Thursday, 3rd March

Was quite bemused to see this as I left the train station-apparently part of an Aids awareness programme but felt sorry for the poor guy on the statue!(George Thornton, apparently, in 1847 he was mayor of Sydney)

 

 In the Australian Museum there was a special exhibition called Trailblazers about famous Australian explorers; totally fascinating and amazing what some people have done. I was especially impressed with John Muir, who amongst other things crossed Australia completely on his own, pulping a cart with all his belongings on,  and by Tim Cope who rode a horse on the journey of Genghis Khan from Mongolia to Hungary

 

 Couldn't resist the Eliot quote.

 

 Quite liked the comparison between old and new.
The museum was really well laid out, quite modern, the two other exhibitions I liked were The First Australians about the indigenous people through to the first settlers, and a particularly creepy one entitled Surviving Australia. Plenty of spiders, crocs, snakes etc and it appears that even those pretty spherical shells on the beaches can be poisonous!
There were lots of school parties there and when I left saw Clancy School doing their school photo on the steps of the cathedral, so relaxing not being a part!

 

After this I went to Manly to see the Australian Open surfing championships; it was very windy and sand was blowing all over the place but the surf wasn't very high. To be honest I have been more impressed with the surfers on the Northern Beaches, but of course I don't really know what to look for. Met up with Charles in the evening and had a go at fishing... no luck!