Kiama - Minnamurra Falls - Sydney (Darling Harbour)

---

We received an email yesterday from friends we met on our South American holiday thanking us for the Christmas card we sent. Yin and Gabriel live in northern Sydney, so we emailed back to let them know that we are going to be in Sydney for the NYE fireworks before heading further up the coast on the 2^ndof January. After a couple of emails back and forth yesterday we confirmed this morning that we will meet them for lunch on Tuesday before we drive up to South West Rocks.

We packed the car and drove over to the blowhole for a quick look. This morning, we were there about an hour before high tide and have to say that there was no appreciable difference in the spout! The sky was blue however as opposed to overcast as it was yesterday afternoon, so the blowhole and surrounds were much brighter. We could have watched the incoming surf and the waterspouts for much longer – it’s so hypnotic watching the waves roll in – but we had other sightseeing planned.

Bernie programmed the SatNav for Cathedral Rocks, and we headed north out of Kiama. Good old Syri directed us into a residential street. Feeling a little doubtful we found a space to park then walked to the end of the street … where we encountered a barrier across the road and a sign saying it was the entrance to the Bombo Wastewater Treatment Plant! Seriously, Syri takes us to all the best places.

So, back to the truck where we looked at the map in a bit more detail. It seems we ‘could’ walk around to Cathedral Rocks from the end of Darien Avenue, but it’s probably a better option to drive around to Cliff Drive. Honestly the people who live here must be thrilled that SatNavs direct people looking for Cathedral Rocks into their street?!

Phew, it was busy around in Cliff Drive. Judging by all the people with beach umbrellas and eskys it’s the access point for a popular beach? With the weather warming up quickly this morning there were lots of people unpacking all their gear from their cars for a day at the beach. Despite all the traffic we found a park, found the Cathedral Rocks, took our photos from the cliff overlooking the volcanic sea stacks and returned to the car in record time. We still had other activities planned before making our way to Sydney for the next three nights!

Putting our trust in Syri again Bernie programmed in the Minnamurra Rainforest Centre. This destination wasn’t on our itinerary until we read one of the tourist brochures in the lobby last night on our way back into the hotel. Although it’s not really on the way to Sydney, it was only half an hour west into the hinterland, so we decided to take the detour to visit Minnamurra Falls. With the rain there has been we felt the falls would have enough water flowing over them to make it worth our while. Such suckers for a good waterfall.

Wow, everyone not at the beach today has headed inland to the falls and/or the Illawarra Fly Treetop Adventures which is a bit further out the Jamberoo Mountain Road. It was busy, busy, busy!! We were very lucky to slip into one of the last carparks at the rainforest centre. We headed through the visitor centre and onto the Minumurra Rainforest Walk (I have no idea why there are two spellings for Minnamurra/Minumurra but the map definitely has both versions?) and into the cool of the rainforest.

We walked steadily uphill wondering where everyone was? The car park was so full we thought that we would be surrounded by people on our walk but, fortunately, by the time everyone is spread out over the entire walk it is not congested. At the Y intersection we had the option to return to the rainforest centre or continue UPHILL to the waterfall. No point coming here unless we see the waterfall so onwards and upwards it was!

The walk is Grade 4, but solely due to the steepness as the path is smooth and broad and not difficult to walk … apart from the incline that is. We made it to the Upper Minnamurra Falls where we were delighted that there were signs up reminding visitors that they are not allowed to enter the river and warning them that there were surveillance cameras in place. Yay, after hiking all the way to the falls the last thing we want is to take photos with strangers posing in the waterfall.

With our photos taken we hiked back down towards the rainforest centre turning onto the Lyrebird loop walk. Once again, we were astonished by how few other visitors we were encountering. Sure, it had been a little crowded at the waterfall viewing platform, but on the trails, we felt like we had the place almost to ourselves. When we did encounter a family peering into the bush it was a good thing because they had spotted a lyrebird which they were able to point out to us. We never would have seen it for ourselves.

The family continued and we tried to take some photos of the lyrebird which was scratching about in a bird’s-nest fern up a tree. This had us doubting that it WAS a lyrebird because we had it in our heads that they tend to stick to the forest floor. It certainly looked like a lyrebird though even though it was partially obscured by the trees.

A little further along the trail we caught up to the family again. This time they had spotted a water dragon sunning itself on a log in the creek. I complimented them on their wildlife spotting abilities. In our turn we were able to alert some other walkers to the water dragon on the log. We’re quite sure that most walkers must pass the wildlife by. Australian wildlife is rather adept at blending into its environment!

It was well and truly lunchtime when we arrived back at the truck. We still had ham in the car fridge and a tube of faux Pringles aka Woolworths Stacked Chips, sour cream and onion flavour! We recently discovered – when Pringles were not available at our local store – that the faux variety are just as good as the real thing and SO MUCH CHEAPER!! Anyhow, I digress, we made ourselves a tailgate lunch of ham and chips washed down with Coke Zero (Bernie) and blood orange kombucha (Tracey) from the car fridge. Who needs a fancy café? We even had an apple (Bernie) and chocolate (Tracey) to finish!

After this pleasant interlude in the rainforest, it was time to get serious about making our way to Sydney. We headed back to the M1 which took us north up the western side of Lake Illawarra, around Wollongong and through Helensburgh. We were making for La Perouse Museum on the north shore of Botany Bay. Ideally, we would have allowed time for Captain ‘Cook’s Landing Place on the south shore and La Perouse, where the First Fleet landed between the 18^th and 20^th of January 1788 before deciding to move to Sydney Cove on the 26^th but even without this morning’s visit to the rainforest it was going to be difficult to fit in both in one day.

Driving through Hurstville the traffic on a holiday weekend was getting more and more hectic. Thank goodness Syri was doing a good job directing us today! Making our way around the airport and the docks the traffic wasn’t too bad but once we turned towards La Perouse Point the traffic was ridiculous. When we think of Sydney beaches we think of Bondi and Manly on Sydney Harbour. Who knew that there are popular beaches on Botany Bay? On a warm day on a holiday weekend, it was bedlam! We thought that we were in an industrial area of Sydney and that it wouldn’t be particularly busy on a holiday weekend. We were spectacularly wrong!!

It was so bad in fact that we gave up on trying to get a park even remotely near the museum and decided to just get to our hotel in the CBD, get the truck parked for the next few days and maybe get our bearings for our harbour cruise tomorrow night. One day we will try to make it to Sydney with the primary aim being to visit these historic sites on Botany Bay. And we won’t stay IN Sydney we’ll stay down south somewhere, maybe in The Shire (Cronulla) which is better situated for exploring around Botany Bay. One day …

We found our way to the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour without any difficulty. Thank you, Syri. We parked in the loading zone and dashed in to check in and find out where we will be putting the truck. We booked the Holiday Inn for the next three nights because they only had a three-night minimum booking (most hotels seemed to have a FOUR-night minimum booking for this weekend) AND their deal included parking.

Checked in and with parking details in hand we unloaded our gear onto a trolley. I took charge of taking all our luggage up to our room (an upgrade to a premium room, apparently?) while Bernie had responsibility for driving the truck to a parking garage several streets away … only made more complicated by having to negotiate pedestrianized streets AND one-way streets! Oh, and my task was made more complicated by the fact that our ‘premium room’ was up four steps from the level of the lift lobby!! Why? It would have been so much easier to be able to take the luggage trolley right to our door!!!

Phew, truck safely parked for the next three nights, and our luggage stowed in our room we decided to take a walk along Darling Harbour to check where our NYE cruise will depart from tomorrow night.

Making our way to Darling Harbour we also found Braza Churrascaria where we will be having an early dinner tomorrow night. As we walked past, we noted the time so that we would have an idea how much time we will need to allow to walk from the restaurant to King Street Wharf.

Along the harbour we encountered lots of temporary fencing. The fences were not closed this afternoon but will be tomorrow night to control the NYE crowds. Hmmn, the fences had signs on them indicating that the areas inside the fencing will be alcohol free zones and bags will be subject to searching. Anyhow, none of that concerned us right now, so we walked freely from the end of Darling Harbour, past the SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium to King Street Wharf where we found the berths that Captain Cook Cruises operate from. An easy walk this afternoon, but how much more difficult might it be tomorrow night?

We decided to walk back to the hotel along Sussex Street and by the time we were back at the Holiday Inn we were starting to think that it might be easiest to walk along Sussex Street tomorrow night to avoid the exclusion zones and crowds …

At dinner time we ventured across Harbour Street into Darling Square where there were plenty of restaurants to choose from. We settled on Chinta Ria … Buddha Love for some Malaysian food and finished off with ice-creams from Gelato Messina since it was so conveniently located between the restaurant and the hotel.



Steps: 18,435 (11.47kms)

---