Spit Bridge to Manly Hike

Atlassian QA Team goes for a walkabout

As many of you know I work for Atlassian, a Sydney based software company that develops software for software teams. If you haven't heard of Atlassian you might have heard of JIRA or Confluence which is our two most well known products. 

Atlassian is a good company and they take care of their employees with lots of social activities. A few weeks ago the QA Team took the afternoon of for some team activities. We had two choices, either doing the Spit Bridge to Manly walk or a chocolate making course. For me it was an easy choice since I am not really a big fan of chocolate and but hiking on the other hand is something I really enjoy doing.

The Hike

I was really impressed by the hike, I had heard it was suppose to be great but still it blew me away. The hike takes you through bush land, beaches, cliff walks, great views and there is even great aboriginal rock carvings to stop and look at. Since we were doing it on a week day it was pretty much empty too, I can image that on a nice weekend it would be much more crowded.

I'd like to go back when I have more time, bring some picnic and stop at some beach or view point along the hike and chill out. Bring my binoculars and maybe my bird book. 

You can read more about the hike at

• http://short-walks.com.au/new-south-wales/sydney/spit-bridge-to-manly-walk/
• Trip Advisor

Here are some photos from the hike, they do not really do the walk justice but should give you an idea of how beautiful it is. Click for larger version.

Sandy Bay

The plane wrote "Fix Trains" in the sky 

Brush Turkey getting ready to jump it.

My colleagues Glenn and Mikael chasing a brush turkey.

The water is crystal clear, wouldn't mind going for a swim here.

We did a halfway stop at Grotto Point which has plenty of Aboriginal Stone Carvings.

South Head in the distance.

Here you can see parts of Manly and North Head.

View towards Manly

Some statistics

4 Pines Brewery

After the hike both groups, hikers and chocolate makes meet up at the 4 Pines Brewery, a brewery in Manly, for dinner and drinks. The food was alright and I really enjoyed the drinks. We got tasting platters which I am not a big fan of, but the rest of the menu looked great. I'd definitely go back back for a veggie burger or veggie schnitzel. 

http://www.4pinesbeer.com.au/

Kookaburra on the balcony

A few weeks ago we got a visitor on the balcony. 

We woke up hearing a crazy laughing sound come from the balcony, dazed I said to Nicole. "Nicole, Nicole. There is a monkey on the balcony!" knowing well that there i no monkeys in Australia.

Of course, it was no monkey but a Laughing Kookaburra.  

Kookaburras have a strange call that sounds like laughter, it goes through cycles where it sometimes sounds like it is having a conversation with someone.

Check out a video, not mine, of a laughing kookaburra.

We have had a couple of visit of Kookaburras on the balcony since then. On one occasion we had three of them on the balcony at the same time having a little orchestra. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that.

There are two species of of Kookaburras in Australia.

• Laughing Kookaburra, are really common here in Sydney and I have seen several dozen of them. That's the kind that visit our balcony.
•  Blue-winged Kookaburra. I have only seen theses at a wildlife park but would love to see them in the wild one day.

I really love the bird life of Australia, there are so many strange and exotic birds here that we don't get in Sweden.
Check out my post on Centennial Park for more bird photos.

Thanks for reading!

Great Ocean Road

Sorry for the delay in posting but we have been away to Victoria for a week and not been able to access a computer for blogging.

This is a first of a series of blog posts on our trip to Victoria. We had a fantastic time all week but I have to say that the Great Ocean Road, which this post is about, was a high point. Amazingly beautiful and full of natural wonders it took my breath away.

Some history
The Great Ocean Road was built between 1919 and 1932 with the aim of building a world class scenic road and I don't think that anybody can say it is less than what they set out to do. But it was also a project to handle the mass unemployment of returning soldiers from World War I. It was built as a memorial of the Australians who lost theirs life during the war and it is considered the worlds longest war memorial.

Stretch
It stretches from Torquay in the East to Warrnambool in the West. An impressive 243 km of amazing scenery and nature.

View Larger Map

1, 2, 3+ Day Trip
You can do it one day from Melbourne and start early, but be prepared for a long drive in the car. For various reasons we decided to do it in 2 days instead so we had more time to explore. There is plenty to see and do along the GOR and this post just shows a few spots that we had time to see. It wouldn't be a problem to spend twice as much time on the drive and still not get bored.

12 Apostles
We headed out of Melbourne and took the inland road via Colac, cutting across from the free-way down to the coast to Port Campbell and then straight to the 12 Apostles to catch them for sunset which was amazing.

They are supposed to be even more amazing at sunrise but it was pretty damn good at sunset too. And since it was off season there were not that many other tourists there.

Loch Ard Gorge
We spent the night back in Port Campbell with dinner in a proper Aussie pub. Next morning with headed out to Loch Ard Gorge which is a famous ship wreck site. That stretch of coast used to be known as Ship-Wreck-Coast and there are as many as 200 know ship wreck sites.

The wreck itself had long been washed away but the Gorge itself was beautiful.

Great Otway National Park
About halfway on GOR is Great Otway National park. We took the road off the GOR to Cape Otway and we saw Koalas. Wild Koalas! Lots of them! We saw at least two dozen koalas but only managed to catch a few of them on camera. Unfortunately I don't have zoom on my camera.  Click on the pictures for a better view.

Apollo Bay Lunch Time
After Cape Otway we made or way to Apollo Bay for lunch. We got some take away chips and sat by the bay and ate them.

Apollo Bay to Torquay
The stretch is not as dramatic as the Ship-Wreck coast but no less fantastic. The road licks the coast which is dotted with tiny beaches every kilometer or so. We had to stop several times to enjoy the view and take pictures as the sun was setting for our second wonderful sunset in as many days.

Great Great Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road lives up to it's name. Lots of Ocean, Road and Greatness. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of our trip and can't wait to go back.

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment,
Jonas and Nicole

Katoomba - Blue Mountains - Part 2

Our second day of Katoomba we started slow. After a few beers at the RSL and a bottle of wine at the hotelroom we were not the earliest guests out of the hotel. We just managed to catch the hotel breakfast in the Grand Dining room before it closed at 10 am. After checking out and the late breakfast we strolled around town for a while. I picked up a climbing guide for the Blue Mountains and then we strolled into a cafe where I had a coffee while Nicole sipped on hot chocolate.

Hike 2: Echo Point - Scenic World

After coffee we headed out for our hike. Like yesterday we started at Echo Point and headed down the giant stair case, past three sisters, all 894 steps to the bottom.

Map

View Larger Map

It was a pretty easy hike which again took us about 3 hours including stops for photos and admiring amazing views, birds and crazy big trees.

 Currawong up in tree

 View about half way.

XXXL tree.

Nicole posing in front of a huge and very old Turpentine Tree

At the end of our hike was Scenic World which is a collection of Cable Cars, Boardwalks, Miners Village and a Scenic Railway. It was pretty touristy with plenty of school kids. So it was a bit crowded but that didn't stop us for really enjoying the views, which were breath taking.
http://www.scenicworld.com.au/

View from Scenic World

Continued view from Scenic World.

Check out those crazy trees.

Nicole pretending to be a 1900 century coal miner.

Apart from plenty of views Scenic World is also a Miners "museum" of sorts with lots of plaques with information and old mining equipment on display.

If you energy to spare after the hike and don't feel like being crowded at Scenic World then you can climb it yourself using the Furber Steps which you can take to the top. But beware that it is 900 vertical meters that you need to climb.

The Cable Car was closed so we took the Scenic Railway, which is the steepest passenger railway in the world, to the top and headed back into town. We were both pretty tired and happy after a wonderful hike. But also starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. There are plenty of options to eat in Katoomba which seems great. I can recommend "Common Grounds Cafe" for good pumpkin soup or a delicious veggie burger.

But the best place we found without question was the Unique Patisserie which except for displaying delicious looking pastry and cakes also served Malaysian/Penang food which was well priced and absolutely delicious.
https://www.facebook.com/UniquePatisserie

Tofu with bean sauce from Unique Patisserie. Yummy. Ate half the salad before I took the picture. Sorry. :P

After food and Chocolate Pudding we picked up our bags from The Carrington and headed to the train station. We sleept most of the way home happy with tired legs and full bellies.

I really enjoyed my first visit to the Blue Mountains and Katoomba and can really see us going back there many more times. I would love to visit some of the other towns next time, like Wentworth Falls or Blackheath.

Thank you for reading!