Australia Week 2: Sydney -> Port Macquarie
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2006
1
15
18
Trip End
Aug 17, 2006
Port Macquarie,
Australia
Friday, May 12, 2006
After checking out of our hostel in Sydney (and Dan being laughed at by the girls on reception when he said he'd look after Wally the wombat teddy attached to the storage key - the boy's been spending too much time with me) we got the train to St James and took a walk through the pretty Hyde Park. It looked a lovely area and made me sad we didn't have a lot longer in Sydney because there's so much left to see. Still, I'm always glad of an excuse to come back.
We got to the Thrifty office where we signed our lives away to get our hire car and had a battle of wits with the sales rep trying to spend a ton of money on an excess waiver which was almost as much as the excess. I won. We walked around the corner to the car garage to pick up our car which was even tinier than we could have imagined. As soon as we saw it (her!) we both wished we'd paid a bit more for a car with a boot bigger than a matchstick. We drove back to the hostel to pick up our stuff from storage (and give back Wally) and then spent the next 45 minutes wedging it all in before hitting the road.
Dan had printed some directions off the internet but they proved completely useless as we got hopelessly lost in the one way streets of Sydney
01: Hyde Park
. I gave up following the directions and went back to reading the map which got us out of the city and on the right road, albeit after a rather long detour! We had an uneventful drive to the Blue Mountains and arrived in Katoomba at around 4pm, finding our hostel without any problems. We rang the doorbell and waited for ages until one of the guests opened the door to tell us the guy was out and we needed to ring him. We trotted off down the road to the phone box and listened in on a live band at a wedding reception. The highlight would have to be the theme to Indiana Jones played on a clarinet - must write that down as a must for when I get married. We rang the hostel owner's mobile and he gave us the code to the door and told us to let ourselves in. We unloaded our stuff and made ourselves comfortable in front of the fire. After about an hour the owner arrived back and broke the news that our room had been double booked and he'd arranged a room for us at another hostel down the road. I didn't mind too much apart from the fact that I'd read in a few reviews that the hostel is known for its spiders...We picked up our stuff and drove to the other side of town to Number 14, a lovely weatherboard house from the early 1900s. We let ourselves in through the side entrance and found the reception closed with instructions how guests can check themselves in. We unloaded our stuff into our cosy room and I drew the curtains, prompting a smallish spider to fall out, bounce off me and land on the bed
02: The Blue Mountains
. I wasn't too happy (polite way of saying I recited every vulgar word I know) but Dan bravely trapped it in a glass and released it outside.We sat for a while in the lounge (no tv here which was initially distressing but actually turned out to be wonderfully peaceful) and then headed into town for some food and supplies. We came back and cooked some curry which we ate with a guy from Milton Keynes and his Norwegian girlfriend. Names are a waste of time with me really, I tend to only remember where they're from! Had a bit of a chat with them and then played a 20 Questions board game with them and a few girls from America and France. It was good fun although the Brits thrashed everyone else thanks to the slang and puns that made no sense to anyone else. Still, we're English and a win is a win so we made sure we rubbed it in their faces. It doesn't happen often.
We went to sleep in sub-zero temperatures but awoke in the tropics - the heating in the hostel was somewhat haphazard. We left the hostel early and drove up the highway further into the Blue Mountains. We stopped first at Evans Lookout and took in the spectacular panorama. We could see the blue mist (which I believe is eucalyptus oil evaporating off the leaves) that gives the mountains its name although it does just look like fog on the photos. I regretted being so unfit that we missed out on the walks around the mountains and past the lovely waterfalls and wonderful views inaccessible by cars
03: Grand Canyon at the Blue Mountains
. Instead we settled with a pretty short walk through the forest where we didn't see another soul and enjoyed keeping the peace and silence for ourselves. It had a similar feeling to the walk we took through Joshua Tree National Park: warm and bright and very quiet. I'm no hiker and I enjoy luxury and comfort too much to be truly converted, but I can still see the attraction of getting close to nature.The view at the lookout was worth the walk and went on for miles. I wonder what the landscape would look like under all the trees and whether it would be similar to the Grand Canyon which the area is named after. In the 1930s they wanted to cut the trees down to use for building materials but a group of locals clubbed together and fund-raised and bought the land to protect the forests. They gave it back to the government who made it into a national park and thank God they did as it would have been a tragedy to lose it.
We drove a short way further up the highway to another lookout called Govetts Leap. Another beautiful view greeted us there but we didn't stay long as it started to get very windy and we were being pelted with sand and gravel from the car park. We explored the nearby pretty town of Blackheath before driving back to Katoomba for some lunch. We had the hostel to ourselves which we took advantage of by spreading out on the sofas and reading by the fire.
After a bit of a rest to let our food go down, we hopped back in the car and drove to Echo Point - the most famous and developed in the Blue Mountains as it offers superb views over the Jamison Valley and the Three Sisters
04: An attempt at an artistic shot
. We didn't stay long as the wind became so strong it was a struggle to stay upright so we abandoned our plans and decided to come back tomorrow. Minutes after we left the heavens opened so it was a good call. We dropped into a tour office briefly on the way back to use their internet so we could book our hostel for the next few days. No sooner had I sat down I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned round to see someone we'd met while in Fiji! Turns out it is a small world after all.The hostel was freezing cold again when we returned so I took inspiration from some German girls and wrapped myself up in my duvet and sat on the sofa in front of the fire. Dan wrote in his journal and I read a few chapters of Memoirs of a Geisha. Went to bed at about midnight when we realised we were the last ones up for the second night in a row.
After another boiling night, we woke to a beautiful day that made Echo Point much more pleasant than yesterday. The lookout was almost empty so we enjoyed having the Three Sisters to ourselves. After taking some pictures we looked around the tourist centre and entertained ourselves with the 6 foot toy koala on display by the door. Simple things. I looked around the shops for a while and Dan got accosted by a coach driver convinced Dan was on his tour. Apparently there was someone on his coach who was the spitting image of Dan and frankly I find the thought of there being 2 of them a rather worrying prospect.
We said farewell to Katoomba and drove back toward Sydney to start our journey up the East Coast
05: The Blue Mountains again
. It wasn't far to our next destination Newcastle so we decided to take a detour via the nice seaside town of Terrigal. We drove along the coast and then parked by some shops where we got some lunch to eat on the beach. We were immediately surrounded by seagulls and 4 or 5 pelicans - I knew I shouldn't have had tuna.We drove another hour to Newcastle and checked into the lovely YHA there. It's massive with a ballroom full of leather armchairs and a big roaring fireplace. We signed up for the free dinner at the local(ish) Irish pub and put our stuff in our room. We left for the dinner about an hour later still stuffed from lunch but never one to turn down a free meal. We met one of the hostel staff - a 6 foot 4 ginger fella called Tex who insists on calling everyone "groovers". He's absolutely hilarious with a very dry sense of humour and was obviously a born entertainer. We got to the pub and sat down with a load of other people who we chatted to with a beer while we waited for our dinner. I asked one of the girls (from Melbourne - no idea of the name!) what she was here for and she told me she was here for a conference at the hospital about insulin. I asked if she was in medicine before realising it was painfully obvious she was a user rather than an administrator. This is the problem with having a lot of friends training to be doctors and vets. Damn you all.
After a very large plate of bangers and mash we went upstairs to the pool tables and entered the free competition hosted by Tex
06: Our room at Number 14 (pre spider-attack)
. It is not a secret that I am terrible at pool and I was quite nervous about showing this off in such a public manner. I needn't have worried. To warm up we had a game of Killer Pool - when it's your turn you have one shot to pot one of the balls and if you don't you lose a life. We only had 1 life so if you missed, you were knocked out. Last one left is the winner. I went out (along with most people!) in the first round but Dan continued through with 2 others, all of whom missed their next pot so no one won. Tex was almost crying into his beer by the end of it but I felt much better knowing I wasn't alone! We then started the proper competition and made it to the semi-finals, knocked out only because Dan missed a ridiculously easy pot by being cocky. I got a lot of mileage out of this and like to remind him about it even now.We got talking to a lot of people including someone from Reading and a couple called Mark and Michelle (yes - names!) who were doing an almost identical trip up the coast to us, even flying out of Cairns on the same day. No doubt we'll keep running into them which will be good. We left the pub at about 11pm and went to bed shortly after. There wasn't much chance of a good night's sleep thanks to someone in the toilets across the hall throwing up continuously throughout the night. I have no idea how she could physically have had that much in her body. We were meant to be getting up at 7am for a wine tasting tour in the Hunter Valley but with the girl being sick until 5am (6 hours of being sick is impressive by anyone's standards) it suddenly seemed rather unlikely.
We got up at 8.30am to move the car but went back to bed until 10
07: The communal area at Number 14
. After a shower we decided to head out for something to eat and on the way out we saw Tex in reception to sign up for the free meal. We walked along the beach to the car and saw some of the town. Here's a little fact for you: apparently Newcastle exports sand to Hawaii! The beach was quite popular with the surfers who were braver in the cold sea than I'd have been.At 6pm we joined the gang and went back to the pub for another free meal and ran into Mark and Michelle. They'd just got back from the wine tour and said it was good fun but quite hard going! We had another big dinner and settled down for the quiz. We teamed up with M&M and actually did quite well. Dan was bitter about a few questions he'd got right but Mark hadn't written down but it wouldn't have made a difference and M&M had got a few questions right (some about port which they'd learnt about on the wine tour!) that we'd never have known. We came 3rd which we were quite chuffed about as we were the smallest team by far (most others had 8 people in them) and 1st and 2nd were groups of locals who had an advantage with the Australia questions. Unfortunately they had a quirky prize system so that the backpacker teams got prizes so awarded teams that came 1st, 2nd and 7th (!) but 3rd prize was vouchers for the pub and we were leaving the next morning anyway.
The next morning we squeezed our stuff back into the car and drove up the motorway toward Port Macquarie (pronounced ma-kwar-ee)
08: The Three Sisters at Jamison Valley
. We took a detour to Port Stephens and got hopelessly lost driving around Nelsons Head trying to find it before realising it was an area rather than a town. We drove up to the lighthouse where I'd heard there was a nice tearoom with lovely views. We weren't disappointed and sat out on the veranda looking out over Nelsons Head. We shared a lovely mexican melt followed by a cream tea some of which I reluctantly had to leave as I was stuffed and threw my napkin on the plate in resignation. We watched a cheeky bird jump onto the tables to see if there were any crumbs and he made a beeline for our table the minute he saw the scones. He threw the napkin away with his beak in disgust and dug in. I'm not sure why but I expected him to go for the scone but he was completely uninterested and flopped his beak into the jam and then into the cream. He was quite methodical hving a little bit of one and then a little bit of the other, over and over. He wasn't impressed when he got cream all over his beak and shook his head around and wiped his beak on the chair trying to flick it off. He obviously learnt his table manners from Dan! Only kidding!We drove a bit further up Highway 1 and turned off down Stoney Creek Road, a 5km unpaved road that Lonely Planet described as a 'bone shaker' and weren't mistaken. We finally arrived at our destination after about 15 minutes - the largest tree in New South Wales, a Eucalyptus Grandis. We had the place to ourselves and took a very Short Walk Through A Rainforest(tm) to the magnificent tree
09: Me & the Three Sisters (surely one's enough?)
. It wasn't quite on the scale of Tane Muhata (huge kauri tree in New Zealand) but it was still rather impressive. It was absolutely silent there, several miles from any roads or tourists. I enjoyed it until we heard loud cracking noises coming from the woods. We couldn't see anything moving (both checking out of fear and hope of seeing wildlife) but decided it might be a good time to leave..!At Port Macquarie we arrived at the caravan park we were staying in (very Home and Away) and checked into our cabin. We ran into Mark and Michelle who were staying in the dorms there and had a joke about stalking them. Little do they know... (Waiver - that's just a joke, honest Guv!) We made some dinner in our little kitchen and watched TV until we passed out. At least here we shouldn't be kept up by noisy backpackers! Instead it was our turn to wake everyone else up with Dan forgetting he'd put on some toast and made all the smoke detectors go off...
The next morning and for the first time in Australia, we awoke to grey skies and drizzly rain. We'd planned on going to the nearby Koala Hospital and the Billabong Koala Breeding Centre but the miserable weather put us both off. We did some shopping for dinner (beans on toast is now banned) and spent the day catching up with our written journals and relaxing in front of the tv.
The miserable weather had long gone by the next day and after a late lunch we drove 15 minutes to Billabong Koala Breeding Centre
10: Endless fun and photo opportunities
. After paying quite a bit to get in, we spent some time watching the spider monkeys while waiting for the koala patting at 3.30pm. The monkeys were more than happy to show off and even did the moonwalk although only once the video camera was turned off. We then trotted off into the koala house and had a look at all the dozy koalas until the ranger brought one round for us to stroke. The sleepy little thing was so soft and warm (surprisingly not at all like the stuffed one Dan's parents have!) and she clung to the ranger who confirmed that her claws were as sharp as they looked. It was lovely to get so close but after I'd elbowed all the kids out the way and the photos were taken, I very reluctantly left.We carried on walking round the centre and through the legs of a very random wooden giant. We walked through the kangaroo enclosure and regretted not having any food to give them which we didn't realise we could buy from the shop. We tried to get some pictures of them but they thought the cameras were bags of food and got a bit too up close and personal! I really wanted to touch them but I thought the lack of food might lead to a lack of fingers... I really regretted it afterward but I know there's bound to be more opportunities to give them a stroke.
By the time we got out of the kangaroo enclosure, we didn't have long left before the centre closed so we zoomed around what was left. We spent a bit of time with a lovely cockatoo who kept saying "hello! how you doing?!" which I thought I was imagining at first (damn those voices in my head) until Dan heard it as well
11: View from the Innerlight Tearooms
. We saw loads of other birds all native to Australia (as are almost all the animals here) including beautiful parrots and lorikeets and the enormous cassowaries that I didn't even know existed before then. We got 'stalked' around the centre by a couple of guinea fowl and had to avoid a black swan and peacock who took a dislike to us. By this time we weren't sure if the place had actually shut as there was no one else to be seen, but this didn't stop us quickly finding the wombats which I immediately fell in love with. They're a lot bigger than I expected and don't have a lot to them, just a big cuddly fat hairy body with short legs, tiny eyes and a big button nose. I actually know a few people who fall under that description but I won't name names. I would have loved to touch them (the wombats, not the people) but the signs warned that they bit and I was happy to believe them. Sticking arms through animal cages never seems a particularly good idea anyway. I feel it's a good rule to go through life with. We eventually left the centre (them turning out all the lights was a good hint) and we were relieved to find we hadn't stayed past closing time. We went back to our cabin and spent the night relaxing and cooking some good healthy food. I could get used to having our own kitchen again!
So that's about it for week 2 of Australia. I'm sure you're not surprised that my highlight of it was yet another animal place but you've got to be used to it by now! Hope you enjoyed our tales and that you're looking forward to the next ridiculously long installment.
Comments
hey...
Another great entry! I printed them both out and sat in the garden with a cold beer and read them both! (yes we are having some very hot weather). Really great to hear that you are still having the time of your lives. Keep the updates (and pictures) flowing!! take care. david