See your own country expedition

Brisbane, Australia

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 16:10:00 +1000

The end...

Sydney, Australia

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:40:00 +1000

Sydney 28th April 2021 I wonder if I have actually awoken in an Australian city. Our hotel perched neatly in Chinatown adds to the foreign feel of the place. When we went out for a meal last night it was hard to find an Aussie Pub and the one we did find called The Albion Place, sold mainly Thai food. So we spent our first night in Sydney not understanding the language and eating Thai. We had left Katoomba at 9.30, but it took us 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to the car return. Whilst we were travelling on the M4 from Penrith in the Blue Mountain foothills, through Western Sydney everything was going swimmingly. We then hit Parramatta and where the M4 changes to a toll road, we turn off and come to a stop. We have over 2 hours to make the 25 kilometres to our car return at Mascot, a 30 minute journey. To be honest, although it was a stop go journey, we found ourselves passing our destination with 30 minutes to spare. Our GPS kept trying to send us down oneway streets as we recalibrated our route with many detours! Hence we passed it without finding the entrance several times. After a good 30 minutes travelling around the area and constantly coming up against ‘No Right Turn’ or ‘No entry’ signs, I just took a ‘No right turn’ sign. Desperate times need desperate measures. Sure enough we came to the entrance, guess what? Not in the road address! When we arrived, the guy booking us back after hearing our story said, ‘Yes, the entrance is not in the road that has our address and these are all oneway streets, we keep talking about putting the entrance address on our information but we don’t know if it will fit the page’! Hello, I think I must be dreaming. What seriously is the matter with people, or is it me, who knows , and as the mantra of today goes. Who bloody cares, not my problem! We arrived at our hotel, courtesy of a taxi ride, (cheaper than I thought). The Indian driver told us when he dropped us off at the hotel, that we had better like Chinese food as they have taken over the area, I felt like saying what even the 7/11’s and service stations? The hotel was not one we would have chosen, but because American Express had given us a good deal including breakfast, we took it. Too corporate, too plastic and too COVID safe for us! Disinfectant at very step, masks worn by every member of staff and everything you did needed an app! After looking forward to a buffet breakfast as advertised, we got a la carte. Guess what, due to Covid-19. We had just left the hotel in Katoomba, guess what, with buffet breakfast. I have a theory that hotels are making more money due to COVID. I priced my breakfast as if we had to pay from the menu. 1 juice $5, one coffee $6, one omelette $20, one side of bacon $5. No seconds, no extra cup of coffee, no cereal, no ‘pigging out’. Cost for breakfast, $36, times 2 equals $72, money for old rope! Anyway, that’s all my moaning for now, as we have a big day in front of us doing the tourist bit in Sydney. 26th April 2021 Sydney. Today we fly home to Brisbane. It’s been great, really enjoyed most of it. If we come again we will definitely miss out Canberra and maybe Sydney (I’ll return to that later). We would however include a few inland pioneer towns to remind us we are in Australia. We had a great day as a tourist yesterday and had amazing walk around the Royal Botanical Gardens, in my opinion one of the best city gardens in the world. You really could spend all day there. Just before we got there we walked through Central Park, of coarse no patch on ‘The’ Central Park, but a very pretty and soothing place. No trip to Sydney is ever complete without the Manly ferry trip across the harbour. The 30 minute journey takes in Sydney Heads, Kirribilli House, the many headlands and of coarse Manly. The real highlight of coarse is the return journey. As the ferry nears the city and rounds Bradley’s Head the skyline, the Opera House and the bridge come in to view one after another. This is the iconic view of Sydney, some say Australia. This trip and view takes me back nostalgically to my fist trip by sea and to Australia as a 15 year old deck boy, on the 70,000 ton Shell Tanker MS Dorcasia. I really do think it is up there with entering New York and the Statue of Liberty, Cape Town and Table Mountain and Rio and the statue of Christ the Redeemer. Dare I say Liverpool and the Liver Buildings, may be not! Iconic nonetheless. We took the walk back to the hotel via the CBD. We passed St Martins Place, where I just couldn’t recall why it hit the news some years back. I knew it was the office of the Reserve Bank of Australia, I knew it was where the Dawn Service is held for Anzac Day, but what else? It wasn’t until I googled it later, I realised it was the Lindt Cafe Siege, where 15 odd people were held by a Muslim Gunman. It really was a full day with plenty of walking and sights to take in. There were obviously those I have mentioned, but also St Mary’s Cathedral, the Old Mint (Sydney’s oldest remaining building), State Library of NSW, the Mathew Flinders statue along with his cat, The Rocks, the Town Hall and the Victoria Building, to name a few. Sydney is like most large cities of the world, there are so few Natives there. Okay there are plenty of Australians in the suburbs, but not in the city. You are hard pressed to find anyone speaking English without an accent and lots speaking in their native tongue. There are Muslim, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Italian, Greek enclaves, to name a few. There are plenty of restaurants, but not many I would be confident to order from, there are plenty of old pubs, however not many even serving western food. We could be in London, New York, Shanghai or Sydney, but definitely not Australia. Anyway, that said, we head for the airport today hoping there are no COVID-19 cases detected between now and arriving in Brisbane at 3.30pm. That would involve two weeks hotel quarantine. Then I would have so much to moan about.

St Mary’s Cathedral

At Martin’s Place

Katoomba, Australia

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 11:40:00 +1000

Sunday 25th April 2021 We arrived in Katoomba at around 3pm after taking an unwanted 50 kilometre detour (not GPS fault). When we got to a place called Oberon, we travelled another 25 kms before finding the road to Lithgow and Katoomba was closed. Our only alternative was to go back to Oberon and take a suspect road and journey through Tarana and Lithgow. All up, it probably added and hour to our journey. It was an interesting journey dodging potholes, hairpin bends and blind summits, but once we got to Lithgow the road was wonderful, if not at times very steep. The journey from Canberra had been interesting once we hit the Great Dividing Range. There were some magnificent views once we had traversed the mountains and gully’s and some challenging roads. We passed a couple of interesting townships although they were few and far between. The only town of any size was Goulburn, apparently the first inland settlement in Australia, I really wish we had stayed there instead of Canberra. Sheep farming was the predominant industry and homesteads were often dotted on high and bald brown grassy hills. We stopped alongside a Pine Plantation at a convenient pull off and had our lunch. In the sun it was beautiful, in the shade cold. We were stopped for around 30 minutes and 1 car and a motorcycle passed by. There was no signal on the phone, so it was important that the car started again! Katoomba turned out to be a pretty old town perched high in the Blue Mountains. We had a quick walk around the town and found it full of coffee shops and antique stores. The holiday makers fell into two predominant groups, hikers who were dressed in their designer hiking gear and those looking for their spiritual healing and ‘inner peace’ from city life, dressed in kaftans and other hippy attire. After arriving back at the hotel I found a message on my phone from our hotel in Canberra, informing me of our bill. It was okay apart from a $7 credit card charge, which made me see red. This was a hotel that refused to even take cash at the bar and then charged for using the only option left. A true scam indeed, I will certainly not let it rest there. Luckily we found the RSL club across the road from our hotel, we had a great meal there and were entertained by a very good Beatles tribute band. Today after breakfast (included at the hotel) we will set off to find some good walking, it shouldn’t be difficult finding some here, although it might be completing it. Monday 26th April 2021 Katoomba NSW Well, we can’t say that we didn’t get our exercise yesterday and our scenery kick. Once you leave the tourist honeypot of Katoomba Blackheath etc., only a few kilometres away are the rugged and beautiful sights of the Blue Mountains. There are so many different lookouts and parking facilities to admire the sublime views and many walking tracks to get even better scenery. We decided to take the Govetts Leap to Evans Lookout walking track. What could be difficult about that? Three kilometres there and three back, should be nice. As we set off there was a gentle incline and a warm sun on our backs. We shortly came across a downward track with man made stairs going down further into the valley/ravine. It was blindingly obvious that what you go down, you have to come back up and I can’t say it didn’t play on our minds as we descended further. Comforted by the belief that it can’t be that hard, we carried on. Shortly we came across more steps that went up and up, these gave us the first taste of how difficult this track would become. Needless to say, this was the pattern for the full 3 kilometres to Evans Leap. The views were truly spectacular and the goal to finish was at front of mind. Well that’s not quite true, front of mind was the steps. We passed waterfalls, small bridges and streams and occasionally another hiker either walking the track in reverse, or just giving up and returning to their relative car park whence they started. When we reached the Evans Lookout car park, we were pleased with ourselves, although we couldn’t believe that a 3 kilometre walk had taken well over an hour. Quite frankly had it been straight forward to take the road back, we might have, but any thoughts of that were dispelled when the map showed that to be a 8 kilometre walk. Okay, we go back the way we came! It wasn’t nearly as bad as we imagined for much of the return and landmarks passed us by. We were down to T-shirts and the sun was feeling a lot warmer than the 8c however. I must be honest and admit that the final steps to the Govetts Leap car park were challenging. By the time we had reached the top, we were spent and really were looking forward to the cold bottle of water in the car. It really was an achievement for a couple in their late sixties and we at no time passed any other travellers close to our age, however it was tough on the return journey. The beer tasted good last night and I think we were able to take on a few more calories than usual. We don’t seem to have learnt too much from yesterday’s expedition as we intend to walk near the Three Sisters today. Perhaps we will keep a careful eye on the amount of steps we have to traverse this time though. Tuesday 27th April 2021 Katoomba Our last breakfast here at the Hotel Blue this morning before travelling back to Sydney for our final two days. Talking of the hotel, it really has turned out to be a little gem. It serves a lovely breakfast included in the $115 a night tariff. An old hotel, only meters from the town centre it has turned out to be really good value. Yesterday we walked down to the Three Sisters Lookout and took the Cliff Top Walk to Katoomba Falls and the Cable Car, which we didn’t use. The walk, although steep and hard at times, was nowhere near as arduous as the day before. We had the added knowledge that we didn’t need to walk back the same way. Every set of steps down held no dread of having to walk up them again. The scenery was a spectacular as ever and some better than the previous trek. The Three Sisters, a Blue Mountain icon, lived up to its billing. It wasn’t just the rock formations, but the panoramic views beyond. Again in the early morning light the ‘blue’ was dominant. As you cast your eyes over the mountains and especially the valley or canyon, there is a carpet of trees as far as the eyes can see. Although you can see all of this from the provided tourist lookouts and car parks, it is far better to take some of the walks if you can. The crags, forests, streams, waterfalls, lookouts, fields and fauna on the paths add to the awe. When we reached the Katoomba Falls after about an hour of walking, we decided to take the roadway back. Along the way we stopped at one of the numerous picnic tables and had our lunch under quite a warm sun. In the afternoon we took a drive out to the Wentworth Falls. We drove there on Sunday, only to find the car parks full and over spilling a kilometre from the falls. Today was much quieter, but I must admit the views were the least inspiring than any way we had seen previously, or maybe we had been just well and truly spoilt. This area, in-fact the entire holiday has been a real surprise to us. From the rugged coasts of southern NSW, through the Great Dividing Range, the small early settler old towns on the way and finally the shock and awe of the Blue Mountains, it has been really fantastic. Last night we went to the RSL for the second time, it’s just across the road from us. It’s a huge place and has a COVID operation that is run by military precision. As you enter the building and before you know it, your identity has been checked, your temperature taken, your cutlery brought to you and you are comfortably sitting ready for your meal. It’s just left to you, to get your drinks from the bar and order your food from a menu that would put anywhere else to shame for choice. Today we drive to Sydney to return the hire car. We have booked a couple of days in the city with a great deal from American Express. There’s no point in using the car in Sydney, for a start it costs over $50 a night to park at the hotel!

Taranga

Our isolated stop

Katoomba

The Blue Moon Hotel

The Beatles at the RSL

A flat bit of track

Beautiful scenery

Waterfalls

Three Sisters

The long and winding path

Cockatoo

Falls

Blue Mountains

Canberra, Australia

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 11:40:00 +1000

We set of at around 9.30 for the 2 hour drive. The plan is to drive into the city, park and have a look at the ‘sights’ before heading to the hotel. Saturday 24th April. Canberra. ACT. There will always be somewhere you go, perhaps because you feel you should and then regret the trouble you took, well this is one of those places. Although the journey here was scenic, especially traversing the Great Dividing Range, the goal was far from rewarding. The two country towns we passed through, Braidwood and Bungendore had some charm, Canberra ‘charm’ would be a word not often heard I am sure. I can only describe Canberra as another Milton Keynes, a town built in the middle of nowhere. A place where architects could practice their skills straight out of university on a blank canvas. A place where buildings can look so obscure and ugly, where we console ourselves that they must be green, therefore somehow acceptable to the eye. Everything here is so spread out, with land being plentiful a very cheap at the time. Even the lake (Burly Griffin) is man made. The Parliament building and National Library on its banks try to bring modern meets tradition, but fails in so many ways. I heard the expression ‘the Canberra Bubble’ used to describe out of touch politicians and journalists. Canberra as a city fits well within that same bubble, far from mainstream Australia, where the rest of us live. Even in the hotel, in which we were staying, would not take cash at the bar. The excuse being Covid and minimal use of notes that were held by people, then passing me the pen to sign the tab and of coarse taking it back and passing it to the next person! No I don’t like Canberra, to me a charmless, parochial city that shouldn’t belong in Australia. Anyway, today we move on to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains. We only have to walk in the 0c temperature to the car and head on out.

The National Library

Lake Burly Griffin

The Parliament Building in the background

Canberra from Black Mountain

The Canberra Hotel

Batemans Bay, Australia

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:40:00 +1000

22nd April 2021 Batemans Bay, NSW We awake at the Argyle Terrace Motel in Byron Bay, to sunshine beaming through the large window in our second floor room. Our early morning walk along the beautiful seaside/riverside path however did remind how 6c feels, even in the sunshine. This was more than compensated by the beautiful estuary to the Clyde River, glistening in the sunrise. The temperature is expected to rise to 21c today, so there will be no complaints from us, with no breeze it should be beautiful day to find some nice scenic walks. Yesterday was also quite spectacular weather wise, which added to the beautiful bays, rocky outcrops and old seaside towns we encountered on our journey from Oak Flats on our way south. Often we would stop and have a walk, such a place was Gerringong, another Ulladulla. These towns were fronted by the most beautiful sandy beaches, some with surf and some by a peaceful and calm fishing cove. In the sunshine it was wonderfully warm, but the air was fresh and autumnal. We passed through some beautiful named towns such as Bombo, Jaspers Brush, Jerrawagala and Mollymook. We stopped in the large town of Nowra and had some lunch by the banks of the Shoalhaven River where a new bridge was being built to accompany one built a few years ago. Both of these bridges are to replace the old Nowra truss bridge built in 1881. The old bridge still carries the Princess Highway in one direction, but was originally built to carry a railway line. I am sure this is a real land mark in Nowra and hope it will be kept if only for pedestrians. When we left Nowra, we travelled directly to Batemans Bay where we stay for 2 nights at the Argyle Terrace Motel. Our first impressions were really good and the room very well appointed. Across the road was the Clyde River estuary and the Pacific Ocean beyond. You could actually see the surf breaking in the mouth of the river. It really was a beautiful spot and the walk along the river was very pleasant. We took a walk in the evening up to the Bayview Hotel (pub) and enjoyed a good meal. Today, as I mentioned earlier, is a day for some nice walks. If the weather holds up it should be a nice day out. Friday 23rd April Batemans Bay Another beautiful, but cold morning greets us, today we travel to Canberra, the Nations capital. Yesterday we had some nice walks along rugged coastlines, in Banksia forests and sat and had lunch on a secluded beach (just us) in Murramarang National Park. The sun didn’t stop shining throughout and we didn’t feel at all cold in the calm and balmy 19c. We met a number of people during the day. With one couple in particular we shared our woes over the Covid situation. They like us, had cancelled plans to travel to Europe. They were going to their son’s twice cancelled wedding in Ireland, us obviously to our daughters in the UK. Both of us unable to leave Australia and both commiserating with each other over both our and our children’s misfortune. We had both come to the conclusion that it would be best for all, if the weddings just went ahead with our blessings. It was nice to share our thoughts with others of similar predicament. Later in the day at the entrance to Murramarang NP, we met another lady. I was standing at the parking ticket machine (which was the $8 entry fee) wondering how I was going to get a ticket. There was a credit card alternative or a cash one. I had no credit card with me (when we are going walking I don’t like to leave cards in the car in some secluded spot) and I had cash. The problem being, the machine only took coins, not notes. Whilst remonstrating with my self and criticising the Nation Park for this predicament, a lady asked me how the machine worked, this I was able to show her. Her next question was, ‘what’s your problem?’ After availing her of my situation she said, ‘I’ll pay for you’. I told her that wasn’t needed, but if she paid on her credit card I would give her the cash. She then asked me where I came from, told me my car registration wasn’t correct (it was a Queensland rego) and said she would pay and didn’t want the money, after all this is Australia! Eventually I was able to force a $10 note into her hand, her insisting she gave me the $2 change. She wished us a good day, told us her sister in law was English so she understood my accent. Wow, any thought of me blending in after 20 years were totally destroyed! After a long day, we enjoyed the dying rays of the afternoon sun from our verandah over a couple of Tooey’s New and had a walk up the promenade after dark for a well earned meal.

Gerringong

Ulladulla

Blowhole

Ulladulla

Batemans Bay

The bay beyound

Batemans

Batemans in the morning sun

Beautiful morning

Another headland

Serene

Our private beach

One of our walks

Beach Kangaroos

Shellharbour, Australia

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:40:00 +1000

Wednesday 21st April Shellharbour NSW It was good to rid ourselves of the masks, although many people have found novel ways of doing the same. There are an awful lot of people walking around and grasping an empty coffee cup or clutching the last bite of a piece of food. It was incredible though just how many people were just ignoring the directive and seemingly without challenge at either checkin, in the terminal or indeed on the plane. It seems the public are over it as are the authorities. After a slight hiccup getting hold of our car hire company for the airport pickup, we were soon standing in a car lot amongst purple and lime green camper vans. Thank goodness ours was a white Toyota Camry although of dubious age and bodywork condition. Still I guess that’s what you get when you hire from a company called ‘Juicy’. In all fairness, the car was fine but it took a while for the attendant to log all of the scratches and chips it had earned over its 852,345 kilometre life. We headed off from the airport and south out of the city along the Princess Highway towards Wollongong. The car drove quite nicely but couldn’t compensate for some of the huge pot holes that appeared now and again along the first part of the journey out of the city. We had been told that we would notice the difference between Queensland and NSW roads, in a good way, I might add. We had been driving for a good 30 minutes before that prophecy actually became true. We pulled off the Highway and headed towards the coast and Seacliff and it’s infamous bridge over the sea and around the steep cliffs. I certainly hadn’t realised how high we were until we made the decent to the coast along a winding road. The views were terrific when we hit the ocean. Large white rollers battered the rocky coast and towering cliffs, from a deep blue sea that seemed huge. On the horizon there were many cargo ships awaiting their piloted passage past Sydney Heads and the city we thought we had left a hour behind us. We stopped just past the bridge/elevated road and took in the views. Carrying on along the coastal road we passed many more surf beaches, steep cliffs and old towns until we arrived at a place called Bulli, where we stopped to buy some essentials at Woolworths and the appending Bottle Shop. After making a mistake and unnecessarily skirting the city limits of Wollongong, we arrived at our motel, the ‘Lakeview’. There was a lake and there was view of sorts from the pub bistro, but it was a struggle to get the right angle. The room was ‘bog standard’ but we always knew it would be, after all we were only looking for a stopover for the night. I must admit the reverse cycle air conditioning was handy as we took the chill off the room, but everything else was fine. The pub was quiet but okay, again I am not convinced the country is ‘bouncing back’ from Covid as we are constantly told. This morning we were greeted with a cool 10c, but still managed a walk in our shorts although accompanied by a warm fleece! We will be leaving at around 9am to travel down to Batemans Bay, our farthest point south, although not coldest, I think we will save that for Canberra and all points beyond.

Seacliffe

Brisbane

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 03:00:00 +1000

Tuesday 20th April Brisbane Airport. The only time you don’t need to wear a mask at the airport is when you are either drinking or eating, what a challenge! Nevertheless, if this is the future of any travel, it’s not going to be that comfortable. Maybe it’s me, but claustrophobia is my first thought. I think it’s ironic that a cubicle in the toilets is the only place to free you of this imposition. By the way, where’s the medical evidence to say that you can’t catch or pass on Covid whilst you are eating and drinking (just saying). Anyway we have got what we have got and I have an empty coffee cup next to me as my prop and excuse for typing this nakedly. Looking around a not so crowded departure hall there are plenty of others sitting with empty cups, one guy is sucking a lollipop, great move Bro, never thought of that one!