Beyond Sydney

It is an easy day trip from Sydney which means lots of tourist buses and accompanying tourists; which results in Jens and I spending as little time as possible there.  I am referring to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves.  Both quite spectacular in their own right.  And if you are willing to pay the hefty entry fees, you could probably spend at least a full day at each location.

We started in Katoomba and did the self guided walk to see the Blue Mountains' famous three sisters rock pinnacles, took in the stunning views of the gorge marveling at the blue mist caused by the oils from the thousands of eucalyptus trees, walked down to the coal mine (now closed of course) and took the steepest train in the world back up to the top of the ridge and then it was off to Blackheath.  

The three sisters (I'm the one in the middle)

A tribute to the miners and their ponies.

Oh, and a Danish cavalry man.

We had a most delightful lunch in Blackheath at a little cafe called Anonymous. It qualifies as one of the best lunches and coffee we have had for a long time.  And for a little afternoon leg stretch we visited the Govetts Leap Lookout and embarked on a walk to the Bridal Veil Falls (only 468 steps down and then back up of course).

Beautiful escarpment at Govetts Leap.

From there it was a couple of hours drive to Jenolan Caves.  We arrived at dusk and quickly realized it was going to be a bloody cold night.  So we struck camping off our list and took a room at the inn.  Good decision - the temperature dropped to 2° C.   Brrrr.

We decided to opt out of the cave tour the next morning and walked around the Blue Lake and down to the valley instead.  Another good decision.  We got to see our first platypus in the wild.  Oh Ya!!

Little Platy playing in the lake.

And a duck.

Sydney Highlights

Our brief visit to Sydney was better than expected.  The weather was spectacular including the rising of the full moon over the Sydney Opera House.  Because our time was so limited and neither of us relished driving around the city to the sites, we spent our day on the 'hop on hop off' bus tour followed by a boat tour of the Harbour.  Here are some of my fav photos of the day.

Sydney Harbour bridge affectionately known as the coat hanger.  They offer walking tours over the top rails...we decided to look at it from below.

Hyde Park fountain.

I call this a green building.

Vintage Coca Cola sign from 1974.  They are applying for World Heritage status.  Interesting.

And, of course the Sydney Opera House with the full moon rising.  We had a nice dinner on the Quay at Wolfies - steak and a bottle of 'Idiot' Shiraz.  

Sydney! At Last!

We have been in Australia since October and have finally made it to Sydney (not counting the trips through the airport).  We arrived yesterday afternoon, checked into a hotel, spruced ourselves up a bit, had dinner and then it was off to the Opera House for the premier of Sydney Symphony Orchestras' performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah.  For our readers who are opera aficionados, the role of Elijah was sung by bass-baritone Andre Foster-Williams; and tenor Thomas Walker, mezzo soprano Deborah Humble and soprano Gillian Webster completed the quartet.  They were joined by the Sydney Philharmonic Choir for a powerful and moving performance.

The Opera House was just as spectacular in person.  The organ at the back of the stage was quite impressive. 

Sydney by night.

Our drive to Sydney consisted of two stops.  The first was Byron Bay, the easternmost point of Australia and famous surfing hub for the young and frisky.  The lighthouse is very picturesque, probably one of the nicest we have seen for a long time.  Unfortunately, rain showers that morning meant we had to pass up a hike and instead drove to the point.

Our second stop was in Newcastle where we visited Fort Scratchley.  As forts go, this one was impressive only because it actually fired on a Japanese submarine during WWII. 

As promised, plans do change.

As you can see on the map below, we have already ventured off our plan.  The red dots are where we have been (about 3,000 kilometers traveled in a week) and the purple are where we plan to go.  We still plan to do the big circle and will get started on that on Monday.  The nice thing about not being part of a corporation is that we don't need to seek permission to change plans.

Oh, and the wallabies in the blog post from last week were actually kangaroos.  And a group of kangaroos is called a 'troop' not a herd (I knew that...).  And the long beaked bird in the background was an Australian White Ibis.  

The Queensland Outback

We have had a taste of the Outback - the long, straight, dusty roads that seem to go on forever with only the occasional train truck passing by.  It is a big country.  And enormously fantastic.  We have seen dozens of kangaroos, emus, goats, birds of many feathers, cattle and some sheep.  We have passed through acres and acres of cotton fields, seen the harvested cotton rolled or sometimes stacked in huge rectangular bails lined up as far as you can see ready for shipping to China.  We have gone through the reddest soil imaginable, visited two huge inland lakes, one of which is quite saline; and been to the Opal towns of Queensland.  We have had our first official bush camp complete with sausages cooked over a campfire.  And we have enjoyed every minute.

Major Mitchell's cockatoos - we came across a flock of them at the Granites in Cunnwinya National Park.

Pelicans at one of the inland lakes.  This area was once under the sea and the soil is very saline.

Emus.  They are just about as dumb as can be; as we know.  But we still love them.

Here is a statue of the Cunnamulla Fella commemorating the young fellas that used to work on the sheep and cattle stations in the outback during the 50's and 60's "when Australia was riding on the sheep's back" as they say.  They left school in eighth grade to work as cattle rustlers, sheep sheerers and whatever other jobs they could find, working long hard days. At the end of the day they would squat around a campfire on their saddles or swags (bed roll) yarning (talking) about the days events.

  

We are learning a little more of the language.  Jens was surprised to know that billabong is not a brand of clothing but is a word taken from Australia.  A billabong is pond or pool of water left behind after a river changes its course.  And we discovered wallabies are not the same as kangaroos.  They are similar in many ways but basically wallabies are smaller. 

We are now making our way back to Brisbane.  Since leaving Brisbane last Saturday we have driven 2,300 km and we have another 800 to drive before getting back.  As a reference, Australia has a population density of 3 people per square kilometre.  This compares to Canada which is about 4 and Denmark which is 130 or so.  This means long we have long distances between towns in Australia.  

We stopped at Toompine today, lured in by the road sign advertising cold drinks.  Toompine has a population of 1.  But the pub does serve cold drinks and food.  Thank heavens for the two seasonal workers from Canada helping out.  Otherwise, the one person in Toompine would have been run off her feet serving us and the other two guests.  

Australia's Nature Show

We woke up to an orchestra of birds all doing their morning voice warm ups.  It was a true symphony of sounds ranging from high pitched peeps to chirps to loud and gurgling caws and not to forget the R2D2 sounds of the black birds.  Another chilly morning but as the sun rose and shone through the fog, we were witness to a wildlife show.  First came the little rabbit, then two ducks waddled by followed by a long beaked bird.  The wallaby was the big finish hopping by and through the creek to the other side.  Then it was a short walk to the edge of the lake to witness the largest pelicans we have ever seen followed by a herd(?) of wallabies bouncing through, one with a joey in her pouch.  What a wonderful start to the second day of our GADE (Great Australian Driving Expedition).

Today our destination is Bald Rock, the largest exposed granite rock in the Southern Hemisphere.  I have to say, I add this to my list of "how cool is that" things.  It was definitely an awesome sight and climbing to the top gave us some pretty fabulous views.  We were also quite impressed with the huge boulders we passed along the way.

And from here we have decided to get a taste of the outback, heading west to Texas before setting off to Cunnamulla.  Yes, Texas.  They have a small town here called Texas - go figure.

Lava Plugs

They are known as the Glasshouse Mountains thanks to Captain James Cook, but they are the remains of volcanoes formed 25 million years ago.  The erosion over those years has left only the lava plugs standing. There are eight very distinct and rather dramatic looking pillars.  We first went to the Lookout which we could drive to, and walked the short 800m circuit before we decided to climb to the top of Mount Ngungun.  Total hiking today 3.6 km.  Slowly getting back into our routine.

We have finally embarked on our Great Australian Driving Expedition (GADE).  We have to be back to Brisbane to finalise the boat clearing in process and we didn't want to venture too far away, so we headed North and today will head West before heading a little South.  It gives us a chance to test out our camping gear and set up before we get too far along in the trip.

Last night was our first night in the KiaRoo tent palace.  It works exceptionally well.  We have room for our two chairs and table to eat our meals, etc. and at night we blow up our mattress and have a comfy bed to sleep in.  We put our duvet and wool blankets to the test last night though.  The temperature dropped to somewhere around 5º C.  But we were as snug as can be and are now having our morning coffee as the sun is rising.