In accordance with its reputation as the surfer's world capital, Sydney's residents make sure to pass on their love for water sports to their children as early on as possible. Tiny kids on tiny surfboards can be found on nearly every beach, mingling happily in a crowd of tiny snorkels and tiny oxygen tanks for scuba-diving. And while the choppy waters of the open sea don't seem to attract too many wind-related athletes, the calm surface of the protected Sydney harbour is sprinkled with them. More on a sunny day, less when it rains. Although the occasional minute-long downpour couldn't stop the sailing crew I joined for a day to compete in the Wednesday Sydney harbour race. I quickly realized that it was naive of me to believe I would actually be asked to help (or taught for that matter) in the sailing itself, when stepping foot on the rope-covered floor or the much-larger-than-expected boat. And although we were a crew of 15, most of us (like me) were simply acting as intelligent weights, moving from railing to the opposite in order to keep the boat at its fastest angle somewhere between 10-20° degrees, with our arms and legs dangling down over the side of the boat, chatting, and giving the word 'hangout' a new exciting meaning. And even though I constantly felt the wind on my face, I didn't really get a feeling for it and how it managed to push the boat so fast across the water.

Now, even for those which are not the biggest fan of the salty blue, Sydney has heaps of outdoor activities to offer. Just bring your hiking shoes and a bottle of water and the nearest national park is never more than a half-hour train ride away. It can be so quick to dive from the busy streets into a green and brown world of plants and animals that are exclusively native to this gigantic Island. The Eucalyptus tree is one of them, apparently. And the Wollemi pine, who was just discovered a few years ago in Wollemi national park and of which all individuals are genetically identical, making it so rare, that the Australian government frequently makes extra efforts to protect it from any type of hazard (it's true, look it up). And while the typical adventure seeker would take a relatively quick train ride up to the blue mountains to discover all its secret hiking trails on foot, we decided to go up close to Wollemi national park and try to be one of the lucky bushwalkers to discover another for-extinct-believed plant species. Well, obviously we didn't. But we gave it a good shot. Hiring a local guide, we had the unique opportunity to go off-track and just literally walk straight up the mountain, ducking under fallen trees, stepping on the early-autumn fallen leaves and wiggling ourselves through narrow cracks in the sand-stone rocks, only to be rewarded by having lunch with the most stunning view over the Capertee valley. A real bushwalk experience! And in passing I got to see several kangaroos and possums and wallabies, and volunteer for riverside reforestation. I feel very Australian now, what do you think?