Advertisement
Debbie and Harbour Bridge
I tried to get a nice picture of the bridge but Debbie's all "Me, me, me". Here's Debbie with this weeks blog:
Arriving in Sydney from Canberra we jumped on the train for 2 stops to Kings Cross, which is meant to be a lively area of the city. Luckily our hostel was on a quiet tree lined street. From the end of the street you could see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. On our first night the hostel had a free bbq so we didn't need to cook.
Our first full day in the city was spent getting our bearings. We were staying about 30minute walk from the Opera House. But it was a lovely walk through the botanical gardens. There were lots of cockatoos in the trees and at dusk you could see the fruit bats flying about.
The next day we had to be at the Harbour Bridge by 10.25am for our bridge climb. After we were breathalysed to make sure we weren't under the influence of alcohol we were kitted out in very attractive grey jump suits (so you blend in with the bridge!) and safety equipment. Everything had to be attached to us and we weren't allowed to take our camera. We had a quick practise at
Flying Foxes at Royal Botanical Gardens
I quite like bats so didn't mind them but Debbie didn't want to stay too long. climbing ladders and moving our safety cord.
Once the briefing was complete, our guide Jules took us out on to the bridge. We were connected to continuous static line for the entire climb. We climbed to the top of the arch. It was a clear sunny day do we got good views of the city. Jules took photos of us on the bridge which we brought at the end( they were expensive, but then we are going to climb the bridge everyday.)
We walked across the top of the arch and started our descent back down. The summit of the bridge was 134m high. Mike had to be reminded that he didn't have a bungee cord attached!!
Even though we had climbed over 14000 steps on the bridge we decided we could managed another 200 steps to the top of Plyons Tower. (one of the towers at the end of the Bridge) This time we could take our own photos of the views.
The next day we caught a ferry to Manly. We arrived at Oceanworld in time to see the sharks and turtles being fed. Then we spent some time at the beach. We got
Debbie and Opera House
One of the classic photos. There's also some weird building in the background. the evening ferry back (it goes dark by 6pm) so we couled see the Harbour Bridge and Opera house lit up.
On Thursday we had a full day trip to the blue mountains, which are a couple of hours from Sydney. On the way we stopped at the Sydney 2000 Olympic village. The we stopped at a park to look for Kangaroos. As it was a hot day we could only find 3 asleep in the shade.
The blue mountains got their name from the blueish haze caused by the Eucalyptus trees. We did a short walk to Wenworth falls and got good views over the Jamieson Valley. Then we went to Echo point to see the rock formation called the 3 Sisters. At Echo point we walked downs lots of steps into the valley. From the bottom we got the worlds steepest railway train back to the top. (the train line used to be part of the coal mining industry in the area.
Then it was time to go back to Sydney. Our guide told us it was late night shopping, so we got dropped off my the shops near the Queen Victoria Building. (only window
Mike and Skyline
I'd rather it be a Nissan but Sydney will do... shopping though as our backpacks are still full!!!)
On Friday we went to see the famous Bondi Beach. It wasn't too busy so we had plenty of space to sunbathe. Then we decided to do the coastal cliff top walk to Bronte. At Bronte Mike went for a swim in the ocean pool.
On Saturday we went on a tour of the Opera House to see some of the theatres. We thought he Opera House looks more impressive from the outside. The we walked over to Darling Harbour and visited the Maritime Museum. We also looked around Paddys market.
On Sunday there was a bus replacement service for the trains and one of the main roads was closed due a parade, so it took us nearly an hour to get to the central bus station. We made it with only a couple of minutes to spare. We even managed to run wearing our backpacks!!! So after a busy week in Sydney we were heading for Newcastle.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.049s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0252s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb