Category: Uncategorized

Tuesday 25th November: Blue Mountains

An early start today, but it was definitely worth it. We were picked up at eight to head out to the Blue Mountains.
After an hour or so’s drive and a comfort break by the Nepean River, we began to ascend the mountains along the Great Western Way. It took nearly another hour to reach the first of our lookout points at Lincoln Rock, which was marvellous.
A short drive later and we climbed down 240 steps to another lookout over the Wentworth Falls.
By this time, we were in need of lunch and were bundled into the fairly pretty town of Leura and found a nice cafe.
Our guide was a little regimented, so 50 minutes later we were herded into the minibus again to travel to Katoomba, and more specifically Scenic World.
We first ride the Scenic Skyway across the canton, before entering the complex and descending to the rainforest via the Scenic Cableway. We had a daughter along the boardwalk on the first floor before returning via the Scenic Railway (you may spot a trend in the names here…).
The railway is the steepest in the world at 52 degrees -it was originally built for taking miners to the coal mines below. It’s certainly a thrilling ride.
The bus took us back off the mountains pass the Olympic Park, where we boarded a ferry to take us in a cruise back along the Paramatta river into Sydney.
We hopped off in Darling Harbour as there was an Indian restaurant we had been planning to go to (a good range of vegetarian options for me!), before coming back to the hotel.
A very enjoyable day!

Neil

Monday 24th November: Canberra (and back to Sydney)

To my surprise, I had an enjoyable day in Canberra after dropping Rob off to his meetings at the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Belconnen (a satellite town of Canberra).
I stated with a stroll by the local lake (Ginninderra), then I drove back into Canberra for a cruise on Lake Burley Griffin (the one we didn’t manage yesterday). It was very enjoyable, mostly focusing on the (somewhat bizarre) history of Canberra’s development from sheep station to national capital.
I then headed up to Parliament House. It was quite fascinating to see, including going into the Houses of Senators and Representatives (although there were hardly politicians actually there).
After lunch, I went down the hill to the Old Parliament House (now the Museum of Democracy). To say, I was charmed was an understatement. A mere $2 (£1) to enter, and there was absolutely loads to wander round, including exhibitions, the prime minister’s office suite, the original Senate and Representatives chambers (much nicer than the new ones!) and more.
I could have spent even more time there, but needed to get back to Belconnen to pick Rob up so we could get to the airport.
Our flight was delayed by half an hour (given the number of flights we’ve done this month, it’s a miracle that was our first delay).
Back in Sydney, we popped down to Circular Quay for a late tea.

Sunday 23rd November: Sydney to Canberra

Rob has a work meeting in Canberra on Monday, so we decided we’d fly over together today and have a little look round, with me having time to explore further tomorrow.
Our flight was late morning, but the joys of transfers/check in meant that we left Sydney centre pretty early. The flight was a smallish plane (2 seats each side of the aisle) and had propellers!
The heat wave has followed us, so it hovered around 36/37 today and even at 9.00 is still around 30 degrees.
We hired a car, checked in and then decided to hear out to navigate the ‘city in a park’ which is Canberra. We grabbed a quick lunch at Questacon (apparently the national science and technology centre). We were going to go in, but it seemed more kiddy-centre and we’d spotted that there was a cruise an hour later on the massive (artificial) Lake Burley Griffin which runs through the centre. We popped across the road (in the sweltering heat) instead to the National Library of Australia and saw their Treasures Gallery.
We drove to the lake and waited for the boat to come in, only to find that the next cruise was cancelled. Getting a bit fed up as Canberra doesn’t seem (to us) to have many redeeming features, we decided to get out of the heat by popping into the Canberra Centre (a shopping mall…). We noticed that it had a cinema and joined what seemed like half of the city there. We opted to see Pride, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was an element of recent history I was completely unaware of, plus it was incredibly heartwarming and enjoyable. After tea, we decided to view the Captain James Cook Memorial Jet which shoots water from the lake over 100 foot into the air. It wasn’t on. Apparently, it only functions between 2 and 4… We sat by the lake for a while as twilight free in, which was pleasant.
We’ve also noticed that the city, which seems to run almost exclusively on car journeys charges for parking everywhere.
I wouldn’t say the place has made the best impression on us. Maybe it can redeem itself tomorrow.

Neil