In which we close our Australia loop by returning to Sydney and the Russell on the Rocks, catch up with some old truck pals and make final preparation to board our cruise ship home, plus take a side trip to the nations capital, Canbarra.
Day 267 (Melbourne to Sydney)
Hats off to Carole for getting up at OMG o'clock on a Sunday morning to get us to the coach station in Melbourne for our 7.15 Greyhound to Sydney, a 14 hour trip on and off the higway to pick up passagers from smaller towns who didn't show up. We made an early stop for lunch at a BP roadhouse in Godknowswhere after four hours and another at Wagga Wagga (pronounced wogga wogga, curiously) about two hours after that. Wagga happens to be where my other cousin, Ruth lives with her husband Phil and there five children, but we weren't expecting the coach to stop there (it wasn't on the schedule, honest, Ruth) so we hadn't made any arrangement to see them. Not that we would have had long anyway.
We also weren't expecting, a couple more hours after leaving Wagga, to stop in Canbarra at about teatime or we could have arranged to say 'Hi' to Juli's cousin, Tim, who lives and works there, but we have a trip lined up later in the week back to Canbarra and hope to see him then.
So far the journey had been smooth and easy. The coach was pretty comfy and, yes, the air con worked just fine. Juli even managed a few winks, something she rarely does. Meanwhile, I finished reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the New South Wales countryside flashed past us, and liked it so much, I downloaded A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne straight after. Incidently, at some point we must have crossed the border between Victoria and New South Wales, but we both completely missed it, if it's marked at all.
However, as always seems to happen to us, things became less smooth. First, we were delayed by, as we saw later, an horendous car smash a little way ahead of us, and later (as the sun was setting) by the aftermath of one of our fellow passengers - a man in his 30s, I would guess - lashing out and hitting two other passengers (not us, I hasten to add.) just as he was getting off the Coach. It was all a bit shocking for us, but the two young victims - neither out of their teens, I should think - were both understandably shacken by the incident.
Obviously, this caused something of a further delay while the lads were seen to and the driver phoned in to report on what hadhappened, so we didn't get into Sydney until after 10.00 at night. Then, of course we had to get us and luggage to our hotel at the other end of town. Fortunately, we found a taxi pretty quickly and, in fact, had more trouble getting someone to answer the door after hours. We had already warned them that we would be late and had been told simply to ring the bell and the night porter would let us in. So we were a bit suprised when a receptionist we remembered from last time came down in her nighty. Any way, before long, we'd signed in, dumped our bags and gone out again to find some late supper, this time with a key to let ourselves back in.
We also weren't expecting, a couple more hours after leaving Wagga, to stop in Canbarra at about teatime or we could have arranged to say 'Hi' to Juli's cousin, Tim, who lives and works there, but we have a trip lined up later in the week back to Canbarra and hope to see him then.
So far the journey had been smooth and easy. The coach was pretty comfy and, yes, the air con worked just fine. Juli even managed a few winks, something she rarely does. Meanwhile, I finished reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the New South Wales countryside flashed past us, and liked it so much, I downloaded A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne straight after. Incidently, at some point we must have crossed the border between Victoria and New South Wales, but we both completely missed it, if it's marked at all.
However, as always seems to happen to us, things became less smooth. First, we were delayed by, as we saw later, an horendous car smash a little way ahead of us, and later (as the sun was setting) by the aftermath of one of our fellow passengers - a man in his 30s, I would guess - lashing out and hitting two other passengers (not us, I hasten to add.) just as he was getting off the Coach. It was all a bit shocking for us, but the two young victims - neither out of their teens, I should think - were both understandably shacken by the incident.
Obviously, this caused something of a further delay while the lads were seen to and the driver phoned in to report on what hadhappened, so we didn't get into Sydney until after 10.00 at night. Then, of course we had to get us and luggage to our hotel at the other end of town. Fortunately, we found a taxi pretty quickly and, in fact, had more trouble getting someone to answer the door after hours. We had already warned them that we would be late and had been told simply to ring the bell and the night porter would let us in. So we were a bit suprised when a receptionist we remembered from last time came down in her nighty. Any way, before long, we'd signed in, dumped our bags and gone out again to find some late supper, this time with a key to let ourselves back in.
Days 268 & 269 (Sydney)
Today (Monday) I left Juli catching up on some rest while I went down for breakfast - well, it's included and I never could pass up free food - then walked up George St. to the backpackers travel agents near the station where we'd left our cruise bags in long-term storage while we went round Australia. I'd had dreams about the place burning down together with all our smart clothes and souvenirs, but no such fate had befallen them. There was no way I was going to be able to drag them back down George St. to our hotel, so the next stage in the plan was to find a cab. I asked a guy standing on the street where the best place to hail a taxi was and he sort of said anywhere but here. The next thing that happened was that a taxi came round the corner with its light on and was quite happy to stop for me and take me the short-ish distance back down to The Rocks, so that turned out okay
We had deliberately planned on doing very little this first day back in Sydney to give us time to recover from the coach journey. We did go out for lunch though, followed by a bit of light shopping for a few last minute items in readiness for our cruise, plus cake for tea back at the hotel.
The main event for the day was meeting up with Brenda and Yvonne, two of our truck mates from the UKtoOz trip, now living and working in and around Sydney. We had planned on taking them out for dinner, but, well, to cut a long story short, we didn't see them until much later, so we had a drink with them instead and made a fresh arrangement to see them the next night for dinner. We did manage to have a good old chat and catch up on each others adventures of the past nearly four months though. We saw them last in Singapore, where we came off the truck to cruise to Sydney. Meanwhile, they flew to Jakarta, travelled by bus and ferry to Bali, then flew from there to Darwin followed by a two week bus trip south via Alice Springs and arrived in Sydney a week after us. I have to say, from what they told us, although they got to see Uluru and we didn't, with the possible exception of Borobudur on Java, I don't reckon we missed much.
***
The next day was even less eventful than the previous. We had planned on going up to the Blue Mountains by train, but Juli wasn't feeling too good and decided to stay in bed, which she did until teatime. Meanwhile, after breakfasting, I spent the bulk of the day writing e-mails and drafting this blog post in the hotel's comfy sitting room, where Juli joined me when it was time to go out for a cuppa and more cake. Juli had a chocolate tart she said was the best she'd ever tasted!
Tea was followed by a bit of a walk round a part of The Rocks we'd not explored last time, including a shop full of the most beautifully decorated didgeridoos of all lengths and pitches. They really do make the most wonderful sound when played by an expert. It gets me right in the heart, both physically and emotionally. I'd dearly love one, but some of the instruments I was most drawn to were selling there for a thousand dollars.
Soon it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready to met up with Brenda and Yvonne again, plus, this time, Brenda's long-term partner, Whacker (sort of short for Patrick) who'd flown out to be with the girls for the last part of their trip down from Darwin, so, of course, this was our first chance to meet him, though we'd already heard a lot about him. This time, everything went to plan and they took us to Darling Harbour (round the corner a bit from Circular Quay) where we had a great evening of food, drink and more chat, with a promise at the end that it wouldn't be for the last time. Don't know when we'll be able to keep that promise, but I'm pretty sure that keep it we will.
After an early breakfast the next morning, we walked back to Darling Harbour, over the pedestrian bridge and round to the tourist coach station under the Star Casino, where we boarded our bus to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at 6.55 a.m.
Leaving Sydney involved driving through several long tunnels then up into the Southern Highlands to our first comfort and refreshment stop in a lovely little town called Berinna. On the way, Stuart, our driver gave us lots of information on the Australian political system, the high cost of living in Sydney and the lack of fuel reduction burns, leading to worse bush fires when they happen, which basically is every Summer, bush fires being started by dry thunder storms igniting eucalyptus oil vapour when temperatures exceed 45 degrees Celsius.
After Berinna, we continued on to Canberra and got more fascinating facts such as: 80% of New South Wales electricity is generated by coal fired power stations, so, in New South Wales, the carbon footprint of an electric car is bigger than that of a six litre, V8 powered petrol car, a situation which is unlikely to change any time soon, since, at current extraction rates, New South Wales has coal reserves for the next 880 years.
Getting closer still, we approached Canberra on the Remembrance Highway, along which all the rest stops are named after Victoria Cross recipients. Finally, at about mid-day, we reached the Mt. Airlie Lookout, which gave us a splendid views out over Canberra spread out below. Fifteen minutes later, we were having lunch in the cafe next to the War Memorial and Museum with Juli’s cousin Tim, who lives and works in Canberra.
After a very hurried lunch – thanks for taking the time out to meet us, Tim – we met up with our local guide, who was there to show us round all the sights on our itinerary for the day. Unfortunately, she spoke so quietly that neither of us couldn’t hear what she had to say, so mostly did our own thing at our four stops: the war memorial; adjacent museum, which includes a major Gallipoli section; the national art gallery and the parliament building.
One thing we saw when we went off on our own was a memorial on the other side of the road to the main war memorial that we noticed had the Turkish flag flying in front of it. It turned out to be a memorial to Ataturk, the Turkish general who was victorious at Gallipoli, with the same excerpt from his famous speech in praise of the ANZAC forces as on his very much bigger memorial in Turkey that we saw when we visited Anzac Cove, way back in June or early July last year.
We had just 45 minutes at The National Gallery, which, in addition to lots of Aboriginal art, has galleries covering art from all over the world and examples of cubism, impressionism, Dadaism and every other kind of arty ism you can think of.
At the Parliament building, which has an upper and lower house like Westminster, but is built under an artificial hill, like Hobbiton, we got to sit in on a debate on immigration controls. Actually, it wasn’t so much a debate as two politicians (or Pollys, as they’re known in Australia) delivering speeches but not actually bothering to be present for the other’s speech, while a handful of other members sat around, playing with their phones and making sure their were bodies in the seats behind the speakers for the benefit of the television cameras. Like I say, it’s modelled on Westminster.
Just a quick side: they have a display of important old documents in the building, and one of their exhibits is one of only two copies of the Magna Carta outside the UK. Anyone know where the other is?
After Parliament, we said goodbye to our local guide, and our driver took us on a tour of some of the embassies, followed by a tour of the CBD, from where, we drove out of the city and began the long return journey to Sydney. We had one more stop on the way for a quick bite to eat to keep us going, which happened to be at our last big thing in Australia, the Big Marino.
We arrived back at Circular Quay around 9.00 p.m. and walked straight to the cruise terminal, where, as we had guessed it would be, our cruise ship, Marina, was berthed while her crew made their finally preparations for us and her other passengers to board tomorrow.
Which brings us not only to the end of this second Sydney post, but to the end of our three and a bit months in Australia. Tomorrow we check out of our static Sydney hotel and into our floating hotel of the high seas that’s going to take us (eventually) all the way back to the UK.
We’ve no Idea when we’ll be able to post to our blog next (Auckland, perhaps, or Tahiti, maybe) but we’ll try to keep you posted as to our progress, via twitter at least, if in no other way. But for now…
TTFN - N
Day 270 (day trip to Canberra)
After an early breakfast the next morning, we walked back to Darling Harbour, over the pedestrian bridge and round to the tourist coach station under the Star Casino, where we boarded our bus to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at 6.55 a.m. Leaving Sydney involved driving through several long tunnels then up into the Southern Highlands to our first comfort and refreshment stop in a lovely little town called Berinna. On the way, Stuart, our driver gave us lots of information on the Australian political system, the high cost of living in Sydney and the lack of fuel reduction burns, leading to worse bush fires when they happen, which basically is every Summer, bush fires being started by dry thunder storms igniting eucalyptus oil vapour when temperatures exceed 45 degrees Celsius.
After Berinna, we continued on to Canberra and got more fascinating facts such as: 80% of New South Wales electricity is generated by coal fired power stations, so, in New South Wales, the carbon footprint of an electric car is bigger than that of a six litre, V8 powered petrol car, a situation which is unlikely to change any time soon, since, at current extraction rates, New South Wales has coal reserves for the next 880 years.
Getting closer still, we approached Canberra on the Remembrance Highway, along which all the rest stops are named after Victoria Cross recipients. Finally, at about mid-day, we reached the Mt. Airlie Lookout, which gave us a splendid views out over Canberra spread out below. Fifteen minutes later, we were having lunch in the cafe next to the War Memorial and Museum with Juli’s cousin Tim, who lives and works in Canberra.
After a very hurried lunch – thanks for taking the time out to meet us, Tim – we met up with our local guide, who was there to show us round all the sights on our itinerary for the day. Unfortunately, she spoke so quietly that neither of us couldn’t hear what she had to say, so mostly did our own thing at our four stops: the war memorial; adjacent museum, which includes a major Gallipoli section; the national art gallery and the parliament building.
One thing we saw when we went off on our own was a memorial on the other side of the road to the main war memorial that we noticed had the Turkish flag flying in front of it. It turned out to be a memorial to Ataturk, the Turkish general who was victorious at Gallipoli, with the same excerpt from his famous speech in praise of the ANZAC forces as on his very much bigger memorial in Turkey that we saw when we visited Anzac Cove, way back in June or early July last year.
We had just 45 minutes at The National Gallery, which, in addition to lots of Aboriginal art, has galleries covering art from all over the world and examples of cubism, impressionism, Dadaism and every other kind of arty ism you can think of.
At the Parliament building, which has an upper and lower house like Westminster, but is built under an artificial hill, like Hobbiton, we got to sit in on a debate on immigration controls. Actually, it wasn’t so much a debate as two politicians (or Pollys, as they’re known in Australia) delivering speeches but not actually bothering to be present for the other’s speech, while a handful of other members sat around, playing with their phones and making sure their were bodies in the seats behind the speakers for the benefit of the television cameras. Like I say, it’s modelled on Westminster.
Just a quick side: they have a display of important old documents in the building, and one of their exhibits is one of only two copies of the Magna Carta outside the UK. Anyone know where the other is?
After Parliament, we said goodbye to our local guide, and our driver took us on a tour of some of the embassies, followed by a tour of the CBD, from where, we drove out of the city and began the long return journey to Sydney. We had one more stop on the way for a quick bite to eat to keep us going, which happened to be at our last big thing in Australia, the Big Marino.
We arrived back at Circular Quay around 9.00 p.m. and walked straight to the cruise terminal, where, as we had guessed it would be, our cruise ship, Marina, was berthed while her crew made their finally preparations for us and her other passengers to board tomorrow.
Which brings us not only to the end of this second Sydney post, but to the end of our three and a bit months in Australia. Tomorrow we check out of our static Sydney hotel and into our floating hotel of the high seas that’s going to take us (eventually) all the way back to the UK.
We’ve no Idea when we’ll be able to post to our blog next (Auckland, perhaps, or Tahiti, maybe) but we’ll try to keep you posted as to our progress, via twitter at least, if in no other way. But for now…
TTFN - N
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