Been ages since last blog it seems as I missed the opportunity to do it in Brisbane. Managed to get the photos loaded but not do the blog. Its a hard life.
So, headed into Sydney via the Royal National Park and to friends of my dad and Val's - Phil and Liz. Not the royal family but a very kind, retired couple with a manic lifestyle of 7 children and 24 grandkids plus.... They have been, and will again be, avid travellers - they went to Uluru when it was still desert tracks with the kids in the back of a car in the 70's! They live in the outer suburbs, Revesby, a 45 minute trainride into the city, so I became a commuter again for a few days (not good memories).
Sydney is a fantastic place, waterfronts and gardens everywhere - and commuting by ferries from suburbs or down the river. Quite a sight, could spend many days there, partic if I stayed in the nightlife areas and the weather allowed more time on the beaches, but I did get to Manly and Bondi and have a very quick swim - it was more like Newquay in midwinter than some sexy Aussie mecca. Like Aussie cities, so far, a mix of modern and Victorian / Edwardian architecture and layouts and all starting as a port on the coast or a permanent freshwater source inland.
Then into the nearby Blue Mountains, spectacular scenery and hikes (if still changeable weather), then zig-zags up the coast to the Queensland border between coast and mountain / gorges / waterfalls national parks. Didn't manage to escape the autumnal weather which swept up from Antarctica for a few days, catching me in the mountains - frosts and ice on Lindie in the mornings (comments anyone?).
Exceptions were detours into central NSW, to Orange and Bathurst for a view of the central plains areas, and Tamworth and "New England's" farming and gold mining towns. Great diversion was to drive around the Bathurst motor racing circuit, Mount Panorama, which used to hold the F1 grand prix racing (bikes and cars) until the 1960's and is a hell of a climb and drop around the mountain - now does famous endurance races, etc. Weird, it is a 2-way public road (60kph/45mph limit normally with turn-offs into houses and farms!) in normal times - that's how they got the govt to help pay for it back then, as a scenic drive apparently, clever. So Lindie has done 3 laps of a racing circuit now!
Thoughts:
- Aboriginal names: is it a con? The tribes didn't speak the same languages but managed to come up with similar names for places, all with loads of "o's" and "a's" (how many "O's" can I get away with in a name joke = Wooloomooloo in Sydney), and all meaning logical things like "place of many waters" or "place where one can see for f****ing miles, mate, trust me". That was until I got to Angourie Point, a great surfie place - now either the dopy English explorer accidentally talked to a Frenchy taking the piss or the locals had got bored of the joke, but Angourie means "place of angry seas"?? No way.
- For some reason remembered it was my very old mate, Jon Pearson's birthday on St George's Day. Should have kept up with him, a great bloke and wonderful friend all those years ago, somewhere in NZ still I believe - too late now. Got that way with all the old North London crowd too, probably. Still can't change history.
- Anzac Day, remembering all Aus/NZ forces, very serious over here. Dawn services of remembrance then a wake at the pub. Special licensing, cheap offers and a gambling game as played by the veterans in the trenches, betting on 3 coins landing heads or tails - only allowed on Anzac Day in the local pub (saw this in a gold mining town called Hill End - Royal Hotel's beer garden, whole families, BBQ and friendly betting betweeen each other (no bookie or central bank here). It was a special afternoon.
- Great names for places if not Abo or copying Euro name: Buckaroo (near Mudgee) and Broke (Hunter Valley)
- Aus still very much a rural country, well into horses (breeding, racing and betting), farming and local communities for locals only. The cities are isolated hotspots almost out of character, except on the coasts where they are suffering from the same problem as UK, all the retirees going to the good places and skewing the demography, and thus the local economies.
- Lindie got a good servicing in Sydney
OK, so now in Queensland but I'll save that, except to say many thanks to Dawn and Simon (and little Charlie, aka "Bob the Builder") for their hospitality and friendship in Brisbane, before it seems too late to say it.
Photos link at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Aus_NSW_Sydney_2009
Cheers! Mike
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