Australia 2019 – Day 11 – Botany Bay

It rained all night long, so when I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6 am I felt little motivation to prepare breakfast. I thus got on the way, and through the mist visited the Megalong Valley (it must be beautiful when the sun shines, particularly since this is where a lot of the good apples come from). I finally came to Blackheath, where I broke down and went to a McDonald’s to have a AUS$ 5 cup of coffee! (I later found out that the best deal is in 7-Eleven, where an equivalent cup costs only AUS$ 2).

While sipping my coffee I was looking at the map, planning my next move, when I saw, just south of Sydney, the label Botany Bay. The eyes of my imagination became all foggy, and through them I could see my hero, Captain James Cook, arriving at the east coast of Australia in 1770, and landing in this bay that, given the richness of new plants discovered by the onboard naturalist, Joseph Banks, was ultimately named Botany Bay. I have been a fan of James Cook for many years, and have visited many of the places he visited in his three voyages of circum-navigation around the world, so on the spot I decided I could not miss this one. [I am aware that, together with Cristobal Colon, James Cook spearheaded much of the European invasion of the Americas and the South Pacific, and that their names are hardly respected by indigenous populations. My admiration toward James Cook is as fearless explorer and superb navigator.]

With the idea of Botany Bay in my head, I decided to stop at the Botanical Gardens of the Blue Mountains, which have indeed a superb collection of the exotic plants of Australia (including the recent discovery of a type of pine that had never been observed before. The only match the park botanist could find was a 90 million year old fossil, and since then the so-called Wollemia nobilis has been recognized as a living fossil. The name Wollemia comes from an aboriginal word that means “look around you; keep your eyes open and watch out”, which is exactly what the park botanist was doing that day.)

When I came out of my communion with nature I discovered, to my considerable chagrin, that I had left the headlights on and had drained the battery. Rats! Fortunately a helpful park ranger gave me a jump and I could resume my trip.

I was maybe 70 kilometers from Sydney, so imagined an hour was all that was going to be needed to get to Botany Bay. It took me nearly three hours because of traffic. So I got there, took in the beauty of a perfect bay that must have been a delight to Cook and his crew, and that was that. There is a Cook Beach, and the Saint George river has a Cook islet at its mouth, but outside of that there is no museum or monument to remember the intrepid navigator. I almost felt I could have saved myself the trouble, particularly since the small towns are now one endless extension of the Sydney metropolis. Never mind, I shall retain bragging rights to having visited Botany Bay for many years to come.