Well this is it everyone, the video you’ve been waiting for over a year to see. The Polish Wedding Dancing Competition. Which I was able to win due to irrational behaviour caused by chronic alcohol intoxication from drinking a few litres of potato juice, wodka. (In Polish the word Vodka is spelt and pronounced wodka, and comes from the word water, woda!).

This also coincides with the first time I met Dorota’s family. Being the newest edition to the family and being a foreigner almost the entire family wanted to have a toast with me, and in stereotypical Polish tradition with a large shot glass of vodka. Now perhaps, that, I could may have survived. But as already explained by Dorota in her post about the Polish wedding, several songs play where you have to down vodka to the music.

So after each 20 minutes dancing interval, there is a song “A teraz idzieny na jednego” (translation: time to drink vodka), and you have another 20 minutes (or more) drinking (and eating) interval. There are also other songs (yes, there is a lot of singing) which everyone is singing together, followed by a shot of vodka. You will sing “Sto lat”, wishing them to live for long, followed by a shot of vodka, and “Gorzko”, which means bitter, so they have to kiss each other to make their life sweeter, obviously followed by a shot of vodka.

Anyway I actually really don’t like dancing, especially in public in front of your girlfriends family you’ve met for the first time at their cousins’ wedding. However after several dozen shots of vodka nothing would stop me from dancing, in fact I was so good, I won the night’s dancing competition, whilst wearing a pinny and impersonating a lady.

I’m so not looking forward to the next Polish wedding in 2011.

Diving Beqa Lagoon (Pronounced Benga) was absolutely fantastic. I have never seen so many sharks before on a single dive. The sharks just swim gracefully around you as if you are not even there munching and crunching on their food.
This video is of our safety stop coming up from 30m after seeing the bigger sharks, here you can see Black and White Tip sharks swimming around. Even though they are small I got to realise the power these fish have when @3:08 a sharks fin flipped by my face and the water pressure knocked my mask.

Laggers point provides a dramatic setting for Trial Bay Gaol (Jail). It is the only example of a station prison specifically constructed to carry out a public work. Built from exceptionally hard local granite from the nearby hill, it created many construction problems. The construction of the seawall by prison labour, and object of the public work, was never completed.

Many of the original buildings at the prison no longer exist. Prior to 1900 three timber huts were used to accommodate some of the more trustworthy prisoners. You can still see the ruins of the hospital block and silent cells which troublesome prisoners were isolated. There are also remains of a building which housed light electric machinery, shoe smith, bathrooms and the bakehouse and kitchen. Washrooms, a watershed, six water tanks, a store, and a former underground water storage tank no longer exist. The water storage tank used to be 35 feet long, 25 feet wide and 18 feet deep, which held 37,700 gallons of water.

Both the Public works era and enemy alien era cells have been restored, and also the North Western Guard’s watch tower which gives you amazing views over the bay.

A plan was devised in 1861 to build a breakwater off Laggers Point to create a harbour for ships which were too big to cross the Macleay River mouths. It was planned to use prison inmates for the construction of the breakwater, hence Trial Bay Jail was established specifically for the purpose of housing the workers, and became a Public Works Prison.

Work on the prison started in 1877, and 64 cells were completed in 1886 when the first prisoners occupied.

The breakwater the prisoners were to build was supposed to go out 1,500 metres out into the bay. Over the years of construction strong winds frequently damaged the breakwater. Between the years of 1898-1899 a second wing (South) and a junction between the second wing and the older section of the prison was added to Trial Bay Jail, which suggested the breakwater work was going to continue. Alterations in 1900 were completed creating a kitchen, bakehouse and scullery.

Apparently the prison was costly to run and also at this time the government was rethinking their penology ideas and didn’t believe this type of work was an appropriate treatment regime, decided to abandon the project in 1903.

Only around 300 meters of Laggers point breakwater was built, which shoaled up the bay and made it very shallow for ships. A wharf was then built in 1898 within the breakwater to be used by passenger ships which couldn’t cross the Macleay River’s mouth.

Nowadays none of the wharf is visible, and only a very small section of the breakwater exists, around a 50m length.

The last use of the prison was between 1915-1918 when it was used as an enemy alien internment camp. Most of the detainees at this time were officers from the German Army Reserve. In 1917 It was rumoured that the Germans planned to rescue these men. When in 1918 an armed merchant raider the German Hilfskreuzer SMS Wolf was seen all the men from the prison were relocated to a larger prison on the outskirts of Sydney.

It was dormant for several years and was completely stripped of fixtures in 1922.

This was the last use made of the prison and it was stripped and fixtures sold off in 1922. Today it’s open to the public, operated as a heritage site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service

Today Trial Bay prison is open to the public 7 days a week from 0900-1630 and operated within Arakoon State Conservation Area, a heritage site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It also provides thousands of visitors yearly with facilities for camping, swimming, boating, fishing and scenic walks.

We visited the Garden in true Ming Dynasty style and hired Chinese costume. I was dressed as a warrior and Dorota as a Queen. It’s remarkable that such an amazing place is less than a ten minute walk away and we haven’t been there within the 7 months we have lived next to it.

The Gardens are full of large birds, koi carp and large lizards, it was a great day out and no doubt we will be back!

More info on the Chinese Garden of Friendship:

The Chinese Garden of Friendship’s design was inspired by a traditional Chinese art form dating back to the fifth century. It is the only authentic southern-style Chinese garden of its size outside of mainland China.

The Garden of Friendship is a Chinese garden proposed by the Chinese community in Sydney to celebrate the Bicentenary of Australia.

The New South Wales Government accepted this proposal and funded its construction. The Guangdong Provincial Government of the People’s Republic of China, holding in high esteem the friendship between Australia and China strongly endorsed the project and actively participated in it.

The Guangzhou Bureau of Parks and Gardens designed and supervised the project and worked in co-operation with the New South Wales Darling Harbour Authority to bring the Garden into being.

The Garden is situated in Darling Harbour. Set alongside the reflection of sails and gull-crested waves of water rippling out into the distance, the Garden captures the mood of a forest refuge in the bustling city.

The techniques employed are intricately manifested over the whole area of the Garden, revealing numerous variations within its confined space.

The Twin Pavilion with its linked roof symbolises the friendship between Australia and China, the Tall Triple-eaved Pavilion reaching up towards the clouds provides an excellent site for listening to the sound of moving water while resting against the railing.
The Double-Sided and Through-carved Dragon Wall depicts two dragons frolicking in the water, racing to fetch the pearl.

Rocks nestled amid bamboos and huts among the hills await the music of lutes to invite in the phoenix. The poetry couplets executed in fine calligraphy are infused with brilliance; their superb composition enhances the vibrant colours of the Garden.

The rivulets and the lights; the trees, rocks, birds and flowers, the setting for viewing platforms by ponds, the shelter of covered walkways and pavilions are all the creations of craftsmen who have extracted the essence of their inherent beauty.

On a fine day when the sun is shining, on a walk through the Garden enjoying the visual delights will leave one amazed at the boundless panoramas. A fondness for it lingers and thought of leaving are forgotten. Here in this Garden generates the warmth of a friendship which will endure for a thousand springtimes.

January 1988

Over the past 15 years dive Operators have been chumming the water developing “Shark Reef”, a big fish site. It is definitely a predators playground now with some very large fat Bull sharks, along with Tiger sharks, Blacktip Reef Sharks, Whitetip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks, Silvertip Sharks, Tawny Nurse Sharks and Sicklefin Lemon Sharks. As well as Giant Grouper, Maori Wrasse, Rainbow Runners, Giant Trevally, Java Morays and Eagle Rays.

Shark Reef has been developed in collaboration with the local village who own the reef and has been turned into a National Marine park, and has now become a huge shark breeding ground.

We’ve booked our accommodation with the Lagoon Resort and our diving with Beqa Adventure Divers, so will let you know how we get on.

But in the meantime check out some of the videos here of diving in Beqa Lagoon. Shark feed diving and another
Beqa Lagoon shark feed

PatsOn has some great photos on Flickr

The bridge is also the only surviving suspension bridge from the colonial period of NSW and was an outstanding engineering achievement for its time.

Hampden Bridge replaced a 2-span timber trust bridge which was built in 1879 and was offically opened on 19th May 1898 by Hon J.H Young, Minister for Works and was named after Lord Hampden, Governor of New South Wales 1895-1899.

The bridge is a sandstone and steel structure suspended on each side by fourteen steel cables 37mm in diameter, with a tensile strength of 79.6 tonnes. The clear span is 77 metres, width 5.5 metres and deck 16.8 metres above the river bed. The medieval style towers are 16.8 metres higher than the decking.

The bridge was designed by Engineers De Burgh & Allen of the NSW Department Public Works and was built at a cost of $16,764AU by contractors Loveridge & Hudson of Bowarl.

We hired two Kayaks, well in the northern hemisphere they are called Canoes, don’t ask me why but in Australia Kayaks. In fact they have both Canoes and Kayaks the wrong way round. So we hired two Kayaks from Kangaroo Valley Escapes for our very own self guided trip down the river.

We started from Hampden Bridge and finished about 5km downstream at Bendeela, it took a little over 2 hours. I would have liked to have kept on going but the cold and wetness of my hands was getting to me. Next time don’t let anyone talk you out of taking your waterproof jacket!

The kayak down the river was amazing, having some interesting conversation over how far Bull Sharks can swim up rivers and how far south crocodiles can go. Probably not the typical conversation whilst in a small plastic vessel.

We didn’t get to see much wildlife, most likely, as a group of cub scouts an hour previously kayaked the same area and scared it all off. But we did get to see quite a few Australian Water Dragons which looked amazing perched on the rocks.

I also was very lucky to have a Lyrebird copying me whistling, it’s amazing how they can imitate other noises. It’s not uncommon for them to make chainsaw noises. There is a great video on Youtube thanks to the BBC.

There are some amazing photos over at the Sydney Morning Herald site of the bridge.

What is really sad is that these magnificant mammals are nearly extinct. There are only belived to be around 300 Nurse Sharks and will be extinct within 7 years. This documentary preview looks interesting.

I will post some photos later and talk a little bit more about our trip to Fish Rock Cave at South West Rocks. But in the meantime check out the video above which I filmed.

I will post some photos later and talk a little bit more about our trip to Fish Rock Cave at South West Rocks. But in the meantime check out the video above which I filmed of Dorota and an adult Green Turtle.

Just to add the knife she is seen holding is due to her feeding the turtle, not anything to harm or protect herself with