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I wish that we had organised our time in Australia with more efficiency, as it was we ended up spending a month in Sydney, when probably two weeks would have sufficed. One thing which we did manage to organise however, was a quick jaunt down the East coast to see some of my relatives. I believe that they are some removed variation of a second cousin, but if anyone knows anything to the contrary i would be interested to know. Either way, whatever relation they are to me, i had not met them prior to this visitation.
We got up bright and early on the 10th May and trudged a few hundred metres across Sydney to the train station, bought our tickets to Wollongong, and settled down on the train. I have to say, before coming to Australia, and even before talking to my relatives, i had never heard of Wollongong. It turns out that Wollongong was once a thriving city, which made its money from smelting steel. But now, Wollongong and the surrounding towns have all swollen in size, to become one big amalgamation of towns and cities which goes under the heading of Wollongong. The only reason
that Wollongong and Sydney are not connected by one enormous suburb, is that an area of greenbelt land stands between the two cities. Despite the fact that they are clearly not one place, (my own eyes can attest) the rail maps in Sydney still have Wollongong classed as a suburb of Sydney, despite the centres of both cities being some 100km apart. I don't pretend to understand. One more thing fact fans: Natalie Bassingthwaighte, the Rogue Traders singer, and the girl that plays Izzy in Neighbours, was born in Wollongong.
The trains in OZ are all powered by electricity, and thus travel at a far more sedate speed than the trains in England, the benefits of this, far outway the drawbacks. For instance, the greenbelt that we passed through on the way to Wollongong from Sydney is well worth the extra half hour on the train. Maybe that's why the trains travel so fast in England, you can go through Slough so quickly that you don't even know you've done it. Definitely a bonus.
Anyhow, we arrived in Wollongong after about an hour on the train, and were met by my cousin Trudie, and after a 5 minute
drive, were at her house, our home for the next 2 nights.
That evening, we sat around a bottle of wine, and formulated a plan of attack for the next few days. Sarah and I had only planned to stay in Wollongong for a couple of days, but after just one afternoon there, we were already far prefering it to Sydney. By the end of the bottle of wine, it was roundly decided that the next day, Trudie would drive us up to the Blue Mountains, just north of Sydney. I say roundly decided, what i mean is that Trudie scolded us for not having seen the Blue Mountains yet, (they are an easy day out just north of Sydney) and told us that she would drive us up to see them the next day.
The only drawback of that plan that i could see, was that it meant another hideously early morning. And so it was, that at 9am the next morning, we were ready to set off. The drive took about two and a half hours, and passed through virtually nothing, save several small outback villages, most of which had forgone the eccentric idea of street names,
and simply numbered the streets from 'Street 1' to however many. Never more than 30 though.
We arrived in the Blue Mountains at about midday, and set off to see what all the excitement was about. The Blue Mountains are gorgeous, there had been a bush fire in December 06, which was a shame, because most of the walking paths were still closed to let plantlife regenerate. Regardless of this it was still a brilliant day out, we went to see the 'Three Sisters' first, as they are the part of Blue Mountains that are always on the postcards. There is an Aboriginal legend attached to Three Sisters, I'm afraid i can't remember the full tale, it was something to do with a Witch Doctor, his three daughters, a scary beast, and a magic bone, but i can't remember how those things have anything to do with the others.
There is a stairway that goes the whole way, from the top of the mountains, down the rockface, to the bottom. We decided to walk down it, but at about half way, i decided that my smokers lungs would not provide sufficient oxygen to get me back to the
Wollongong beach
From inside a cafe, because i couldn't summon the energy to move outside. top unless we started back now. The climb down was abandoned, and we retreated back to the summit.
We spent about 3 hours at the Blue Mountains, driving around to different viewing points, before heading off to Picton, where Brett, Trudie's brother lives. Picton is a small ranching town, just to the west of Sydney, where Brett and his girlfriend Sasha had bought a plot of land and had their own house built, complete with a workshop for Brett's furniture building business, and a paddock for Sasha's horses. Brett and Sasha took us out for supper in the evening, to a pub that brews its own lager. It was the best lager EVER. If ever you're in Sydney, first of all go to the Blue Mountains, and on the way back, go to the George IV pub in Picton and ask for a Schooner of the house lager. Brilliant. I wasn't in Picton long enough to decide if anything exciting happens there, but apart from the best lager ever, it probably doesn't.
We left Picton at 7pm-ish and made our way back to Wollongong. Sarah and I had decided to stay in Wollongong until the day before we
left for NZ so we went to bed early so that we could get up early and move all of our stuff into some backpacker accommodation in Wollongong. The next morning, we did indeed get up early, and wandered down into town to find the Keiraleigh backpackers house. It was an absolutely gorgeous privately owned house that had been turned into backpacker accommodation. We settled in and became acquainted with the locals. There was Mary, who did nothing all day except smoke weed in the back garden, steal other people's food, and not wash up her dishes. Infact, so little washing up went on from her, that eventually the landlady confiscated all of the kitchen utensils and mugs, and because Mary couldn't afford to pay the subsequent deposit required for the kitchen utensils and mugs, she ended up drinking her (probably stolen) coffee out of a bowl each morning. Then there was John, a huge 24 year old simpleton, did nothing all day except smoke weed in the back garden and occasionally jump up and throw punches at the garden vines, when he wasn't engaged in his sudden bouts of fitfulness, he was wrapped up in his duvet clearing phlegm
Kitsy
Trudie's kitten. from his throat. There was the 3 incredibly funny scouse girls who worked for a 'leccy compney' and laughed, a lot, every night, mostly at the expense of their northern workmate, who also was a few fries short of a happy meal. Seemed to be the theme in Wollongong.
Sarah and I merely spent our time, reading in the back garden, getting molested by sandflies on the beach and drinking coffee in the town. That is really all that there is to do in Wollongong, unless you can surf, which we can't.
We left Wollongong on the 16th and headed back to Sydney. Our flight out the next day was at 8 the next morning, so we made our way to airport with intention of sleeping there and saving some accommodation money. Turns out the airport is closed between 11pm and 4am, so we rang Charlie and got him to let us sleep on the couch at his apartment for the night. We arrived at the airport in good time the next morning, only to find that our flight was delayed by 5 hours because of fog. Deep joy.
P.S. Some names in the above script have
The Three Sisters
At the Blue mountains. been changed, not for their privacy, but just so they don't recognise that they're being talked about. They probably don't know how to use a computer anyway, but just in case.
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Beverly Freegard
non-member comment
lovely !!!
Hi jack...still keeping up with your travels. Wollongong certainly looks a lovely place...even if it has got a funny name ! The photo's are lovely...keep up the good blogs....Bev.