The first of my armchair reminiscences of travel in the pre-Covid times featured A is for Argentina and Buenos Aires. Next up, A is also for Australia, a country I’ve been lucky enough to visit four times. The first time was in July 1985, with a stopover in Singapore, followed by two weeks in Sydney and a few days on the way home in Perth. Personally significant, you might say, as it was on this trip that I first encountered the young Miss Duncansby who would later become Mrs Chrisparkle!

Anyway, here’s a few sights of Sydney 35 years ago.

That’s Sydney’s most iconic sight – taken from the ferry.

Nuns in a scrum was how it was described to me. I can see what they mean.

It can also provide the perfect backdrop for a moody male model shot.

All Sydney’s major sights are within a stone’s throw of each other, because it really is a city based on the water. The Harbour Bridge looks dramatic from any angle.

Here’s Mrs Macquarie’s Chair – a rocky outcrop near the Opera House carved into a chair by convicts so that Mrs Macquarie could watch the ships go by in relative comfort. All right for some, isn’t it.

Another of my favourite places on that trip was Taronga Park Zoo. The contrast between the zoo animals and the backdrop of the Sydney Cityscape is, in zoo terms, pretty hard to beat.

Even without animals, the view is breathtaking.

I was rather taken with its front entrance too.

Today, Sydney is a very modern, rat-racey city, but in 1985 it had a charming built-in sleepiness. Even though the horizon is full of skyscrapers, you never felt far away from somewhere restful.

Here’s St Mary’s Cathedral from a jaunty angle.

And the heart of Sydney’s heritage district, The Rocks.

And finally, an out-of-town shot. Here’s Wattamolla, in the Royal National Park, a stunningly beautiful lagoon which I also got to visit thirty years later!

There you go, a little taster of what Sydney looked like 35 years ago. Tomorrow it’s back to reminiscing about old shows – from 1971 and 1972. See you then!