby grazing on gorse blossoms at the side of the track, just a few feet away from us! I looked in the Lonely Planet wildlife guide when I got back and it said that swamp wallabies are 'occasionally' seen at Garigal. I saw two! Later that evening, back at the house in Hornsby Heights there were two possums in the garden. They are very fond of carrots occasionally. There seemed to be a territorial dispute going on between them.