Sydney, Australia (Part 3)

The last full day of our great adventure.

The only remaining thing we had left to do was buy a didgeridoo and return our car. Returning the car didn't take long, especially since Hertz didn't notice all the scratches we got from offroading it in Dorrigo National Park. After this last errand we got back to exploring the great city of Sydney. We realized that in the three weeks in Australia we hadn't visited a religious building. In every other country, much less city, we visited over the past three months we stopped and toured a church (Europe), mosque (Turkey), synagogue (Prague), temple (India, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore) or monastery (Hong Kong). We only thought it was fitting that we stopped by a church in Sydney. The church was kind of cool and as you can see from the picture I still haven't equalized my ears.

After completing the religious requirement we checked out the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney. The gardens were cool, but the most impressive sight there were the 22,000 flying foxes. Flying foxes are huge bats with 5 foot wingspans and are really loud. All throughout the gardens were trees filled with these bats. It's an awesome sight. It's also an interesting dilemma for the city of Sydney. The 22,000 grey-headed flying foxes that have taken over the botanical gardens are endangered, but so are the trees in the botanical gardens, which the bats are killing. We're not sure how a species that has a colony of 22,000 in the most populous city on the continent can be endangered, but whatever. Apparently, this is the biggest ecological disaster since Bart Simpson left his pet bullfrog in Australia.

We kept walking around the area and found Mrs. MacQuarie's chair. This chair was used by Governor MacQuarie's wife to sit and watch the harbor back in the late 19th century. Lara felt that she should do Mrs. MacQuarie proud by being proper in her chair.

From the harbor we headed to the Rocks to check out a didgeridoo store and on the way we stumbled on a cool market. A little more upscale than most other markets we've visited, but very cool. The didgeridoo store in the Rocks didn't pan out so we staid on the didgeridoo hunt. The hunt took us to Bondi Beach where there was an Aboriginal store. As fate would have it, the last didgeridoo store that we would have a chance to visit turned out to be the best. After an hour of trying about a dozen didgeridoos and getting a lesson we found our didgeridoo. I should really say that it is my didgeridoo because Aboriginal culture says that only men are allowed to play the didgeridoo.

The last night of our adventure was spent in Bondi Beach. We got all dolled up and had a classy dinner at the Icebergs Dining Room overlooking Bondi Beach. The food was great, but the view was the star that night, both Lara and Bondi Beach.

At 5am we got up and watched our last sunrise. As a native Californian it was awkward watching the sun rise over the ocean, but on Bondi Beach, everything feels good. Following the sunrise we went for a jog along the ocean trail south of Bondi Beach. At a secluded area we buried our temporary travel rings. We didn't want to bring our real wedding rings with us on this trip so we got some inexpensive rings in Greece. Since our adventure was coming to a close we thought it fitting to bury our rings. Some day we'll go back to pick them up.

After our jog Lara did yoga on the beach at the Iceberg Club and I surfed Bondi Beach (attempted to surf really). At 11am the music started and we had to head out. One last crazy van ride later we were at the Sydney International Airport. Qantas flight QF073 was on time and we took off. Our great adventure had come to a close.