Brisbane to Sydney

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Spent the next day wandering around Brisbane. Really nice city, felt very safe. Some of the women have the most bizarre dress sense, even Al was moved to comment, most unusual. We decided to take a river cruise to see some the sites. Brisbane is situated on the Brisbane River, very original. To get there we needed to take a ferry across the river, we took the wrong one to the wrong place and ended up having to walk about a mile to where we had to pick the boat up, we were also very tight for time as they only go twice a day and this was the last one, so it ended up being a power walk in about 30 degrees. Anyway we made it and saw quite a lot. The south bank of the river was revamped for an ‘Expo’; there are pathways and cycle ways for those who are exercise minded. There are also lots of parks, a beach with lifeguards and a rainforest walk. The cruise was good, the sun was out and we just love being on the water. There are new developments going up all along the river, old stone built warehouses and wharfs are being converted into apartments, a bit like Docklands at home. . A lot of the original buildings have been destroyed and then the council realised they had made a mistake and now they are all listed and being restored. There are paddle steamers which you can also cruise on and have lunch/dinner and yachts are moored in the channel. Took a walk through the botanical gardens, very pretty with lots of unusual trees. Shopping looked great but not enough time, baggage allowance and surprisingly Alan didn’t think it necessary!! Saw a large Ibis strolling around the shopping mall and when you cross the road at a pedestrian crossing, the green man comes up and a noise like a woodpecker knocking the hell out of a tree starts up.

Next day we were on the move again, first leg on the way down to Sydney, stopping at a place called Ballina. Made a slight diversion on the way out of Brisbane to go to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary where they rescue all sorts of animals but particularly koala bears. What a life, I am coming back as one next time; all they do is sleep and eat, great! There were lots of other Australian animals there, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, wombats, lots of colourful birds, snakes, yuk. Then about a 3 hour drive south. The countryside is beautiful, very green as they are just coming out of their wet season, however there are drought warnings everywhere. Lots of Macadamia nut trees plantations. Stopped at Surfers Paradise on the way down, about 3km of powder sand with huge waves rolling in, really beautiful however the concrete jungle behind is ghastly. Dumped the luggage at the hotel and then went off to see Byron Bay, the most easterly point of Australia where Captain Cook landed. Al thought it would be a good idea to see the lighthouse, a 1.5km walk, well more like an uphill climb, god knows how many steps up the side of a reasonable hill, confirmed I am completely unfit. Got to the top, to find a car park, Al had failed to spot this on the map!! Beautiful views, both sides of long beach’s with huge rolling waves crashing in. A band of rain was approaching fast together with a rainbow and as we only had an hour in the car park and the climb up had taken longer than we thought another quick march down ensued. The town itself is buzzing, full of young people, sleeping in tiny camper vans, surfing and having a great time.

Next day we drove to Coffs harbour, this time driving though hundreds of miles of sugar cane fields and then banana plantations. Nothing very much here, it appears to be a working fishing port with a small number of fishing boats in the harbour. Had some really nice snapper for dinner but that was about it, wouldn’t bother coming back.

Then onto our next stop Port Macquarie. We decided to take a small detour and go to Dorrigo National park where there is a sky walk over the rain forest canopy. It turned out to be a very long detour, what we thought would take about 45 mins turned into a 3 hour journey. It all started quite normally and then the road got smaller and we started to climb, and climb, and climb. We were driving through the rainforest, the road disappeared and turned into a dirt track, bearing in mind that this is marked as major road on the map! About an hour later we emerged into a valley with the odd building and then it was back into the rain forest again and so it went on. Eventually we found we had climbed about 2500 ft, the trees in the forest must have been over 100ft tall, it was quite spooky, not a lot of light and just the sound of the insects and the odd bird. Vines were curled around the branches and then dropped overhead just above the car roof. Very isolated for the people living up there, no just popping down to Tesco’s to pick up a bag of sugar! Stopped off at Dangar falls, a pretty waterfall on route. Apparently millions of years ago this area was a live volcano; presumably we drove up the side and were now in the crater. Then onto the skywalk. Not what we expected, just a boardwalk, that stretched a couple of hundred feet into the canopy but wow the views were magnificent. You could see rainforest for miles and the sea about 70 miles away. Then we went for a walk along the forest floor, supposedly to see lyrebirds but they didn’t feel like showing their face that day. Really dark and dank with odd patches of sunlight appearing through the gaps and me on the lookout for snakes, spiders and any other creepy might wish to say hello. Very interesting though, there are lots of boards along the way explaining it all. Took a different route back, fortunately as it was much quicker. Lots more farms along the way mainly cattle. Arrived in Port Macquarie, had booked an apartment so had the pleasure of doing the washing and ironing, the first since we had left home. Quite fortunate as we were about to run out of clean clothes, only having a very limited supply with us. Really nice place, small beaches in little bays with big rollers sweeping in, lots of people out surfing. Walked a couple of miles, stopped for a drink and that was the end of another day.

Off to the Hunter Valley next, about a 3 hour drive. A few problems with the navigation when we approached the area, not having a decent map being the main problem but found our way in the end. What a disappointment, here was I expecting miles and miles of rolling vineyards like France and South Africa, vines squeezed into every available space, but no, here you have the odd patch of vines, then fields and bush and another odd patch of vines, very strange. Went and did a bit of wine tasting, first place Peterson House, they do about 12 different sorts of fizz, what a result. We chose a couple to start with and based on our comments the guy then bought out a different one, heaven, just like champagne, the first drop that has passed my lips since we left home. Ended up buying a bottle and asked if they exported to the UK, his reply was they don’t even export to Sydney! If you want to drink this stuff you have to come here to buy it. He did mention that it is quite cheap to send home buy sea so will look into that later. Temperature here is very, very hot, Al reckons high 30’s, we have obviously been spoilt being by the sea the whole time and having a breeze. Luckily there is a pool here so we cooled off later. Hotel is nice; room looks out onto a small patch of vines and some water. Have decided that another 2 days here wine tasting will be too much, Al agrees, so we are going to leave a day early and have an extra night in the Blue Mountains.

Off to do some serious wine tasting today. Went to about four different vineyards and tasted lots of different wines. The main grape here is Semillion, which I have had at home and didn’t like, here it is ok, there are some great reds though. Bought a bottle to drink tonight. Again an odd few bottles you can get in the UK but the majority of them have to be bought at the cellar door. If we lived in Sydney we would be up here once a month doing wine runs, beats doing the snow run. Went out for lunch, got talking to some other English people who also said this was the most disappointing place they had been to in Australia and that the whole country was very expensive, exchange rate is bad, glad it’s not just me then. They had been to the Barossa valley and McLaren Vale, other wine regions near Adelaide and apparently they are just like SA and France, unfortunately we aren’t going to either of them on this trip. There are also lots of olive plantations here and it is also supposed to be a ‘foodie’ destination as well as great wine. Went to a cheese tasting in one of the wineries, great goats cheese, Al had the blue, yuk. Balsamic vinegar is fantastic, really thick and gloopy, but I have been told I can’t bring any home, nor ship it!!! Little does he know but another parcel will be swimming its way back from Sydney. No point in sending it by air as we won’t be home for a while. Day started out really hot again but fortunately some clouds have appeared and it has cooled down to a nice temperature. Went to visit Greg Norman golf course as well, lovely and very reasonable prices to play. There were big kangaroos jumping across the driving range, obviously not worried about being hit by a low flying ball. These are the first wild ones we have seen. Well we are over a third of the way through the trip now. Off to the Blue mountains tomorrow.

Early start drove through an area that actually looked like it had a reasonable number of vines, then more windy roads and steep climbs through a gorge with dry river beds eventually arriving in a high valley with isolated farms and houses, miles from anywhere. This whole part of the route goes through two National Parks and was covered in rainforest again. Three hours later arrived at the hotel. We are now about 980m above sea level and it is cold, so much so that I had to try and find my jeans and a sweatshirt. Dumped the bags and went off to explore. Nearest town is Leura, a lot of these towns still look like they did a hundred years ago. The external fascias of the buildings are unchanged, it’s like being in a time warp. Not much there so drove to Katoomba and found a tourist information centre at Echo Point. From here you can look out across a valley and the Blue Mountains. It is very similar to the views that you get across the Grand Canyon except the valley floor here is covered in rain forest. Have picked up a brochure with a couple of walks which we will do tomorrow. Then drove to a place called Scenic Point, more great views, a cable way that crosses Katoomba falls and a cable car and railway that go down to the valley floor, almost vertically, am definitely not going on the railway, hate heights at the best of times. We then went off and looked at several lookout points, won’t bore you with all their names, suffice to say that some of the views were breath taking. What is really amazing is the silence and stillness of the place, all you hear is the odd bird or a waterfall. Fortunately none of it is overwhelmed with tourists. Have unpacked the walking boots for tomorrows hike. At least we haven’t carted them half way round the world for nothing.

Weather was looking ideal for walking, so we opted to do the King Henry cliff side walk, approx 3 miles, diverting off to about 7 look out points and passing a couple of waterfalls and some spectacular scenery. We arrived at Echo Point and then went to the Three Sisters, these are three rocks that have an aboriginal dreaming story attached to them. I won’t go into it as it will take me another couple of pages to relate the story. We had to descend about 100 steps, some quite steep and then go over a wooden bridge to get to the first sister where there was an overhang that you could sit under. Very nerve racking. We then descended another 830 steps, some near vertical, about 1000ft, to get to the top of the rainforest canopy. This staircase was carved out of the rock by a park ranger about 100 years ago. I looked at my feet the whole way down so I couldn’t see the drop. However at one point the steps went over an open drop, oh brother couldn’t work out why I was doing this. Anyway we got to the bottom and then had a three mile walk through the canopy. Again it was really silent, very few birds, beautiful trees that towered above us. Below us on the valley floor, approx 2000 ft down us is indigenous forest. The walk ends up at a boardwalk, where coalmining was carried out until about the 1930’s. There is an information board and visitors 100 years ago used to get carted down in coal trucks, the slope was near vertical. We saw a couple of lyre birds on the walk but they didn’t display their feathers for us. Then there was the small matter of getting back up the side of the mountain. Options were a train, no chance, near vertical. 640 steps, didn’t really feel like that or the cableway, looked awful. Opted for the cableway, sat on the floor in the middle of the cable car, looked at the floor and had my hands by the side of the face so I couldn’t see anything, worked a treat, arrived at the top and hadn’t seen a think. Al wasn’t impressed. Then drove off to see some more waterfalls. Got back to the hotel and there was time for Al to play a quick nine holes of golf, so off we went, me walking the course passing the odd unwanted comment. Beautiful course, lots of scenic views over the mountains. Best bit was, Al hit a ball, landed near some water, he hit another shot and then we saw the ‘Beware of the snake’ notice, presumably a python in the water. Would definitely come back and do some more walking here. Off to Sydney tomorrow.

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