The blue mountains and Shakespeare too!

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The weather has improved. Well at least it's stopped raining. The sky is still overcast and there is a bit of a breeze. Not worth visiting the Blue Mountains today then. So it's plan B…

…Chris and Roisin took the opportunity to explore Sydney. Ron gave Roisin the remnants of a travel card left over by previous guests. It was good enough for another day. The ticket enabled the holder to unlimited travel on public transport for the time specified. However, the best and most convenient way (but not the cheapest!) to see Sydney is by the hop on-hop off (ho-ho) bus.

The Ho-ho bus takes 1hour 40 minutes to complete a circuit and departs every 20 minutes. The day passed pretty uneventfully compared to the past 5 weeks.

Sydney, like most other Australian cities mixes the old with the new. Amongst the skyscrapers and tall corporate structures lies a scattering of colonial style buildings complete with wrought iron verandas and wooden panel gates.

One area worth a visit is called 'The Rocks'. This is a quayside location bustling with café terraces and pubs, restaurants and the usual array of souvenir shops. This area is in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Looking up from their location, Chris and Roisin saw the tiny specs of adrenalin junkies who think that a walk over the top of the bridge is a cool way to view the city. For their information a) It's an extortionate price. At least £50 for the privilege and b) you have to do all the hard work (i.e. walking up a lot of steps). Just looking up in their general direction was giving Chris and Roisin the collywobbles as the snakelike train started slowly ascending and gradually disappearing over the humpty-back part of the bridge that is affectionately known as ‘the coat hanger'.

Just down from the Rocks is a rock with a car underneath it!! ‘It's a bit late for claims direct!' thought Chris. This is actually a piece of art and sits decorating a traffic island in the vicinity of the theatre company and philharmonic head quarters.

Another stop of note Chris and Roisin made was to the Sky tower. This is an excellent way to see the city from above because a) It's cheaper than walking the bridge!" b) You're unlikely to have a coronary arriving at the observation tower via the spacious lift!! I bet you the bridge walkers will kick themselves when they hear about this!

Despite still being cheaper than the bridge, it was still unreasonable at $Au25 (£17). Chris still had the voice of the scouser from Auckland ringer in his ears. '17 quid to climb a tower…!!!' Chris had done his tower on this trip so they headed back to the ho-ho bus stop.

Sydney's ferry network is second to none. There are at least a dozen routes. They are more like water taxis as one of them will make up to 20 stops on the way to their destination. The beauty is that the travel pass covers them. Ron had mentioned a much nicer way to travel back to Normanhurst is to take a ferry up the Paramatta River to a town called Meadowbank then a short train ride to Normanhurst.

En route up the river, Chris and Roisin passed the charismatic Olympic stadium home to the millennium summer Olympic games of 2000. There seemed to be a never-ending row after row of riverside properties, some with private jetties. If the world recession has hit Sydney, they were hiding it well!

Tuesday morning and there was sunshine as Chris ventured out on to the veranda to feed the birdies and was immediately surrounded by lorikeets. It was 07:15, not a cloud in the sky and definitely going to be a hot one. Blue Mountains watch out. Here they come! As Chris and Roisin had to shuffle their itinerary they had pre booked tickets to see a Shakespeare play at the Opera House. They will now head for Sydney straight from the Blue Mountains. It was going to be a long day. Furthermore as shorts and t-shirts are not really appropriate to wear for a performance at the Opera House, Chris and Roisin wore appropriate clothing. Not too dressy for a day in the Blue Mountains but something they could get away with during the evening!

Katoomba is the main stop for the Blue Mountains, so named for their sometimes blue appearance due to the eucalyptus vapours emanating from the forests and woodland area in the valley below.

The journey takes just under 2 hours by train from Sydney at a cost of $Au10.95. That's about £7 in real money.

The best way to see the Blue Mountains is again by ho-ho bus. A full circuit takes about 50 minutes. There are then a number of trails and walks throughout the Blue Mountain National park ranging from ‘easy' lasting about a 20 minutes stroll to' difficult' that can take anything up to 4 hours strenuous hiking.

Chris and Roisin arrived at 11:10 and had to make sure they were on the 15:23 return train if they wanted to catch the evening performance at the Opera House. They had to plan their visit very carefully.

The first stop was for short 20-minute ‘leisurely stroll' option. This should take them through to Scenic World where they can pick up the next ho-ho bus. Chris had chosen this route for a) 20 minutes is manageable exercise for someone who has spent the last 30 days dining on a cruise ship, and b) It passes a waterfall! As Chris had missed out on a number of waterfalls on the Pacific Islands and more recently by missing out the Fjordland's experience, he was determined to see one waterfall on this trip.

The leisurely stroll started by a steep decent. The path was not marked as the ‘leisurely stroll option' but it seemed to be the only way and he could also hear the sound of running water. At the bottom of the glen there it was. Well, it really wasn't a waterfall…more of a cascade!! Oh well, better than nowt.

The walk from then on, after having negotiated stepping-stones across a stream, was quite flat. After stopping for some more photos, the whole walk took a little over a ½ hour.

Scenic World offers visitors the chance to explore the Blue Mountains by 3 different modes of transports. The passenger railway boasts the steepest incline railway in the world. It is so steep that any more vertical and the railway would be an elevator!! There is also a cable car that glides to the rainforest floor. The piece de resistance is the skyway cable car. That passes 300m above the ancient ravines and dazzling waterfalls. And get this. The floor of the Skyway is completely made of glass. Not the namby-pamby colour opaque kind either. The see right though kind. Not for the faint hearted. If this is the only way to view the waterfalls, Chris is happy with his cascade!

The ho-ho bus pulled up as Roisin waved. Chris looked up and sitting on the top deck waving back were Martin and Judith. They shared a dining table with Chris and Roisin for most of the 30 days at sea.

Chris and Roisin alighted at Echo Point, the best place to catch a complete panoramic view of the Blue Mountains. Martin and Judith decided to stay on to the next stop where they planned to do a 1-hour walk back to Echo Point.

On approaching the viewing platform Chris and Roisin were not disappointed. The backdrop was dominated by a rock formation that gave the appearance of 3 giant stalagmites. This is known as the three sisters and still hosts some religious significance to the aborigines. The valley did indeed look ‘bluish, if you squinted…and put your hand over one eye!!!

Before returning to the station, Chris and Roisin popped in to Bygone Beauty's for a Devonshire tea (their description – not mine!!) This was a quirky little shop that doubled up as a museum. The tearoom was like entering someone's parlour. In fact, Chris felt so at home that he found himself changing the paper towel roll from the dispenser in the gents. There was a fresh roll on the side of the washbasin. He had just used the last piece of towel. It seemed the natural thing to do!!

Bygone Beauty's is home to one of the largest private teapot collections in the world with over 3,000 pieces on display adorning every inch of space in every nook and cranny. The oldest teapot in the collection is from 1680 right up to contempory modern collectables. There is also a book available on collecting teapots. The author promises the reader to learn wondrous things about teapots. Chris just thought teapots were there for one purpose only…to serve tea. Obviously not!

They had a wander around the other rather expensive shops before heading back to the train station where they were once again greeted by Martin and Judith.

On arriving back in Sydney and once again saying their final good-byes they left Martin and Judith and headed for the Opera House to catch a performance of Shakespeare's ‘Twelfth Night'

OMG!! The show started in semi darkness and no dialogue was uttered for about 7 minutes!! The opening scene involved the cast wandering around a giant stack of dirty washing about 30ft in circumference and 8 ft high. Shit!! It was one of those modern interpretations. There was no mention of this in the programme.

The cast seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of students shouting in a Shakespearian manner waving their arms a lot, jumping and diving around. Their costumes were also ‘contemporary' ranging from jeans and t-shirt to jeans and sweat shirt.!!

‘If music be the food of love, play on!!' Is the most famous line from Twelfth Night. However, on delivering this line, one does not expect Orsino to burst in to a few verses from Chumbawunba's ‘I get knocked down'!!

Chris and Roisin did the honourable thing at half-time…and left.

Chris had checked in his camera case in to the cloakroom. On handing in his ticket the attendant said, ‘You know it's only the interval. It's not finished yet!'

‘No shit Sherlock', thought Chris as he smiled and said politely, ‘I know!'

Perhaps to keep with the Shakespearian theme he should have said, ‘ No shit Shylock!!'

The whole performance was like Shakespeare meets Panto.

Since leaving Widnes every step, every inch has taken Chris and Roisin further away from home. Sydney is about as far as they can go. Tomorrow they head for Hong Kong knowing that every mile travelled from now on will take them one step closer to returning home. It's not so much the return journey beginning as a case of ‘keep on going' and sure enough you'll end up where you started.

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Comments

[Dave B]

Classic Shakespeare. Shouldn't that of been "No shit Shylock?".

[ScouseSwede]

Welcome to Sydney - twinned with Toxteth!