Bundeena

Moving on to the 26th- we've nearly gotten you all caught up! We woke up early to catch the ferry (pronounced furry by our favourite Spaniard) to Bundeena National Park. We first had to take a train to the end of the line at Cronulla, a cute little town that has lots of nice shops and gives of a Stratford-esque vibe. The ferry itself was old and had that old ferry charm to it, if you can imagine that.

Upon arrival at Bundeena, we were told by our guide (one of the exchange coordinators) that we needed to prepare for a bush walk in which we would see large snakes, really big spiders and maybe a few deer (or dear!). She then went on to say that our goal of the day was to avoid being sent home in a wooden box. Lovely.

A little apprehensive, we ventured out on our bush walk. I, for one, was holding my breath for much of the walk because I somehow convinced myself that might just keep those monster spiders at bay. While we didn’t find any of the above mentioned creeplife, we did come across a number of other interesting things (most of which are pictured below). This included national heritage sites, nude bathers, native art pieces and even a real, live cactus!

Our “experienced” guide was highly competent and managed to get us lost about five times in two hours. By the third fumble, she started getting pretty creative with her explanations of why the trails weren’t quite the same as the last time she was there, or why a detour to see more of the bush we had been looking at for the last hour was so necessary. Frustrated, five of us decided to break off from the group to find the others that opted out of the walk to spend some time on the beach. Not to worry, though. Those of you who know me would agree this was a fantastic idea given my razor sharp sense of direction that relies on my never-fail intuition (yes, Mom and Dad this is Laura writing). It had taken us about 4 hours to get to where we were at that point. We were back to the beach in 20 minutes (okay, maybe Morgan had to take over navigating a bit).

The goal of the bush walk was to see some native artwork. There's some pictured below, feel free to share your comments. We reserve all judgement. Joking aside, the scenery was beautiful. There were fantastic views of small cliffs and the water. The bush was great too, though it did lose its lustre after walking in it for hours and collecting many a scratch and scrape (and hive- lucky me).

We caught a quick swim on the beach and then ventured out to catch the ferry home. It was while waiting with our feet dangling from the dock that I managed to accidentally sacrifice my only flip flops to the beautiful blue ocean. Morgan had a good laugh. The day ended with our first party at the Roundhouse, the university bar. It was a great way to party away the loss of my beloved sandals. May they rest in peace.

View from the ferry enroute to Bundeena

This would be a national heritage site (the rocks under the water). We were instructed very sternly not to touch. We were all in such awe that we had to take a picture, though.


Aboriginal artwork. We think this one would be a representation of primitive roadkill.

The bushwalk featured many a green bush.

View of our picnic lunch stop