Cockatoo Island

We hadn't got out of the house much for the last few weeks, so I thought it would be good to go camping before the school holidays started. I tried Lane Cove River Tourist Park but it was booked out. Then I found Cockatoo Island camping packages. They provide the tent and mattresses; you bring sleeping bags. pillows, food and utensils. It sounded easy and something different so I booked for Saturday night.

We walked to Manly for lunch then caught the next ferry to Circular Quay, then the Parramatta Rivercat to Cockatoo Island. The Rivercat was very crowded, with a group of young people carrying camping gear. Sure enough they got out at Cockatoo Island too — but they went off to a different camping area and we saw little of them while we were there. We found our tent, set up our sleeping bags then headed off to explore.


Maps of the island show two levels, almost like a building plan, and it is a bit that way. Most of the island is flat, but there is a high area surrounded by sandstone cliffs created by quarrying the stone for some of the buildings (and for extending the flat area too). Shortcuts from one side to the other are provided by several tunnels, two of which are open, at least during the daytime. We wandered through the huge abandoned turbine shop, which Louka felt was haunted. We climbed the stairs to the upper level and explored the sandstone convict buildings.

We saw no cockatoos at all. I saw two wood-ducks. a willie wagtail, a noisy miner and a magpie, and heard a currawong. Louka saw a pigeon. But mostly we saw seagulls. It was like a seagull nesting colony, with gulls sitting on eggs everywhere — hard up against the walls of buildings, by the sides of paths, under stairs... The gulls squarked at us and flew around us whenever we went near their nests, which was hard to avoid. Fortunately the camping area was relatively free of them.

The camp kitchen was well equipped and clean, and Graham cooked the sausages and re-heated the fried onions (these were the worst thing about the experience, as the container seal leaked and left patches of oil on most of our camping gear). We'd brought a baguette from our local bakery — very good — and tomato sauce and relish. A good dinner.


When I'd booked the camping, the weather forecast was for mostly sunny all weekend, but by Saturday morning they were predicting rain on Sunday. However, when we woke up it was still fine, though cloudy. We'd brought muesli bars for breakfast and thought we'd get coffee at the café which the website said was open for breakfast. On our way to the café we explored some more of the island so that it was nearly 9 o'clock by the time we reached it — but it was still closed. There were people waiting there though, so we waited with them and the café soon opened. We got our coffee and sat on beanbags in the open-air seating area, which was very pleasant. Just as we finished, Graham felt a spit of rain so we headed back to our tent to pack up and go home before it got too wet. It started to rain while we were on the Rivercat, but stopped again on the Manly ferry, and we didn't get wet much on the walk home.

Midweek city visit

My camera battery was on its last legs so only one photo, sorry.

It's school holidays again and our mission is to keep Louka amused. Looking around the internet I found that the Sydney Observatory holds family-friendly tours. In the evening. It seemed like a good idea to stay in the city overnight rather than coming home late. The closest hotel to the Observatory we found was the Langham, It was pretty expensive, but then it was our wedding anniversary, so we booked a night there. Then of course we had to have dinner so Graham searched for deals in the Rocks area and found a seafood restaurant offering a $200 meal for $100.
My parents will be away for a month soon and I thought it would be nice to see them before they went, so we organised lunch at the Governor's Table. And then for some reason Louka asked what a pantomime was, so I googled it for her only to find that Cinderella was being performed at the State Theatre, and of course Louka wanted to see it.
As the day approached, the weather forecast looked less and less appealing - rain, wind. I pondered getting a rain-check on the Observatory tour, but the hotel booking couldn't be cancelled. We decided to go ahead with the whole thing.
We walked to Manly hoping we wouldn't get wet, and fortunately the rain held off except for a minute or so; we put on our raincoats and the rain stopped. On the ferry we chose to sit outside on the front deck, but as we approached the heads a crew member told us we should go inside and stay seated as it was going to be rough. Louka was reluctant but we went inside, and it was rough. Louka was eating a banana and when she'd finished she got up to put the skin in the bin. She hadn't gone a few metres before the ferry lurched over a wave and Louka fell to the floor. Luckily she wasn't hurt and got back to the seat without incident. The deck where we'd been sitting was drenched, the ferry shuddered and thudded down from the tops of waves and I noticed that we took a slightly different route from the usual, angling out to sea to try to meet the swell head-on rather than rolling sideways. Nevertheless the ferry tilted alarmingly before righting itself and tipping over to the other side. Soon we passed the head, though, and it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.
We had a pleasant meal with my parents then made our way to the hotel for a swim. The pool looked very glamorous in the picture on the web and Graham always likes to try out hotel pools. The pool receptionist was going to charge us $55 each for a casual visit until we thought to explain we were staying at the hotel, then we got in for free. It was a lovely pool, cool at first but soon just the right temperature. The water was not too chlorinated. The ceiling was deep blue scattered with little lights like stars, and there were lights just under the water that made our splashes sparkle. On the far side was a very warm and spacious spa. In the change rooms were towels, bathrobes, slippers, hot showers with shampoo and conditioner, and a water extractor for swimwear. There were not many other people using the pool. We had a great time.
When we went out again to the Observatory it was dark and wet and the walk was not appealing. I was glad we'd chosen a hotel so close by - we just crossed the road and walked up the hill and we were there. We climbed the stairs to the first telescope, an attractive old brass 12-inch one. The tour guide made the roof turn as we climbed the stairs, making us feel that we were on a revolving staircase. He showed us how the telescope could be pointed at any object then set to follow its path around the sky. It was obviously impossible to see any astronomical objects so the guide pointed the telescope at the Balmain Town Hall clock, but even that was not to be found.
The second tower contained a modern 16-inch telescope and here we were more fortunate and were able to see the red light on the top of the Harbour Bridge.
The 3D theatre was only working in 2D but that didn't much affect the movie we saw, which showed the relative sizes of the moon, planets, sun and larger stars. Then we went into the planetarium. The tour guide sent time backwards to the current time from the middle of the following day, and the sky darkened and filled with stars and the Milky Way. He showed us the constellations and told us stories about them. It was 7:30 when we finished and we still had questions we would have liked to ask.
It was still raining as we made our way to the Rocks to the Waterside Restaurant. The meal was ample and pleasant but we didn't feel it was worth $200.
Our hotel room had only one bed, but it was a super king size and we were comfortable in it for the night. We couldn't figure out the purpose of the bath-mat-sized squares of sheeting on the floor on either side of the bed, but we enjoyed the general sense of luxury,

In the morning Graham made coffee in the capsule-style coffee machine. We found that a short black sized coffee was nearly as strong as we make our coffee, and the flavour was better than from other coffee capsules we'd tried. Then, instead of having the rather expensive breakfast provided by the hotel, we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks. Then back for another swim before checking out.
Louka had enjoyed kids' holiday activities at the MCA on previous occasions so we went there and looked at the exhibitions (the exhibition "New Romance - art and the posthuman" was full of strange objects that, in Louka's words, looked like aliens had been experimenting with humans and had got carried away) then went to the kids activity room to make a creature out of paper cups, newspaper, stickers and long strips of silver paper.
It was a long wet walk from Circular Quay to the State Theatre and when we arrived there was already a queue to get in. We showed our tickets then checked my bag and Louka's craft creature into the cloak room. Louka wanted popcorn and I got a packet of crisps before finding our seats. Louka was impressed with how ornate the theatre was. The stage was decorated with sparkling lights and soon the lights dimmed and the show started. The audience was coached in booing and other interactions, the costumes were over the top, the songs were familiar, the jokes were topical. Louka said it was her favourite part of the whole outing.

Birthday sleepover

Louka has wanted a sleepover for a long time, but she still sleeps in our bedroom and we were concerned that she wouldn't be able to sleep without us. Still, she's been sleeping pretty well and has decided that when she turns ten she will sleep in her own room, so we let her have her sleepover.

She wanted to invite four friends, which was one more than I thought could fit in her room, but again we let her have her way, and the four friends were all able to come. I spread out a single bed mattress, a queen bed mattress and a pile of yoga mats on the floor. It was nearly covered.

We found instructions on how to make cupcakes with wolf claw scratches on them, so I made some cupcakes from a Woolworths magazine and iced them with fondant icing and red-dyed glucose syrup. They looked pretty cool, but they were a bit dry and not very tasty.

I also made a mountain birthday cake using a dolly varden cake tin, my regular chocolate cake recipe, whipped cream and cream cheese icing, sparkly blue sprinkles and tiny pine trees. It looked cool and also tasted good.

Louka remembered the paddling pool and water slide from her sixth birthday party and requested to have them again. That turned out to be the best idea of all, as they kept the girls entertained for a long time.

I dragged them away from water play for a treasure hunt and a pinata (a moon one I'd made myself, like last year's), then Graham got back from the fish-and-chip shop with dinner. They dug in, then announced themselves full, so we had pass the parcel before dessert.

The cakes got oohs and aahs, we sang Happy Birthday, Louka blew out the candles and cut the cake and we all had a slice. Then it was time for a movie – of course about a wolf – Balto: Wolf Quest. By the time the movie ended it was quite dark and Louka made everyone run through the trees to the brick retaining wall in the park. One girl was quite reluctant to go out in the dark, but when the others set off she didn't want to stay behind, so they all went together. 

I hoped they would be ready for bed then (though I didn't expect it) but they weren't, so they played with the Littlest Pet Shop aeroplane that was one of Louka's presents. At 10 o'clock I told them it was time to brush their teeth, after which they retired to the bedroom. Not that this meant they were going to sleep, and they shouted about polka-dot hamburgers for quite a while. I think they finally got to sleep a bit after midnight. 

At 7 o'clock in the morning they were all awake again. I made them search for the pancakes and maple syrup I'd hidden in the living room, then they returned to the water slide and paddling pool, which kept them busy till their mums arrived to take them home at 9 o'clock.

A Summer morning's walk

Last weekend we tried to walk from St Ives to the Sphinx Memorial in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. However, we found ourselves on a path that was hard to follow, splitting off in all directions till we weren't sure we were still on it, so we made our way back to the car.

This weekend we decided to start from the Sphinx and make our way to last week's starting point. It was predicted to reach 31° so we set off fairly early with a bottle of water and some snacks.

The Sphinx Memorial was the work of a returned WW1 soldier who had spent time in Egypt. It's pretty impressive so I was surprised I'd never heard of it before.

From there a track led down to a tiny creek and then to the river. It was downhill all the way, and our knees were feeling the brunt of it. When we reached the junction with the Warrimoo track we were going to head for St Ives when some other walkers asked us if we were trying to get to the place with all the boats, so we decided to walk to Bobbin Head instead.

The river at the junction was very shallow and we could see plenty of fish. The track followed the river pretty closely. There were shady gullies where little creeks joined the river, where it would have been pleasant to linger, but we soldiered on to Bobbin Head. There we found a marina with a café so we sat in the shade with cold drinks. The café also sold fish food, and two little girls were feeding the fish so the water was full of fish. We sat and watched them for a while then decided to head back.

Not far from Bobbin Head we came across a large goanna lying sunbathing across our path. It seemed unconcerned about us, but we were a bit concerned about it. I'd heard of goannas mistaking people for trees and running up them. Eventually we tried to edge past it on the far side of the path, and it decided to move out of our way. We saw another, slightly smaller, in the undergrowth a little further on. (We'd also seen a small one on a rock on the way to Bobbin Head.)

By now it was getting pretty hot and the uphill walk to the Sphinx was grueling. Louka began to complain and stop and sit down from time to time, though she also ran up steps to get to the end quicker. Eventually we got to the top and had a long drink from a bubbler. When we got in the car the thermometer read 39°, though it settled down to 36° as we drove away. Then I felt something crawling on my leg: it felt like a big fly. I looked down and there was a leech - ewwww! Quickly I plucked it from my leg and threw it out the window. After that Graham felt a bit twitchy but Louka had fallen asleep in her seat, which she hasn't done for years.

It was an interesting and attractive walk, but I think next time we'll do it in cooler weather.

How to make a fairy house

We'd made a fairy well, now we needed a house for the fairies who will use it.

Materials:

Plastic bowl, cardboard, clear plastic, paint, PVA glue, pine needles, bark.

Method:
Mix orange and black paint and some PVA glue and paint the bowl brown.

Cut a strip of cardboard as wide as the height of the fairy house and long enough to go round the bowl with a bit of overlap. Cut out door and windows. Cut window shapes from clear plastic and tape to the inside of the cardboard.

Paint the outside of the cardboard a nice dark green.

Cut a circle of cardboard for the floor. Paint it with plenty of glue mixed into the paint.

Tape the cardboard into a cylinder and tape on the floor.

Glue pieces of bark to cover the wall. We started with PVA glue but we found the bark curled when wet, so we ended up using Selleys All Fix which was much easier to use, though unfortunately it dries white instead of clear.

Glue lengths of Norfolk Island pine dinosaur tails to the bowl to make a conical roof.

To make more of a thatched roof, add pine needles or casuarina needles. We used PVA glue for these as we didn't want white glue showing, and tied some thread loosely around to hold them in place while the glue dried.

How to make a fairy well

Louka wanted to make a fairy house, with a working well. She had an old thimble she wanted to use for the bucket but that was all.

Here is how we did it.

Materials:

small empty tin, paint, PVA glue, small stones, sticks, thimble, wire, unwanted jewellery chain, hot glue gun

Method:

Mix orange paint with a small amount of black to make brown, and mix in some PVA glue (I think this helps it stick, though it probably would have been fine as we didn't remove the paper label from the Milo tin.) Paint the tin and leave to dry.

Choose two forked sticks and cut them to size with secateurs. They should be taller than the tin. Choose a straight stick to hang the bucket from.

Use a hot glue gun to stick the forked sticks to the sides of the tin. (Be careful: hot glue can burn.) Use more hot glue to stick stones to the tin, down to the level where it will be buried in the ground. Sit the straight stick over the forked sticks and glue in place.

Use the wire to make a handle for the bucket, then attach the chain and hang from the straight stick. Wind the chain round the stick a couple of times so you can lower and raise it by pulling on the end of the chain.

Next we will make the house - watch this space!