Habitat for Humanity
Destination: 53 Martin Place, Sydney.
The address has become a well-known location now after a radical Muslim named Man Haron Monis held hostage 10 customers and eight employees of Lindt Café in the morning rush hour on 15 December 2014. The 16-hour siege ended after the gunman was killed. The incident also claimed two innocent lives.
If you’re visiting Sydney in winter make sure you join a whale-watching cruise that departs from Circular Quay, Sydney Harbor. The whale-watching season along New South Wales’s east coast starts from May and continues till November.
Our flight from Alice Spring (Northern Territory, central Australia) landed at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport around 6 in the evening. With dazzling light and sparkling billboards, Sydney looked incredible at night.
Want to immerse yourself in the magic of the Australian outback? Take a trip to Uluru.
The final leg of our journey to Uluru began. As we travelled about 50km, we came across Mt Conner. Mt Conner is often mistaken for Uluru by unsuspecting tourists. When I saw Mt Conner, I could at once make out why this formation fools many people.
Mt Conner is a flat-topped hillock that is about 2821ft high, and like Uluru, is a sacred site for Yankunytjatjara people. It is located on Curtin Springs Station, and the best way to see it is to book a tour at Curtin Springs. Our bus stopped for 15 minutes. I hurriedly got off the bus to take a look as the sun was shining weakly through a cloud cover.
The second-leg of our journey through the desert began. The distance from Start’s Well to Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse is 164 kms. Even though there was hardly any traffic on the highway, driving through the desert needs focus and complete concentration. There were two drivers and they were taking turns. Once one finished, he went right at the back of the bus where there’s a nice bed for him to take rest. And the other driver took charge.
My Australian sojourn last month would have been far from complete if I hadn’t visited Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia.
The Qantas flight from Adelaide (three hours and fifteen minutes) landed at Alice Springs airport, a sleepy town about 500km from Uluru at 12.30pm. We took a bus from the airport and reached Desert Palms Resort around 2pm. Located in Australian outback, the hotel offers a tropical oasis in the middle of the desert. The setting of the resort is stunning with palm trees all around.
“In the twilight of a long and happy life I still think cricket is the finest character builder of all our sports. And in the years ahead I trust that the Museum in its lovely setting will be the catalyst to encourage and inspire the young people of Australia to serve their nation with courage, honour and humility.”
Sir Donald Bradman AC, 1996
As the morning sun caressed the lush green pitch of Bradman Oval, it created an atmosphere of quiet grandeur and timelessness. Here in Bowral, cricket’s ultimate place of pilgrimage, all-time great and legend Sir Donald George Bradman (1908-2001) spent most of his cricketing years! This is the ground where Sir Don scored his first century in Grade Cricket.
Just 115 km south-west of Sydney, Bowral is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and the main business precinct of Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands.
I’ve beaten kokils today
You know how? Today I woke up even before they could start twittering..
As I write this, only now I could hear them chirping …
Birbhumer bhor bela!
What a feeling! What a divine sensation!
Thanks for stopping by.
