Ku-Ring-Gai
Chase: This aboriginal park was
incredible. The Ku-Ring-Gai Chase is the
home of the aboriginal tribe the Guringai.
Our guide, Dr. Claire Jackson, pointed out the aboriginal carvings that
depicted stories and such. The
depictions included dreamtime, animals, people, and materials. This was truly unique, since the Australian
aboriginals are the oldest living culture.
Today, the descendants of local aboriginal tribes would come every four
years to celebrate the ancestors in a festival.
In homage with their ancestors, the descendants would use the carvings
to figure out where they would set up camp.
The carvings also depicted games and stories that would be shared during
this time of remembrance.
Featherdale Wildlife Park and Blue
Mountains: At the wildlife park, the group and I saw all types of animals. The animals included wallabies, kangaroos,
koalas, saltwater crocodiles, dingoes, and even a Tasmanian devil. Even though the wildlife park was great, the
Blue Mountains were special. The views
looking into a valley we hiked at was awe-inspiring. The Blue Mountains gets its blue color by the
essential oils of various gum (eucalyptus) trees evaporates and disperses into
the air, through which the visible blue spectrum of sunlight is propagated more
than other colors, which give the mountains a bluish cast. Different types of vegetation grew on the
sides of the cliffs. The sandstone
formed a plateau similar to the Grand Canyon, only much older. To top it off, streams flowed from the Blue
Mountains, and ran into cliff faces. The end result is a beautiful waterfall.
Hunter Valley: During this trip, the
group and I went to two wineries (Tyrrell’s Winery and Tempus Two). The Hunter River is one of the largest river
valleys in New South Wales that irrigates the vineyards. There are three types of wines that are
special to the Hunter Valley. The three
types of grapes that are common used in Hunter Valley wines include Chardonnay,
Semillon, and Shiraz. Chardonnay is the
common white wine that comes from basalt soil (which was with the first place
the group and I visited, Tyrrell’s Winery).
The Semillon is the second-most common grape that comes from rivers in
sandy soils that have a little fertility (it was both in first wine tasted at
Tyrrell and was used to make the dessert wine at Tempus Two). Shiraz is the most common red wine in
Australia, in which aged is Shiraz is best compared to the vinegary taste. I tried a little, but I did not care for the
wine. However, there were many that
really enjoyed the wine tasting.
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