heinpit.de

If only the picnic will stay dry!

Always and everytime enjoyable: Royal National Park. Gisela and Pico stay until late in March. That allows plenty of time to work on their fitness levels :-) Hence, with them as with so many previous visitors, we hike the coastal walk of the Royal National Park where we had previously done overnight bushwalks or "only" day walks (see e.g., Monthly Report October 2006).

Claudia sets Gisela, Pico and Peter down at Wattamolla Beach, drives to the end of the track in Bundeena and walks towards them. At the half-way mark we meet up for lunch, since of course, we have brought our picnic again!

This one-day walk doesn't offer the same insight into the variety of habitats as an overnight trip that leads through the so-called Palm Jungle up to a ridge. Nevertheless, the succession of steep coastal cliffs and beaches with deep boggy sand is impressive. And leaves lasting memories in the form of sore muscles the next day ... — mission accomplished! ;-)

Edith Schoolhouse

Temple of Baal

Birthday week-end Part I: Mt. Tomah & Jenolan Caves. You might remember that Gisela missed out on her birthday alltogether due to the awkward date line in the Pacific when they visited us last time in Down Under. Malevolent tongues say that Pico booked the flights accordingly to save on money for a birthday present :-) Once again, Pico seems to have planned their visit to play with the date line: His birthday is on the 25th, and a flight back on this day would have seen a birthday of 40 hours duration. Only that he seems to have mixed up the days, since their return flight is only on the 26th, a day later.

This leads to us celebrating Pico's birthday in Sydney — though not for 40 hours. We start the birthday week-end — the 25th is a Sunday — in the Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens in the Blue Mountians. Pico and Gisela remembered this venue in puring rain during Peter's birthday in June 2003. This time we are luckier and the sun is shining.

The night is spent in the Edith Old School House near the Jenolan Caves. On Pico's big day, we have an early breakfast next to the log fire place — it is pretty cold at 1000 m altitude &madash; before heading to the caves. Our choice, Temple of Baal, is neither the longest cave walk nor the one with the most stairs to negotiate, but it is imposing its million years old formations on us, and the tour guide keeps us very entertained.

The shirts are still clean: Gisela and Pico in the Botanic Gardens

Birthday week-end Part II: Teppanyaki. With the Japanese version of a BBQ, teppanyaki, people are seated around a hot steel plate where the chef spoils his guests with freshly prepared prawns, fish, and steaks. But this does not happen without showing off his mastering of cooking ingredients: The egg that will shortly be used in the mixed rice is thrown at the guests who have to try and catch it with a tiny bowl. Similarly, the cooked rice itself is thrown at the guests, up to them to catch the rice bowls. If the catch is unsucessful? Bad luck! Modern washing powders can do with a lot of unexpected...

Pico and Gisela who had always associated Japanese food with sushi only &mdah; "we don't like Japanese food!" — suddenly change their minds after we take them to such a teppanyaki restaurant in Gordon, not far from home. Is it the birthday champagne? More of the rice gets onto the clothes than into our stomachs. And finally we understand why the walls of the restaurant are painted in egg-yolk yellow color.

Photos of this are not provided, in respect for our online visitors ;-)