The park has a mix of road and trail runs. Any run that is no on a road is called bush – so hiking on a trail or running on a trail is a Bush Walk or Bush Run respectively. I did a combination of road and bush running. I did see several road cyclists in the park. They were riding up and down the hills. There are some pretty good hills in this park. I got back to the house with plenty of time to grab breakie and pack a lunch for the day.
We walked the kids to school, which is also quite hilly. My calves are getting a workout with just the walking. At the school the kids have to line up by class and the all of the announcements are made. My sister and I then headed to the trains to head to downtown.
We got off the train at Circular Quay. This is the hub of Sydney Harbour. It is the founding site of Sydney and the home to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens. On the north side is the Harbour Bridge and The Rocks.
After walking around this the Opera House we visited the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art. We then had lunch in the Royal Botanical Gardens. The gardens are expansive and impressive. There is a pond with lots of birds and eels.
Harbour Bridge
Sydney Opera House
Me in front of Sydney Opera House
In addition the trees are very unique. In the tops of the tress there are many huge flying fox bats. I have been told that at dusk it is exciting to see the bats take flight. After the gardens we headed to the Sydney Library where they have a small but interesting exhibit about the first aboriginals their interactions with the first westerners.
Duck in hiding
Bats (Fying Foxes) in trees
Bats (Fying Foxes) in trees
Close up of Fying Foxes - You do not want to picnic under these trees
Century Old Trees
The day had flown by and it was time to head back to Chatswood, do a little grocery shopping and then pick up the kids and walk home. When we got home I had a small bowl of oatmeal for a snack at got ready to meet the Lance Cove Runners at the park. They meet Tuesday and Friday evenings. I ran down a steep hill of Fuller Street (about ¾ mile) and arrived at the park just as three other people were congregating. I introduced myself and one of the guys was Jim who I had corresponded with a couple of weeks ago. Two of the other people were Tom and George. They are both accomplished Bush Runners. In fact, Tom has a 100K bush run this weekend. We started the run at a comfortable pace and the road got hilly. This ended up being a challenging run. I would say it ended up being comfortably hard. Tom and I pushed the pace in a couple of sections but we were able to keep it conversational most of the time. Tom asked me if I thought that Australia had an obesity problem. I said that compared to Mississippi Australia had nothing to worry about – Tom was still concerned.
I ended up getting just over 13 miles running plus several more walking around the city.
I loved the botanical gardens..did a run through there several times. I think it's quite funny that any Aussie would think they have an obesity problem. It was the fittest population I've ever seen.
ReplyDeletewow! keep the cool pictures coming!!
ReplyDeleteLove all your photos and the fact that yu got to meet up with the locals for a run.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the flying foxes taking off in the evening. I went to watch the Mexican free-tail bats come out from under the bridges in Austin once and it was an awesome sight. It doesn't look like there's as many bats, but their larger size should make for an equally awesome take-off.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are really enjoying yourself. And the fact that you are meeting with locals to run is extremely cool.
ReplyDeleteJogging is really important for our health and we should run everyday as per our capacity and strength. I hope that other people get inspiration from your post and they also can get better health.
ReplyDelete