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Wednesday 31st January
Off to the airport again at 10.30, only 30 minute ride in a taxi - destination Sydney. Arrived at 13.25 after a one hour flight, took the city shuttle bus cost A$12 each and luckily we were the first to be dropped off (we usually find we are the last), checked in by 14.30. The grey clouds and overcast skies seem to be following us across Australia as Sydney was bathed in cloud - not the usual sunshine, never mind if we thought of England we felt much warmer. We were a 5 minute stroll away from Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour so naturally that was our first destination after unpacking. This is a very touristy and colourful area and the choice of restaurants was staggering. We checked out all the harbour cruises for future reference and chose ourselves a nice little restaurant overlooking the water, incidentally if you ate before 6 p.m. you could have a free glass of wine. Later on it started spitting with rain so we headed back to our hotel for a drink at the bar.
Thursday 1st February
We booked ourselves a trip to the Blue Mountains for Saturday and then headed off to find the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, this took a good 40 minute walk but was well worth the effort. Even without blue skies the view is great and our camera started clicking. We walked round from the bridge to the opera house passing circular quay where most of the ferries leave from. We decided to take an afternoon cruise around the harbour with Captain Cooks Cruises and we left at 2.15 for a 2 ½ hour cruise. Although it was quite breezy we decided to sit on the top deck as you certainly get a better 360 degree view. There was quite a swell when we passed the opening to the South Pacific Ocean but the rest of the harbour was very calm, half way though the journey you are served with coffee and muffins. On our return we took the local train back to Central Station for a freshen up before we strolled down to Darling Harbour again for our evening meal.
Friday 2nd February
Big day today, we had booked the Bridge Climb for 9.30 a.m., to get the legs and feet in good working order we walked down to the Harbour Bridge. Once we checked in you joined the others in your group and filled in the usual indemnity forms and had a breathalyser test (you needed a 0.05 or less reading or you couldn't do the climb). We were kitted up in really fetching suits and had to remove watches or any other removable parts, glasses had to be clipped on along with a "hankie" in case you get a runny nose, a waterproof jacket (as rain was forecast) a cap (in case the sun came out) and a radio. The headset & radio was not for us to talk to our group leader but for him to give us information about the bridge and any guidelines we needed to know. We then had to have a practice go at clipping ourselves to the wire, climbing up the vertical ladder and walking along a platform with a mesh floor at 5m high. We then set off along the narrow gantries under the bridge until we climbed up and found ourselves between lanes 4 & 5 of the fast moving traffic going over the bridge, carrying on we arrived at the Eastern Arch of the Harbour Bridge. There is then quite a gentle walk to the top of the bridge (134m above the harbour) where we had several photos of us taken by the group leader. We then returned to the base by the Western Arch, down the ladders and along the gantries, the whole experience took about 3.5 hrs. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and although we were disappointed that the weather had been overcast, it turned out better for us that it had not been so hot. A quick stop at a little café soon put us right by sampling a cup of coffee and some Chocolate mud cake, we then took the looooong walk back to our hotel where we positioned ourselves by the pool. Surprisingly the sun had popped out and the skies had now turned blue, not a cloud in sight.
Saturday 3rd February
On the tour bus by 8 a.m. for our trip to the Blue Mountains, we headed off over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (it seemed strange to be crossing by road and not over the top). We passed through towns with familiar names like Windsor and Richmond and arrived at our first stop in the orchard district of Bilpin where we purchased some locally grown peaches. A short while later the coach stopped at a point where only 7 weeks previously the area had been ravaged with bush fires, all you could see with the naked eye was blackened trees and shrubs. Nature has a great way of recovering and already new ferns could be seen growing within burnt out tree trunks. Our first major stop was at Katoomba which is home to the "Scenic Experience", here we travelled on the world's steepest scenic railway, a bit like a log flume in slow motion and without the water. At the bottom of the valley there is a boardwalk through the rainforest and we then took the Cableway back to the top. This part of the Blue Mountains is where you see "The Three Sisters" rock formation and we heard Aboriginal tails relating their dreamtime stories about why the rocks are in that form. One question that everybody asked is "Why are the Blue Mountains blue"? Apparently the blue haze is produced by the scattering of the sun's rays striking droplets of moisture in the atmosphere, and in this area the effect is magnified by the droplets of oil produced by the extensive population of eucalypt forest within the mountains. On the return journey we stopped off at an Australian Wildlife Park where we could have our photos taken with cuddly Koalas or feed kangaroos (Linda knows what she would rather do). The koalas were so cute and we were lucky enough to see one that had only just come out of its mothers pouch the previous day - it was 3 ½ months old, normally they don't come out until they are between 5-6 months old. Our last visit was a drive around Sydney Olympic Park, the stadiums are just so huge and all of them are still being utilised for lots of different events. The last part of our tour was a return journey to Circular Quay by the Rivercat cruise, one of the stops for the Rivercat is at the Olympic Village, we were very windswept by the time we arrived back into the city centre. Again we picked a great restaurant at Opera Quay overlooking the bay and had a meal of fish and chips.
Sunday 4th February
Last full day in Sydney and Bondi beach beckons as the sun is shining and the skies are blue - you can't visit Sydney without visiting Bondi Beach. We had checked the best route to get there and decided to take a train to Bondi Junction and then a bus to the beach. When we got to Central Train station it was to find that no trains were running due to engineering works (sounds like the UK) but a bus was provided, so off we set. The beach was fairly busy but when we arrived at about 10.45 there were plenty of surfers but no waves, but within half an hour the surf was up and we found ourselves a corner to sit and watch. We walked around the whole bay and there was only one spot in the middle where lots of Blue Bottle jellyfish were being washed up, the lifeguards station was full of people being treated for stings. We spent a couple of hours there before we caught a bus back to the city, surprisingly we travelled along Oxford Street and got off at Hyde Park corner, we just had a small walk before we found our usual destination of "The Hard Rock Café". Back to the hotel to get packed again for our next flight tomorrow.
Monday 5th - Monday 12th February
Early flight from Sydney to Hervey Bay, Queensland is GMT + 10 so we gained an hour in time, we checked into our apartment by 9.00 a.m. Hervey Bay is a 3 ½ hr drive North of Brisbane and is known as "The Whale Watching Capital of Australia", during July to November each year the humpback whales come to Hervey Bay to breed before they migrate back down to the colder Southern Ocean during the Summer months. We arranged to hire a car for a few days whilst we were here and we were collected in the hire car and taken to the Avis offices to fill in the paperwork, when we drove into their courtyard a minibus reversed straight into the passenger door, good start!! Thankfully we were not driving but there was no other car available so we drove around all week in a car with a big dent in the side.
As we are desperately in need of some relaxation time we spent a lot of time on the beach, miles and miles of golden sand and turquoise coloured seas. In between we drove to several small places with strange sounding names like Boonooroo, Poona, Tin Can Bay. We also visited Maryborough where we had a 15 minute ride on a replica steam loco called the "Mary Ann". The original loco was used to haul timber on trucks to Cooloola Creek where they were then floated downstream to the ports.
On one of our many walks down the Esplanade we read an information board telling us about the colony of Flying Foxes (bats) that "live" in the area where we were standing. When you looked at the trees at each side of the small creek they were full of bats in their usual position upside down and hanging off the branches. Each day at dusk they fly off and we were both fascinated at seeing so many bats all flying in one direction , the whole fly past took about 20 minutes as there were so many of them (between 5 - 10 thousand). Another walk took us to Urangan Pier which is 864m long, loads of people, young and old, men and women were fishing from there and catching surprisingly big fish. The highlight of the week had to be our trip to Fraser Island, only 4 wheeled drive vehicles are allowed on the island as there are no sealed roads. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island where rainforests grow on the sand dunes and freshwater lakes have not drained into the sand. Barges transfer visitors to the island by careful navigation of the "Great Sandy Strait", the stretch of water between Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. The commentary on board warns you about the danger of approaching dingoes which are very prevalent on the island and we were given the usual warning about the 15 different species of snake (of which 11 are venomous). Once there we boarded the 4 x 4 coach and headed to Central Station (a former forestry camp) where a boardwalk has been erected for tourists to view the forest without damaging it. We then went to Seventy Five mile beach, which is, at it says 75 miles long, of endless sand, sea & surf. We drove up to an area called "The Pinnacles" where the sand had formed into multicoloured sand cliffs. Further down the beach was the wreck of the cruise ship Maheno which sank in the 1930's, there is not much of it left. At this point we were offered scenic flights over the island on a 7seater plane at a cost of A$60 each (about £24), so off we went. The plane takes off and lands on the beach and whilst you are airborne you see how bizarre it is for rainforest to be growing out of sand dunes. After landing we were transported back to our bus which was now at Eli Creek, this was a natural stream of crystal clear, very cold water and it was a relief to have a paddle. We then went for a buffet lunch at one of the 2 resorts on the island, here there was a couple of shops and a fuel station. The last and best stop was at McKenzie Lake, the most beautiful fresh water lake we have ever visited. The sand around the edges was as white and soft as talcum powder, the shallow waters of the lake were like a warm bath and surprisingly the deeper waters were relatively warm. The Aborigine people call Fraser Island K'gari, which translates it to Paradise, that's not a bad translation.
As we are now officially half way through our trip we thought we would work out some statistics to bore you all with. To date we have visited 7 countries, stopped at 36 different locations, had 12 flights,
3 train journeys and driven countless kilometres (miles) in 3 different hired cars. Roll on the next 14 weeks.
Tuesday 13th February
Took a taxi to the Coach Station at Hervey Bay, where we caught the coach to Maryborough West train station, this connected with the Rockhampton to Brisbane Tilt Train. Unlike the trains in Thailand and Malaysia, the train was only 10 minutes late but made up the time on the journey so we arrived into Brisbane on time During our research in booking our accommodation in Brisbane we discovered that the hotel was within walking distance of the train station (about 10 mins walk). We found our destination situated at the top of a hill and when you are carrying 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks it was quite hard going, Ron also had to carry the 2 cases up 2 flights of steps. After unpacking we headed back down the hill to the main city, everywhere seems to be under construction as a new underground bus / train station is being developed right in the heart of the city. Had a meal at Sizzlers which reminded us of many previous trips to the U.S. especially with Sandy and Tony.
Wednesday 14th February
Took the "hop on hop off" tour bus (we haven't used one of these for quite a few weeks), the bus stop was right outside the hotel entrance. As there was not too many people on the bus the driver was very chatty and wanting to talk about England, especially Rutland Water that he had visited 25 years ago. Our first stop was on the South Bank of the River. All the museums and exhibition halls are in one area and there are walkways all around with flowers grown over arches snaking between the buildings (about 1km in distance). There was also a man made beach situated right next to the river complete with a lifeguard, all in all it was quite impressive and very relaxing to walk along the river bank. We walked about 5 km along the river bank and rejoined the tour bus at the top of the cliff - after climbing over 100 steps to the top. We had a couple of stops in the main city and our last one was at an area that has been established on the site of old railway yards and transformed into rainforest walks and beautiful gardens.
Thursday 15th February
Our driver from the previous day had given us a few tips on places to visit and one of them was Mt Coot-tha lookout, from here we could see out to the Ocean, the airport and the river beneath us. We travelled there on the local bus having purchased an "Off Peak Saver ticket", this gave us unlimited travel on bus / ferry / train until 3.30 p.m. and then again after 7 p.m., the cost A$3.90 each (about £1.60). We then caught the bus to another area known as "Little Paris" where we could see a miniature Eiffel Tower set amongst loads of restaurants. We also took the "City Cat" which travels some distance along the river from the University to the river mouth, this journey lasted about 1 ½ hrs.
Friday 16th February
Thought we would visit some Koalas again, so we set off on the bus to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, about a 40 minute journey out of the city. As we got off the bus the heavens opened and we had to shelter until it eased off a bit. This sanctuary has many rescued animals and birds of prey where they are looked after and if possible returned to the wild, lots of the animals had been blinded though so the sanctuary became their new home. Unfortunately the rain didn't ease up at all so after a couple of hours we headed back to the city (a big soggy to say the least) and hey presto the sun came out. Later on in the evening we headed back to the main squares (well it was Friday night) and Ron had a pint of Kronenberg, the place was just heaving with youngsters, we felt quite old and wrinkly!!
Saturday 17th February
Last day in Australia today (the last 6 weeks have just flown by), we thought we would have a walk along the South Bank of the river again, lets hope it doesn't rain. Whilst we were crossing Victoria Bridge we saw about 15 police cars chasing a car with all the lights flashing, when we got nearer we could see that it was in fact actors filming a scene for a Japanese film (we found out this information later). We returned to the North side of the city via Goodwill bridge and walked through the botanical gardens. We found a bar to have a drink, then we saw that the road ahead was closed for filming and once again we saw the police cars arrive (we counted 20 this time and 4 police bikes) and then the car that was being pursued, they were filming again in the street opposite for the same film. On the last part of the journey back to the hotel (up the steep hill), the rain cloud arrived but this time only a few spots. Time to do the laundry, write up the journal and pack for a new country. GOODBYE AUSTRALIA.
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