| Birding
On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
Comments | Table of Contents |
Royal National ParkPick Up Campervan Royal National Park BonnieVale Campground Birding the Campground Lady Carrington Track A Day in Sydney Port MacQuarie Rose-breasted Robin |
 Laughing Kookaburra |
The next morning I was up early and ready to get going. This Hilton Hotel is lovely with a view of the city and a Cricket Field next door, but I don't see any birds. I took a taxi to the All Seasons Campervans in nearby Hurstville. Hurstville is located on the south side of Sydney and is not far from the airport. I rented my campervan from Melbourne based Bartrak which has a contract with All Seasons to serve as their representative in Sydney. The taxi ride cost AU$22.
The All Seasons people were very nice and they also rent campervans. Since my experience with Bartrak was not totally satisfactory, I suggest trying All Seasons as an alternative. Be sure to make an appointment in advance of arrival.
The All Seasons people directed me to The Grand Pines Campground in nearby Ramsgate on Botany Bay. I needed a place to organize and do some shopping. At AU$36 this was the most expensive campground I stayed in on the whole trip. It was a very small campground with small sites. They had a nice amenities block with showers, a laundry and were located across the street from a nice beach front park. There was no camp kitchen or recreational facilities. The neighborhood was primarily residential. The owners are probably hanging on waiting for some hotel to buy them out. There was a grocery store within walking distance so that I was able to avoid driving. I stayed here two nights, doing laundry, stocking up with canned good from the grocery, and arranging the storage in the campervan.
The first thing I did was to read all the material that came with the van. I read the directions for using the stove, refrigerator, water storage, lights, and how to make the table into the bed and back to the table. There were also instructions on what to do in the case of an accident and how to get the van serviced. Since I was using the van for 4 months, it would require servicing 3 times. I also read the Toyota owners manual. There was a helpful pamphlet on driving in Australia and another on how to avoid getting an expensive ticket on the tricky toll roads in Melbourne. I had a guide book listing campgrounds.
The campervan has no closet so I ended up using the shelf over the drivers area to store my clothing. Bedding took up the shelf that was supposed to pull out and make a bed for a child. There were 3 thick pads for this upper bunk which would not be used. I decided to go back to the rental agency and leave these pads to get them out of my way. I also left one of the three lawn chairs that came with the camper.
I used boxes from the grocery to arrange canned goods in the storage compartment under the bench seats on either side of the table. Another box went on the front seat to hold maps and books while driving.
I decided that I was very glad I was not sharing this campervan with another adult much less an additional child. It seemed just right for one person. We Americans are a bit spoiled and I noticed 3 adults sharing a campervan the same size as mine.
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Even this urban setting has some good birds. Rainbow
Lorikeet, Sulfur-crested Cockatoo, Magpie, Australian White Ibis, Crested
Pigeon, Willy Wagtail, Silver Gull. All the campgrounds in Australia seem to have people who either live there all the time or at least for long periods of time. One of the regulars in this campground was feeding the Sulfur-crested Cockatoos. I met a couple from Melbourne who were here for their son's wedding. She had the wedding cake in their caravan and brought it out to show me. The next day they would pick up another son who was flying in from the US for the wedding. The guy in the spot next to me is working on his car all the time. Today he is changing the oil. |
There are things to be done each morning before you start off. Secure the cabinet doors otherwise the first time you go around a corner all the stuff falls out on the floor. Place a pillow in the cabinet with the dishes to keep them from rattling while driving. Close all the windows, disconnect the electric cord and place in the cabinet under the table. Make the bed into a table. Be sure you have stored the bucket, chairs, and hose. Look around the camp site to make sure you don't leave anything.
I finally got up my courage and left the safety of the Grand Pines. Shifting gears with my left hand is proving to be a big challenge. New Toyota vans have a very stiff gear shift and I seem to miss first gear most of the time. The traffic lanes in Sydney are very narrow or at least it seemed so to me and everyone is driving very fast. I later decided that driving in Sydney is the worst in Australia, but this morning I am beginning to think this whole trip may be a bad idea. I am driving very cautiously and irritating every Australian driver on the road. So far nobody has flipped me the Boston salute, but I know I am not popular.
Very cautiously I found my way back to All Seasons and left the extra pads and the chair. I stopped at a Toyota Dealer to try to get an extra key made for the campervan. I didn't want to lose my only key out in the middle of nowhere. Incredibly Toyota Dealers cannot make a key for a Toyota van, but I found a hardware store that could. I kept the second key on a chain around my neck on the whole trip. I never needed it, but I am not sorry I made the effort to get it. While I was at the hardware store I picked up another 25 foot outdoor electrical cord, a small box heater/fan and a roll of Duct Tape. Never be without Duct Tape. I seemed to have the only campervan without an extra electrical outlet inside for an additional appliance. I expect to need one for charging my telephone and camera battery. It would also be nice to have a radio for music and news. At K-mart I purchased a cellular phone with a pre-paid card. Big mistake. I should have gotten a Telcom phone. My phone didn't work more places then it did work.
Royal National Park
The park is just south of Sydney and while it is called a national park it is owned by the state of New South Wales. Australia has 6 states and one territory: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. All the parks are called "National Parks", but as far as I could determine they are all equivalent to our state parks. Recently some of the national parks have been turned over to Aboriginal Tribes and then the tourist parts of these parks leased back to the state to operate.
At the visitors center you can buy a pass to all the New South Wales (NSW) parks except Kosciusko for AU$60 or for all for AU$73. I bought a pass. I also signed up for two nights in the BonnieVale campground which cost AU$7 per night. The female Ranger was so excited that I was traveling alone that she gave me two nights of camping free. The only way to pay for a campsite is at the visitors center which turns out to be a little inconvenient since it is a long drive to the campground. The gift shop has a good selection of natural history books and souvenirs. I purchased a small guide to Birdwatching in Royal and Heathcote National Parks. This served as an excellent guide to the tracks in the park.
The Bungoona Track leaves from the picnic area near the center and is a paved trail to an overview of the river. I saw several small birds along this track. I even had some very long looks at some of them. Fumbling around with my Australian bird book, I was unable to make any positive identification. It is like being a beginning birder all over again and I am very discouraged. Later I realized that one of these birds was a juvenile Superb Fairywren. Bird books often give you a very poor impression of the size of a bird since they size the illustrations to fit on the page. I am sure I saw these birds again, but the experience was unnerving.
I have not carried a field guide to the North American birds into the field in years. Now I am "back to the book". Make sure you have a way to carry and access your field guide easily. The best solution is a fanny pack that you can keep in front with your field guide or a vest with a large front pocket. It really helps to have a quick index to the field guide you are using. I have included a quick index to the Simpson and Day field guide to the Birds of Australia in this book. Print a copy or make your own and paste it to the back of your book. Why don't bird book authors get on to the quick index and include one on the back cover?
The main road in the park winds down to cross the river just before the old town of Audley. This road is sometimes underwater in which case you will have to go back out to the Prince Highway and enter by the second gate to reach the campground. Australia is in the midst of the worst drought in one hundred years and there is no problem now. Just over the causeway you pass the southern end of the Lady Carrington Walking Track. I drove on to the turn off for Bundeena and the Bonnie Vale campground.
Bonnie Vale Campground
The Bonnie Vale campground is the first left after you enter the town of Bundeena. It is winter and the campground is mostly empty. I was supposed to be assigned to campsite 16, but the sites are not all numbered. I selected a nice spot of grass and moved in.
Most national park campgrounds do not offer powered sites and are designed for tents only. Bonnie Vale is due for refurbishing and it badly needs it. The only facilities consisted of a concrete block building with flush toilets and one sink. Later when I was wandering around birding I stopped in another toilet building in the public picnic area and discovered hot showers. There were trash cans and plenty of water faucets.
Once a day a maintenance man came by and hosed down the toilets and took some of the trash away. Otherwise the campground was unsupervised. Late in my trip I tried to stay here again and was told by the visitors center that it was closed for refurbishing. I stayed at the private campground in Bundeena and came over here to look for birds. I was surprised to find plenty of campers and now the campground had a ranger to collect fees. It seems the central booking telephone number had not been informed the campground was closed. The Ranger would not rent you a space, but if you made a reservation with central booking she would honor the reservation. Confused? Australians seem to be used to this kind of inefficiency.
The campground is surrounded by private cabins which predate the park. The town of Bundeena is connected by a ferry to Sydney and people commute there to work. Residents of Bundeena walk their dogs and jog in the campground. I talked to one young man who said that people still resent the park surrounding the town.
If the Bonnie Vale campground was primitive, it was also quiet and full of birds. I stayed here five nights because the birds were good and Royal National Park was a good place for me to learn to drive the campervan with ease. In the morning a chorus of Kookaburra woke me at dawn. I parked the van so that in the evening the sun set on one side and in the morning there was a beautiful pink dawn over the bay out the other window. It is a bit cold in the Australian winter and I wasn't popping out from under the warm covers so early. I am retired after all.
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In the evenings I was entertained
by a dancing Willy Wagtail. I was so fond of this bird I named my campervan
"Willy" in its honor. It spend most of its time on or near the ground. I
recorded his movements: hop right, hop right, hop right, pop up and make a
complete circle, hop left. Fly to the top of a short post and wag its tail
right and left. Now it sits there and looks at me. I saw the Willy Wagtail everywhere throughout the trip and always enjoyed its antics. |
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