I'm now in posession of 100 nifty cards that detail the best walks in Sydney (thanks Jason!). I knocked two off the list during my solo outing to Watsons Bay today. I took the bus to Circular Quay and then caught the ferry to Watsons Bay (via Double Bay, Rose Bay etc).
After disembarking, I knew exactly where to go -- unlike the other tourists -- thanks to my little card! I walked by some weatherboard cottages on the waterfront to a quiet little beach called Camp Cove. Then I came upon Lady Bay, a fairly rocky nude beach. Not much to look at there..just two wrinkly old men who probably go there daily. I hiked up to South Head, which along with North Head make up the entrance to Sydney Harbour. There's a great red and white lighthouse and lots of remnants of colonial military defense, such as bunkers etc. The best part was unobstructed views of the harbour and city skyline. Sort of like the view of SF from Sausalito or Angel Island.
I then walked over to Gap Bluff, a dramatic windswept cliff..apparently it's notorious for suicide attempts. While looking out to sea, I noticed a funnel cloud! It was fairly good size and could tell it was swirling the ocean water. A woman from the area was looking at it with me and had never seen anything like it before.
I ended my exploration with fish n' chips at Doyles, which was served with this really good plum and sweet chili dipping sauce..I've never had anything like it before with fish. DELISH!
Over the weekend, we decided to take our first overnight excursion outside of Sydney. We headed West on a 2 hour train ride outside of the city to the Blue Mountains. It's a scenic area close to the city, and believe it or not we did experience seeing a bit of "blue" when looking at hills in the distance. Keep in mind that "mountains" are a bit of a relative term for those of you from the west coast, the highest point in the range being a little over 3000 feet.
We arrived Sunday night and checked in at the "oldest guesthouse in the blue mountains". I'm sure our moms would have appreciated this place as there were tons of original knick knacks and decorations. The town we stayed in is called Katoomba and is home to Yulefest next month. Since Christmas falls in the middle of summer here, the Yulefest festival essentially turns into Christmas in July. Santa makes a visit, and there are plenty of fires, christmas roasts, and holiday drinks.
On Monday we put on our wet weather hiking gear and started on our bushwalk (translation=hike). The area we were in is home to a temperate rainforest. Lucky for us the rain held off, but we spent most of the day in misty, foggy weather that was quite a bit cooler than Sydney. We started out at the main attraction of the area, which is called the Three Sisters, a series of rock formations that jut out from the valley floor. We headed down to the valley floor behind the 3 sisters on the "Giant Stairway". The Giant Stairway was no joke, it's about as far from ADA compliant as you can get. Over 1000 vertical feet and 800 stairs with many parts steeper than the cables on Half Dome in Yosemite. Once we made it to the bottom it was amazing to see how lush and tropical the valley was. A series of waterfalls led us to the boardwalks of "Scenic World", the ultimate Scenic tourist trap. Despite it's shortcomings, it was home to our way out of the valley, and one of the highlights of the trip. A ride up the scenic railway, which happens to be the steepest railway in the world. At a 52 degree slope it's steeper than most expert ski runs, combine that with no seatbelts and it's a fun ride to the top, I highly recommend it.
For friends or others that plan to visit, if you're up for a few miles of hiking/walking, skip the $35/person explorer bus. For $2 each way, you can catch the trolley to echo point or scenic world. Take the $10 one way trip up from the valley floor and try out the giant staircase.
Today I made my first -- of many I hope -- trip to the Hunter Valley, a wine making region about 2 hrs north of Sydney. I went with my friend Jason (from Wake) who is on vacation in Sydney this week. We did the packaged tour and embraced it. We got shuffled through a few tourist traps, but also enjoyed some great boutique wineries, olive oil tasting and a kangaroo photo op! The whole crew was pretty excited to see kangaroos in the wild - even from a distance. Jason convinced our driver to pull over so we could take a few snaps. I now have a new appreciation for all the tourists who pose by deer on the golf courses in California. It’s all about the novelty.
I ended up bringing back a few bottles of wine, apricot preserves and this delicious looking tomato chutney. Would love to go back when it's warm and spend a bit more time exploring the wineries, restaurants and overall region!
This afternoon we headed out to Bondi Beach. We were curious to see what the scene was like on a weekday in the fall/winter. It was most definitely different from our Saturday visit in March -- much less crowded and chaotic. We walked the length of the beach, read our books and took pics. Then we had beers at Bondi Icebergs, which is a famous swimming club in Sydney. We sat at the café and watched the surfers and waves crashing into the saltwater pool. To be a member of the club, you must swim three out of four Sundays a month for five years. So, it’s definitely for the dedicated swimmer!
The trip home consisted of a stop at Bondi Junction to buy some groceries and things we needed for the apartment. The shopping doesn’t seem to end! I can’t imagine what it would be like completely furnishing a place on our own.
As most of you are probably already aware, we were working on a goodbye video before we left San Francisco. I'm happy to report that it's all done and you can check it out below. To get the full HD experience, you'll need to follow the link to vimeo. it's best to view it in fullscreen mode. Thanks to everyone who co-starred with us, we hope to send out more soon.
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