Month: November 2019

I wasn’t quite sure why we left the beautiful green “Blue Mountains”: 

For the dry, dusty road to Mudgee:

With smoke from the wild fires clearly visible on the horizon. But I had to trust there was a plan.

Enjoyed the journey:

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Almost ran over an echidna. Went back to ensure it got over the road safely (and to take a pic), but it had gone. Hopefully it made a successful crossing.

According to the internet, Mudgee would hold limited attraction.

But maybe we’d missed something because Mudgee was clearly the place to be. Unfortunately, everyone got there before us so we ended up at the showground, camping in the grounds by the sheep pens.

And off for a really rather excellent meat pie to finish our travel day:

Animals were the stars of today’s show, starting with a brave (and thirsty) wallaby – a wonderful introduction to Australia’s wildlife.:

An evening walk featured water dragons (lots!):

A rosella:

A lyrebird (of “car alarm” fame):

Honking frogs (no pic, and I can’t upload the audio file, but it literally honked – about every 15 – 20 seconds). A beautiful blue wren:

And… a wombat. It sat at the edge of the path with a look of “if I don’t move and don’t look at you, you won’t know I’m here”:

Our morning had started with another visit to the Three Sisters, looking rather different in the morning light:

And more Chinese. I definitely need to work on my posing:

And then the short walk to Echo Point where we saw some wonderful plants (species unknown):

Then we’d headed off:

Stopping at a lolly shop in the middle of nowhere, but clearly doing good business:

And the evening ended down with the water dragons at the Blue Lake – the blue colour is caused by light being refracted through the dissolved particles of limestone.

A wonderfully animal-filled day.

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Random other stuff from today:

I need one of these (although, to be fair, it still wouldn’t get much use):

Stopped at the wonderful little “Yellow Deli” who have nailed interior design – people like corners, nooks and crannies and this place is full of them:

And we’re off!

Headed into the Blue Mountains (no fires) so called because the morning (and, to a lesser extent, evening) air reacts with the eucalyptus creating a blue haze over the forest:

Mountain streams have cut through the upper layers of sandstone, following vertical faults in the strata. The softer claystone layers are more erodible (is this a word?). As the softer rock is eroded, unsupported sections of the cliff collapse, resulting in the characteristic vertical cliffs.

First stop was “Three Sisters”, which looked beautiful (and quiet) in the evening light:

The Aboriginal legend goes thus: three sisters, “Meehni”, “Wimlah” and “Gunnedoo” lived in the valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers weren’t happy, tried to capture them and started a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor took it upon himself to turn them to stone to protect them from harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed.

As only he could reverse the spell, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

We (temporarily) renamed them “Four Travellers” – one for each of us:

It was quiet when we arrived, but it wasn’t long before another Chinese tour group overran the place. In fact, we estimated that 90 – 95% of the tourists we saw were Chinese, maybe because it’s mid-week so the Aussies aren’t available.

Queensland is now the main focus of the bush fires, but they’re still raging in NSW, and we could clearly see smoke from the fires on the horizon.

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Other random stuff from today:

Nutritional system on the Weetabix used a star-rating – it was good, but not as useful as the traffic light system in the UK (and not as ubiquitous):

Rudy had kangaroo steak for dinner – it’s texture was like beef but tasted like nothing else I’ve eaten… and it was pretty tough:

I had barramundi, a fish that’s popular with diners because it has no bones:

Our American-style motel:

Bug of the day (BOTD) which was still sat there outside our door in the morning:

Sydney’s Opera House is one of the world’s most iconic buildings.

But it could have been very different. Entries in the 1956 international architecture competition included the following:

I’m so glad they picked the design they did – it’s interesting, distinctive and looks great from every angle. And we explored some more angles today, getting up close and personal with the tiled, concrete structure:

Interesting facts about Sydney Opera House:

• The original cost estimate was $7m… but it actually cost $102m to build (gulp!)
• Construction was supposed to take 4 years… but it actually took 14 years
• It’s cooled using seawater taken directly from the harbour
• More than 1 million roof tiles cover the c.1.62 hectares sitting over the structure – the tiles were made in Sweden

Our visit gave us a chance to recreate an iconic photo: Rudy had his picture taken here about 20 years ago. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a copy with us, so I’ll have to wait until I get home to find out if this came close:

The walk to the Opera House also afforded wonderful views of another iconic landmark – the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

And great views back to Circular Quay:

Great views were also to be had from the Royal Botanic Gardens:

And this tree looked familiar:

But wasn’t. I thought it was a baobab, but it’s a bottle tree.

A very sociable ibis paid us a visit, too:

As the day drew to the a close, you could see a grey haze in the air. Not sure whether it’s dust, or the smoke from the fires:

We’d taken the boat into the city that morning – a wonderful way to travel:

And back via the bus. They have two touch points at the entrance, which makes boarding even more efficient than London.

We were lucky – didn’t plan, but just caught the last bus home. Great day.

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Random stuff from today:

A smart bin that charges in the sunlight and then periodically crushes the contents:

A postcard that demonstrated the vastness of this country by super-imposing it on Europe:

Punters are sprayed to keep them cool (which would have worked if it wasn’t for the strong winds):

Bush fires are raging throughout New South Wales (NSW). It’s the worst it’s been since the devastating fires of 2009.

Reports on the TV really bring home how serious and catastrophic they are. Interviews with residents who have lost their homes and livelihoods are heart-wrenching.

And apparently 1 homeowner in 20 doesn’t have buildings insurance, whilst two thirds of renters don’t have contents cover. Rebuilding their lives will be very difficult.

Global news is reported in UK, often in detail, but when you’re actually here it makes it even more potent. They’re expected to worsen tomorrow because of strong winds (that blow the fire over greater areas) and high temperatures.

That it’s scuppered our road trip plans are a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. To head into the fire is not only irresponsible, but disrespectful. We’re going to stay put, and reassess the situation tomorrow evening.

Decided to try putting up the tent. Whilst it didn’t take the claimed 3 minutes, it was very fast, indeed:

Then off to the local outdoor swimming pool, which was a cosy 25.3 degrees (as opposed to 8.5 degrees in Parliament Hill Lido back home!).

It’s wonderful to swim outdoors – and a 50m pool is also a real treat.

Swam and played. Played and swam.

Really enjoyed our dip 🙂

We’ll be camping on our road trip. Which is difficult without a tent. So off to the shopping centre where we met Martin who clearly knew a thing or two about tents.

Even so, when he said the model we were considering could be erected in 3 minutes, I was rather sceptical. For an expert maybe, but not for the enthusiastic amateur.  But it looked pretty robust, and claimed it was “dark”, so would help keep the sun out and the temperature down. Bonus. Not sure that’s a selling point in the UK, but it is here.

I’ve usually used a blow-up mattress, but here they have “four-wheel drive” (4WD) models. It was so comfortable – almost like a normal mattress – and given that we could be camping a lot (and we’re not backpacking, but going in the car). We took two 🙂

Found this receipt, where the total had been rounded up:

Australia have got rid of their 1 and 2 cent coins. If you pay by card, you’re charged the exact amount, but cash payments are rounded up. Better than rounding up each item – I remember learning at school how rounding before the total can have a dramatic impact on the final amount.

Cooked Rudy’s classic “stuffed paprika” for dinner. It’s really stuffed pepper, of course, but he calls it “paprika” and I’ve ended up adopting the pseudo-English. Another phrase I’ve picked up from him is “cash money”. In English, of course, we just say “cash”, but I’ve found myself copying him!

Rudy and BE met in 1997 when they were both travelling in Bolivia, meeting up again Rio. The friendship has stood the test of the time (and the not inconsiderable distance between Belgium and Australia).

So we took the ferry upriver – a treat in itself:

Past the rich people’s houses:

And kayak practice:

To Rydalmere dock. Where we waited. And waited. BE didn’t arrive. We figured that she hadn’t got our message sent from the hotel. Rudy tried calling, but his Belgian phone wouldn’t connect.

Time to rely on the kindness of strangers… who duly obliged and very generously let us use their phone to make a quick call.

Whilst we were sat waiting, a cyclist pedalled by… with an unusual helmet:

Apparently, if you get between a magpie and its nest, it’ll attack. The spikes are supposed to deter them (although BE explained later that as magpies are quite bolshy birds, they can interpret them as a challenge!).

Lunch at the lake:

Followed by some travel planning. Bush fires are raging around the country, and are particularly bad on the east coast. It’s probably no coincidence that eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explore if ignited. There were lots of explosions – they were fierce fires.

We established that they won’t directly affect our plans (although the smoke might), but we should definitely keep an eye on them.

An great pho bo (beef noodle soup) at the local Vietnamese place for dinner:

Nom, nom 🙂

Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day because there were no changing facilities and swimming costumes were rare.

In October 1902, William Gocher swam at midday at Manly Beach wearing a neck-to-knee costume. A year later, Manly Beach became one of the first places to all daylight swimming and surfing. It’s now one of the most renowned beaches in Australia for surfing.It was named by Captain Arther Phillip after seeing the indigenous people’s “manly behaviour”.

Talking about beaches, interesting fact: if you were to visit a different beach in Australia every day, it’d take over 27 years to see them all. That’s a lot of beaches.

I’m not that fond of beaches, so observed from the shady sidelines. It was quite busy, and can imagine that it gets packed during high season.

The journey itself was half the fun – the ferry from Circular Quay affords excellent views of the Sydney Opera House:

… and Sydney Harbour Bridge:

Another interesting fact: if all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere (apparently, the architect was inspired while eating an orange).

The ferry was very safety-conscious:

Later that evening, we went to a pub for dinner, where I had my first taste of kangaroo (we’d seen it earlier in the supermarket):

Croc nachos were also on the menu:

As well as unusually sized pints:

A relaxing day to start our Australian adventure.