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Published: November 29th 2012
Chinese Temple
Part of the Chinese Temple we visited in SingaporeWow! Can't believe we've been gone for less than 2 weeks - it feels like at least a month. We've been so busy moving around and taking part in various activities.
The flight experience started well with my brother Paul getting Mum and I into the BA Lounge at Heathrow - free food and drink and a quiet place to relax before the flight - thanks Paul. The journey itself was fairly arduous so it was nice to have the break overnight in Singapore. We did a 4 hour city tour while we were there which took in the Botanical Gardens, a Chinese Temple, the Merlion, a tour of a handicrafts factory and a visit to Little India.
Arriving in Sydney we found the shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn which was in a fabulous location about a 2 minute walk from Circular Quay. We knew we needed to stay awake as long as possible to have any hope of getting our body clocks right so having unpacked a little we went down to Circular Quay - I felt that we hadn't arrived until we'd seen the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. They both looked fabulous in the
Sydney Opera House
Our first sighting of the Opera House - now we really are in Australia! Australian sunshine but no sooner had we taken a couple of pictures the heavens opened and we were soaked by a shower!! We took refuge in a cafe but as soon as the rain cleared we resumed our walk. The Opera House looked stunning despite the roadworks going on to improve the access for lorries with stage equipment etc. We then had a lovely walk around the nearby Botannical Gardens. There were hundreds of joggers running all over the park - can't understand the attraction myself!
The rest of the day passed with us getting our bearings and finding out about transport etc. then we returned to the hotel for a bite to eat but by that time we were both so tired that we didn't really fancy it when it came. Early to bed, Mum slept very well but I didn't despite having effectively been awake for about 36 hours. Needless to say, I was a bit worse for wear the next day.
We'd decided to visit Manly on Wednesday having been there 20 years before and only afterwards realised that we hadn't actually found the proper Manly beach! The ferry ride through the harbour was fabulous
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Our first view of the Harbour Bridge which we were due to climb two days later and we found the beach with a little help from the tourist information lady. It is stunning but unfortunately it had been closed by the lifeguards due to strong currents. Some mad Australians were still swimming and surfing though and we also saw a guy kite-surfing despite very strong winds taking him all the way down the beach very quickly and having to fight to get back.
We walked around the coast a little to Shelley Beach which was a lovely quiet bay out of the wind where lots of families were enjoying the sun. We had lunch at the cafe there and settled in for a read of our books and to watch the world go by - it's tough this travelling lark!
Walked back to Manly, quick bite to eat then the ferry back to Circular Quay and back to our hotel. Another early night and I slept much better which was just as well as tomorrow was a big day.
One of the things I definitely knew I wanted to do when I planned this trip was to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I'd seen news items etc. about people doing it and it looked like the views would be amazing. It didn't disappoint. The whole operation is really well organised so that you stay safe, enjoy it all and don't endanger anybody else. You have to wear regulation outfits with all the equipment (5kg of it!) attached to you with clips so that nothing can fall off you and onto the traffic below. No cameras are allowed so they take a few photos of you as you go which you can choose to buy at the end (you get one group photo as part of the package). There are various safety procedures but mostly the guides do it all in a funny manner and jolly everyone along so that it is all fun. You are attached to a safety guidewire throughout the climb so you never feel unsafe and once you have climbed through the first sections and are on the bridge itself it you have some stunning views of the harbour.
The only downside for us was that the weather was not the best. It was a bit overcast and extremely windy so it made it slightly harder work. However, the scenery more that made up for this and Mum and I had a fabulous time. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the bridge structure, its history and the surrounding areas and delivered his patter over the radio headsets we had on throughout.
I'm so glad that we did the climb as it was a brilliant day. We just spent the rest of that day doing a few chores and enjoying the hotel facilities as we knew that we were moving on the next day.
Moving from the Holiday Inn to a youth hostel was a bit of a culture shock! Mum had agreed to try one out with me so we travelled to Glebe where I'd booked us into a twin room for 3 nights. It was acutally quite nice - lovely area, fairly quiet, clean. We didn't eat there as we didn't want to get into shopping and storing stuff at this stage. But the rest of the facilities were fine. We went to the hostel barbeque on our first evening. It was on the roof and for just $5 we got a good size meal and a beer - bloody good value as the Ozzies would say!
Saturday was our visit to the Lindfield Tennis Club in the northern suburbs of Sydney. I'd emailed a couple of months ago to ask if we could visit our UK club's namesake and perhaps play a little if we could borrow a racket. We were given a very warm welcome and we played a few sets on their grass courts followed by afternoon tea. It was great to spend some time with some true Australians and find out about their club etc. They own the courts so are responsible for their upkeep and next month they will be closing the courts for some renovation work while it is particularly dry here. It was in the high 20's that afternoon so needless to say I had gone my usual lobster colour which led to one of the guys there to sidle up to Mum to check if I was OK and whether I had enough sunscreen on! Most of you will know that this is my usual reaction to exercise so as Mum explained - I was absolutely fine.
We made our way back to the hostel (train and bus), showered then found a local pub for dinner - a lovely end to a good day.
The next day we had designated for our walk from Coogee beach to Bondi beach. It was the hottest day so far but we decided to press ahead. We took a very crowded bus to Coogee (I think everyone had decided to go to the beach on such a sunny day) and the beach there was lovely (as all Australian beaches seem to be). Our walk took us through several beaches/bays, all of which were extremely picturesque and required us to walk down into them, around and up out so it was a good workout. We think we walked about 7km and when we finally rounded a bend to see Bondi Beach it was fabulous. It was very busy there too but we found a nice spot to settle down and have a bite to eat and a read. Our journey back to the hostel was also very crowded and involved catching 2 buses. There was a slight mis-step on my part when we missed the stop to get off the first bus but we sorted ourselves out in the end.
We have generally found that most Australians are very helpful if you look a little lost and ask for help.
I think I'll stop there as it is late here and we are moving on again tomorrow. We have just had a few days staying with friends in Port Macquarie which I will tell you about in my next blog. Sorry about the few photos - my camera battery ran out this evening. For those of you on Facebook, you will find a few more photos and updates. Computer access here has been trickier than I expected but I will try to keep this as up-to-date as possible.
We are both having a fabulous time and even started looking at property prices here to see if we could get a holiday home but decided that maybe it's a bit too far to travel for a couple of weeks a year! Tempting though ;-)
It's been lovely to hear from some of you since we've been away and I hope we hear from others as the time goes on. It makes the distance seem less somehow. I hope everyone there is doing well, despite the horrible weather I've been hearing about. They are predicting a heatwave here so I have the opposite problem - I know I shouldn't complain but me and extreme heat do not go together very well.
Signing off now.
Jo (&Pam) x
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Paul
non-member comment
Well done !
Hey Jo - great to see the blog has finally got going - I wondered if I had registered against the wrong person !!! Glad you're having fun. Paulx