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Published: April 6th 2010
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An early start this morning after a late night chatting to two Dutch travellers in a Hippy Van - they’ve also taken a leave of absence and have been travelling extensively. They were telling us that they have just been on the South Island of NZ and that they were so cold at night they were sleeping in their clothes and thick socks. So that’s something to look forward to! In the meantime, we’re still having daytime temperatures in the mid-late 20s and cooler evenings, which have meant that we have to put a warmer top on if we’re sitting out after dinner.
So Birthday Day! We drove down to Parramatta and caught the 10 o’clock ferry into Sydney. The journey took 55 minutes, with only one stop, and was wonderful as we cruised into Sydney Harbour and went under the Bridge and came to rest at Circular Quay which is in between the Bridge and the Opera House! Apart from the rain shower we had half way through the trip, it was absolutely glorious.
We’d treated ourselves to the equivalent of a Rover ticket, so for $18 we could travel anywhere by bus, ferry or train. This being
the case, we caught the ferry over to Manly to see what everyone raves about. What a lovely place! And I really feel that I have to say thank you to all of the people who turned out to celebrate John’s birthday with us, when they could no doubt have been doing something else, what with it being Easter Sunday and a Public Holiday to boot! Everywhere was crowded, and we’re still not sure whether this is what it’s normally like on a Sunday, or whether this was even worse!! The view from the ferry was spectacular as it gave the picture that everyone has of Sydney - the harbour with the Bridge and the Opera House. But I hadn’t realised how many separate harbours or inlets there were, or how scenic the ride would be ... and come to that, how interesting it would be as we crossed ‘the heads’ and rounded the harbour into Manly! A warning came over the tannoy telling everyone to hold on to something as it was going to get rough. Most people took it in good stead, oohing and aahing as we went up/down/around.
Anyway, there were loads of surfer dudes doing
their thing on the beach and I have to say it’s the first time I’ve seen so many people trying to stand on planks of wood and falling off in high waves at the same time. It will never catch on! It’s also the first time I’ve seen a real ripcurl (I think that’s what it’s called anyway) - it was really impressive watching as people tried to catch the wave! As it was John’s birthday, he got to choose what we had for lunch, so it’ll be no great surprise to any of you that we ate our fish and chips on the seafront watching everyone on the beach.
We wandered round the Manly Market, which was a lot smaller than we’d thought, but really interesting - I spent quite a while chatting dyeing with a lady who hand painted silk and set the dye by steaming the fabric (will have to look into that when I get home). John spent ages talking cameras with a chap who was selling his photos - we bought a couple of cards from him as his pictures were really good.
And then we were back on the ferry to Sydney
and it was as rough as ever crossing the heads - in fact, this time it was so rough the water was breaking over the front of the ferry and soaking the people on the lower decks. Fortunately, we were on the upper deck and had a jolly good laugh instead!! As we sailed up to the Bridge and Opera House there were some rainbows breaking over them, which looked fantastic. John had wanted to go for a walk over Harbour Bridge, but we discovered it would take 3.5 hours ... and when I saw how high it was, I said I’d wait down the bottom for him!
Instead, we walked round the area called “The Rocks” near the bottom of the Bridge, and how lovely it was - some really old buildings, some lively sounding establishments and would you believe it, another arts and crafts market to boot!
We finally sailed back, picked up the van and drove to the campsite. Today has been the longest that we have left the van, and although we’d been assured that all-day parking on a Sunday is free, we were still relieved when we got back to it and found
everything in order and no ticket stuck to the windscreen. A lovely evening chatting to a Danish mother and son who are doing a similar trip, before tucking in for our last night in the van.
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Valerie Le Cornu
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Happy Birthday John!
What a place to celebrate your birthday! We trust you had a brilliant day! With Love, Valerie and John