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Published: March 16th 2009
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On Thursday 5th March, we arrived at Sue & Adrian's 4-acre block in Castle Hill and were greeted by their friendly Kelpie-crosses 'Cleo' and 'Snip' (who hasn't been!). We made ourselves right at home with Annelies & Thomas in their spare room and Alex & Mark occupying Daniel's room, who was away with the Army Reserve.
Friday saw Alex & Annelies have a “girlie morning” at the very eco-friendly Rouse Hill shopping centre while we all visited the Castle Hill library in the afternoon.
On Saturday morning we caught up with Jane plus Ian, Penny and their daughter Mia (all ex-Darwin friends) at Bronte Park and then had lunch at the Bogey Hole Cafe. After lunch, Mark, Annelies & Thomas went for a dip at Bogey Hole itself, which is a natural pool at one end of Bronte Beach. The swell was pumping and we spent some time watching the surfers while chatting to Jane. Afterwards, we made the trek across town to Berowra for a BBQ with Nev, Seini, Ray, Iain, Chris & Pete at a nearby park. The children had a lovely play while we had a great catch-up.
Sunday was very relaxing with Sue &
Bogey Hole, Bronte Beach
No prizes for guessing who didnt' swim! Adrian putting on a cooked breakfast and then a late lunch/early dinner (which Thomas described as din-unch). Their daughter Catherine, husband James and girls Isabel (nearly 2) and newborn Abigail had come over for a roast and catch up.
On Monday we drove to Meadowbank and caught the train into the city, meeting Mel & Jane (again) for lunch and then also catching up with Baz. We caught the ferry back to Meadowbank, which was lovely, but hit peak hour travelling from the station back to Castle Hill, which reinforced our reasons not to live in a big city!
On Tuesday we drove up into the Blue Mountains. We thoroughly enjoyed the Zig Zag railway return trip down the mountain from Clarence to Bottom Points. We also stopped at Hassons Walls lookout near Lithgow and visited the famous Paragon restaurant in Katoomba for afternoon tea, which didn't live up to expectations - the scones were burnt and there were only tiny portions of jam and cream! Afterwards, we visited the 'Three Sisters' and did the short but steep walk down the 'Giant Stairway'. Then we drove down to Linden for a BBQ at Annette & Rick's place, good
friends of Mark's sister. We had a lovely evening there and discovered a few more places to investigate on our travels as Annette & Rick are prodigious travellers and bush walkers.
Wednesday was a 'rest day' while a large part of Thursday required a trip to Castle Hill shopping centre in preparation for our departure the next day. On Thursday evening we celebrated Adrian's birthday, which was another enjoyable evening spent with great company.
We had a lovely week in Sydney. We had spent a week in the city only a couple of years previous when we did all the touristy things, so this time it was great just being able to catch up with friends as well. Sue, Adrian and their son Nick (and their dogs) were superb hosts and it was sad to have to say goodbye. Hopefully we'll be able to return the favour one day soon.
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