Friday the 13th of May

On Friday, May 13^th, we started off our morning early. We loaded the bus at 5:45 am to head to the Sydney Fresh Produce market 30 minutes from our hotel. There, we met our guide for the morning, Sue. We started out in the flower market. We saw several Australian native flowers, such as kangaroo paw as well as other well-known flowers like carnations, roses, and many others. Next, we headed over to the growers market. Here we saw lots of fresh vegetables grown by produces in Australia. Then, we headed to three different buildings labeled A, B, and C. Here there were many more fruits and vegetables from around Australia. Almost everything here is grown in Australia. One of the few items they will import is mangos because of its popularity. Otherwise they just use what is grown in season. Last we went to the banana building. They keep all of the bananas in a building by themselves because of the ethylene gas they emit. This gas would cause the fruit and veggies in the other markets to ripen to quickly, so they keep them separate. One thing we found very interesting was that everything there is recycled. All of the pallets, boxes, and Styrofoam are crushed down and recycled. The water used to clean everything is reused for other things, and all of the leftover fruit and vegetables that can no longer be sold are donated to the Sydney shelter for the homeless. It is then used in various soup kitchens around the city to help the less fortunate.



The map of the grounds of the Sydney Fruit and Vegetable Market.



Some of the fun colored roses that were for sale in the flower market.



Just one of the fruit and vegetable building on the grounds of the Sydney Market

Next, we headed up to the Blue Mountains, which was about a 45 min drive from Sydney. On our way to the Blue Mountains, we drove past the sight of the Sydney Olympic Games from 2000. We got to see the stadiums, monuments, and the blue marathon line. These building are still used today, just for other recreational sports from people in the Sydney area.

A panoramic view of the Blue Mountains as well as the three sisters off to the left.

 

 

The sights at the Blue Mountain were beautiful. The neat thing about the Blue Mountains is the blue haze that can be seen changing above it. The eucalyptus trees expand and give off the blue haze that can be seen. Because of this, the scene you see is always going to be slightly different depending on what trees expand and when. Off to the left of the Blue Mountains, there is an unusual rock formation representing the three sisters of aboriginal legend that were turned to stone by their father. After this, we had lunch at a Chinese buffet and headed to the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary.

 

Part of the class was having fun taking selfies with the wallaby at the Featherdale Animal Sanctuary!

 

 

 

We got the chance to all pet one of the Koalas in the Featherdale Animal Sanctuary.

At the wildlife sanctuary we saw many different animals that are native to Australia. There were wallabies and kangaroos freely roaming around the grounds that we were free to pet, feed, and take selfies with. In the koala exhibit, each of us even got to pet one of them and take our picture with it! We also saw animals such as the Southern Cassowary, Tasmanian devil, wombats, and various other Australian birds. We even saw some little penguins, which we were able to see being fed, as well as the farm animal like goats, pigs, rabbits, and geese.



The Southern Cassowary was giving us the evil eye! These birds can actually be pretty fierce out in the wild.



Some of the little penguins that were at the Sanctuary.

This evening, we will be headed out to explore more of Sydney on our last night in the city. We’ve had a wonderful time in Sydney, and can’t wait to see what the rest of Australia has to offer over the next part of our journey.

Cara and Ben