Manly Beach

Shark Netting

 

We have visited Manly Beach a number of times.  The wharf area seems to have been upgraded a bit and there were lots of restaurants.  We walked up through the shopping area and had lunch at one of the hotels near the beachside.  It was warm enough to sit out on the deck and it was rather nice.

 Sydney ferry

At the beach there were quite a few swimmers as the temperature was near thirty degrees.  Manly beach is on a point with the beach on either side of the shopping precinct.  On the wharf side there is a large area with shark netting making a safe swimming haven.  The aquarium can be seen behind this area.

Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour

In the middle of Sydney Harbour is Fort Denison.  This fort was used in the early days of settlement as a place of punishment and confinement for the convict population.  It is now a tourist destination and has a café and is popular for walks and picnics. 

Manly Beach

Sydney Harbour

On Monday the weather was much warmer so we caught the train from Blacktown
into the city and then the ferry to Manly. The harbour bridge always looks
magnificent and of course so does the Opera House. The ferry soon passed
the city naval base. The views of the central business district look much
better from a distance.

There were quite a few boats out on the harbour and the ferries were plying
back and forth. We had initially thought we would take one of the Captain
Cook Cruises but there were not many tourists about, and although they were
still running there were limited times available. We were happy with our
trip on the ferry and within forty minutes we were at Manly.

Mount Tomah NSW Botanic Gardens

After lunch, and of course, looking at the classic cars we enjoyed a brisk
walk around the gardens. Some people visit and spend all day at the gardens
but as it was already early afternoon and the temperature in the mountains
was only in the mid-teens we took a shorter walk. I was particularly keen
to see the waratahs as they were in flower and on display and also the
rhododendrons were magnificent. I took lots of photos of the flowers but
won't saturate the blog with those!

Hawkesbury River region

As we have visited Sydney a number of times there were few areas that were
new to us. On the Sunday it was a reasonable day so we decided to take the
tourist drive up the Hawkesbury River region. This took us through a number
of small historic towns including Windsor where there is a large RAAF base
with plenty of planes on the tarmac.

We soon crossed the Hawkesbury River - this crossing was further down the
river from most of the tourist areas where the house boats are moored. The
Richmond bridge was built in 1905 and was the replacement for the first
timber bridge built across the Hawkesbury River in 1860.

We continued further up the hills (this is part of the Blue Mountains
National Park) to the small settlement of Bilpin which is an apple growing
area. We stopped off at one of the fruit stalls but instead of buying
apples we bought a large bag of oranges - not sure if they were grown
locally (although the sign said all local grown fruit) but they were
certainly nice and juicy.

We eventually arrived at the Mount Tomah Botanical Garden where we enjoyed
lunch before wandering the gardens. There were a number of classic car in
the car park as a local club were visiting following a rally.

Company in Sydney

At short notice, we agreed to house sit for a Sydney couple while they went
to Melbourne for a week. The house was in a newish area called Stanhope
Gardens near Blacktown. We had the pleasure of the company of two sisters -
Cleo and Patra who are shitzu/poodles aged five. They were a delight to
care for and soon displayed their individual personalities. They were very
different to look at so no difficulty in knowing who was who! Patra was the
boss and certainly let Cleo know. Unfortunately Cleo has severe arthritis
in her hips and walks with significant difficulty. They both loved attention
and Cleo loved having her belly rubbed. We enjoyed looking after them.

The house had a lovely garden area and once the Sydney weather warmed up
again it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the outdoor area. In six days we
went from freezing cold (with snow in the Blue Mountains not that far away)
to 33 degrees and humidity. From the heater to the air conditioner!

Scenic World at The Blue Mountains, NSW

Our last stop for the day was at Scenic World - this is the home of the
original scenic railway and sky walk. The facility is amazingly still
privately owned and is currently undergoing extensive renovations. The
skywalk was operating, and there is a (new to us) cable car also operating
and the original scenic railway no longer operates. However there was a
railroad of some sort but the area was all under scaffolding so difficult to
see. It will be worth another visit in a year or so to see when the
renovations are completed.

As it was now late in the day we commenced our return trip down the
mountain. There are a number of areas of road works on the mountain highway
and we can only imagine what it was like when it was snowing yesterday. We
enjoyed our re-visit to the Blue Mountains area - it had been a full day out
and we were welcomed home by the dogs when we eventually got back to the
house.

The Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, NSW

I guess the most well-known section of the Blue Mountains must be the Three
Sisters. There were lots of visitors about looking at the view from Echo
Point but in the distance we could see that some had walked down the tracks
to cross the bridge into the rock formations. We have been to the Blue
Mountains a number of times and just enjoyed seeing the area again without
too much exercise in the cold!

The Blue Mountains from Honeymoon Lookout

When we decided to visit the Blue Mountains we had checked out whether we
could travel by train. The train to the Blue Mountains travels through
Blacktown which is the local train station and it would be a pleasant way to
travel the eighty kilometres to Katoomba. There is an Explorer bus
travelling to the various scenic spots and although we were tempted we
decided it would be good to have the flexibility of the car, especially as
the weather was so cold.

As we made our way to Echo Point and the popular Three Sisters we stopped
off at Honeymoon Lookout. There is a walk from the nearby Silver Mists Park
to the lookout which has views across the valley. While we were at the
lookout the Explore Bus came by dropping off travellers - there is twenty
minutes before the next bus was due so the travellers had a cold wait. We
were so pleased to have the car.

Leura Cascades, Blue Mountains, NSW

After lunch the next stop was the Leura Cascades. It is possible to walk
from here to Echo Point but the tracks were very wet with large puddles of
water so not ideal for walking, especially downhill and down steps.

The cascading water was very pretty - the area is apparently very popular
for wedding photos but there weren't any bridal parties there when we
visited.

Leura township, Blue Mountains, NSW

After our short walk at Wentworth Falls we made our way to the township of
Leura. This shopping area has a real village atmosphere and there were lots
of visitors. There are lots of bed and breakfast facilities in the area and
so the restaurants and cafes are popular. We wandered along the shops and
then chose to have lunch at one of the oldest buildings which has a licenced
restaurant. Although there were outside tables the majority of the diners
were enjoying the warmth of the inside tables with the roaring fire.
Fortunately the rain held off.

Visiting the Blue Mountains

We woke on Friday morning to heavy rain and low temperatures - it certainly
didn't encourage us to go out and we were so pleased that we weren't in the
tent (in fact we wouldn't be, we would have booked into a motel). We spent
the morning at the house and in the afternoon we went into the city for
another appointment for Peter.

Before leaving the house I telephoned the information centre at Katoomba as
we planned to visit the Blue Mountains on Saturday. The guy provided me the
information but then said to call before visiting as the Western Highway to
Katoomba was currently closed due to the heaviest snow in thirty years. The
news that night showed the area covered in snow and the road and trains had
been closed for hours.

We took the train from Blacktown to North Sydney - fortunately this is on
the same line so we didn't need to change trains. It is so much quicker to
catch the train than take the car and so much cheaper - as seniors we can
catch public transport for a full day for $2.50 each. The train station at
North Sydney is in the middle of a large shopping centre so while Peter
headed off with umbrella in the heavy rain to his appointment I stayed in
the comfort of the shopping centre. As there was no let up in the rain we
couldn't be bothered wandering anywhere else so after Peter's appointment we
headed back to Blacktown.

Fortunately the weather improved overnight and Saturday morning there was
blue sky and warmer temperatures. We decided to have our trip to the Blue
Mountains, hopeful that we would see some evidence of the snow.
Unfortunately for the sake of our photos the snow was all gone.

Our first stop was at Wentworth Falls - there were quite a few visitors
about. It was fine but the temperatures were still quite low. We initially
went to look at the Blue Mountains from the Jamison Lookout - the blue hue
was quite evident.

From the lookout we walked down one of the stepped tracks to get a view of
the Wentworth Falls from across the valley. It is possible to walk to the
bottom of the falls but the 1-2 hour walk didn't appeal to me today as it
would have been our luck for the rain to start again and the tracks were
quite slippery as they were following the heavy rain. We could see a number
of people walking the track in the distance but we didn't join them.

Sydney

We are now well settled into another house sitting arrangement. These two
dogs are very good - they do not go past the front door and are happy in the
family room and the back garden. The dogs have soon adjusted to us and they
welcome us when we come in and love to share the couch with us. One of them
even tried climbing on to our bed a number of times during the night but she
soon got a short shift from Peter!

Thursday was really cold and wet and we are not used to this type of
weather. Fortunately the rain stopped in the early afternoon so we headed
out as Peter had an appointment in the city late in the afternoon. We took
the train from Blacktown into Wynyard Station and while Peter attended his
appointment I wandered around the Westfield Shopping Centre in George and
Pitt Streets and then some of the arcades. Fortunately the rain held off
and although still quite cool was dry. After seeing the Sydney Tower from
Pitt Street I walked down to Circular Quay to get my first sights of the
harbour bridge and the Opera House. Before too long Peter rang and I met
him again at Wynyard Station for our return trip. If the weather had been
nicer we would have gone for a walk to the Rocks or Darling Harbour but by
nearly 6 pm it was too cold and we headed back to Stanhope Gardens.

Checking out the low tyre

It has taken some adjustment to get used to travelling without the caravan.
We are just amazed at how far we can travel on a tank of diesel and dream
about how much better our bank account will be without the constant
refuelling. However, Peter was concerned that we seemed to be losing some
air in the trailer tyre and was fearful that we would end up with a puncture
on the side of the highway.

We had travelled to Newcastle and after our comfortable night at the Ibis in
Coffs Harbour we decided that the tent could stay on the trailer and we
would book into a motel or another Ibis. A quick phone call to the Ibis in
Newcastle provided us with a booking so accommodation was sorted. We do
miss the comradeship of the caravan park but we only have three nights
before we house sit again so happy to be in the hotel. There were a Kiwi
couple on duty as receptionists in Newcastle and they were delighted to
welcome some fellow Kiwi's - the guy carried out our cases upstairs, ensured
we got the best room and then rang and arranged for our dinner to be
delivered as we were too lazy to go out again as we were quite late arriving
at the hotel. They certainly provided us with great service.

Next morning there was still air in the tyre so we drove to a local tyre
shop. However they couldn't check the tyre out for a few hours and we were
keen to continue south, so we moved on hopeful we weren't going to get stuck
along the way. Near lunch time we pulled into "The Entrance" which is a
delightful beachside area. Here the guys from Bridgestone provided us with
excellent service - the tyre had a leaky valve and this was soon rectified.
They then performed a rotation and wheel balance on the Patrol and before
long we were on our way again. We enjoyed lunch down by the waterfront -
the historical photos there showed that visitors have been visiting The
Entrance since 1923 with tents erected where the current caravan park is
now. It is a lovely area and there were lots of visitors around.

From here we continued along the coast to Gosford where we had visited a
reptile farm back in 1988. Not sure if that reptile farm is still operating
but it was good to visit Gosford again.

Before too long we re-joined the Pacific Highway and set the GPS to the
Sydney Ibis we had booked into. Obviously we had made a mistake identifying
just which suburb we were going too and we found ourselves at the right
number on the Great Western Highway but about twenty kilometres from where
we should be. So annoying as the traffic was quite heavy at 4 pm. We
eventually booked in and organised ourselves to go to dinner with the couple
we are house sitting for so we hit the road again. We are so glad to have
the GPS - it takes care of all the map reading as long as we enter the right
information. Also the Melbourne e-tag functions Australia wide so we have
no issues if we are directed on to a pay motorway.

Our next stay with be in Stanhope Gardens which is in the western suburbs of
Sydney. We will house sit and care for two dogs who are sisters from the
same litter although look quite different. We will be here for the next six
nights so that will give us time to explore parts of Sydney (although again
we have visited Sydney many times in the past) and for Peter to attend to a
number of work appointments. We will soon be experts on public transport in
Sydney!

Big Banana at Coffs Harbour

We drove down the Pacific Highway to Coffs Harbour. This road is not much
better than the Bruce Highway north of Gympie and is mainly only a two lane
highway, and in parts windy and narrow. The only difference is that there
we were not stopping all the time with road works - NSW government needs to
spend some money on upgrading this road.

We could remember staying in Coffs Harbour back in 1988 when we had come to
Australia from New Zealand and taken the family to Expo in Brisbane. We had
stayed in Sydney with my brother and sister-in-law and family and had driven
to and from the Gold Coast. Two things stuck out in our memories of Coffs
Harbour - one was obviously the big banana and it was good to see that it
was still a tourist attraction in the town. The second was that we had
stayed in a motel in Coffs Harbour and unbeknown to us at the time, our son
had left his favourite soft toy (Bubblelion was his name!) on the bed when
we left. We had to track this toy down by ringing a number of motels and
eventually it was returned to us in New Zealand by mail. We had one very
happy little boy but he was most disappointed that his favourite toy had
been wrapped up in a parcel and not given a seat on the aeroplane.

We were undecided about putting up the tent on our first night, and
fortunately the Ibis were advertising double rooms with an ensuite at a very
good price - the tent did not come off the trailer and we did not leave a
soft toy on the bed when we left!

While Peter met with a work colleague I window shopped and then we paid a
visit to the Big Banana and also the special sweet shop in the complex - we
all know that Peter loves lollies. Coffs Harbour is a very popular holiday
spot for families. The beach is very popular and there is a long jetty that
has been renovated and is now a popular spot for fishing. There were lots
of fishing boats tied up and the seafood outlets were really busy
particularly as it was around lunch time. After enjoying an hour or so in
the area we hit the Pacific Highway again and continued our journey south.