BARE ISLAND & LAPEROUSE

Its Sunday and we took a trip to Botany Bay - a bit of a mistake because at weekends everyone heads for the beach. Laperouse is a little peninsular which juts out into Botany Bay.  Botany Bay is very busy. You see huge container ships and it is on the flight path from the Sydney Airport. We were there to visit Bare Island which was named by Captain Cook in his ship log. It became a fort almost a hundred years later because of its strategic position in the bay.  It sits just off the headland of Laperouse which is called after the Frenchman who led an expedition to Australia around the same time as the British were starting to colonise and build settlements. Laperouse built a stockade on the headland. The French and the British were at war then and it must have been quite an exciting  time. Laperouse is famous because he disappeared with his ship in the South Pacific. An interesting record in the museum showed that Napoleon had applied to be on the expedition but was refused. What would have happened in France if he had been there and disappeared with the crew?   The museum also had beautiful photos of the marine life around the coast and round Bare Island. There were lots of people fishing, snorkelling and scuba diving.  There were  also photos of the snakemen who used to give shows with dangerous snakes on the headland. I did the tour of the fort on Bare Island. Nothing much there now except the remnants of the parade ground and the old barracks etc. Lots of cannon! Tom Cruise did a lot of filming there for Mission Impossible 2 so I must watch the film now. There are great views from the ramparts of the fort across the bay out to sea and to the headland where I am told there is a beautiful golf course. On the way back to the car I spotted a crowd gathering and was surprised to see there was actually a Snakeman performing. He wasn't very exciting. He had on a pair of thick trousers and strong boots but he was handling the snakes and had several different kinds in big sacks. I watched him with a Brown Snake which is supposed to be one of the deadliest snakes in Australia. I didn't stop to argue with him when he started to carry it around  everybody!

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