After a few days we decided to give up and play tourist - we got the express bus into the city - over the Harbour Bridge; in the city we walked around Darling Harbour and then visited the Powerhouse Museum.
We didn't go to the special exhibition (Harry Potter) but found the museum very well laid out, great displays but the lighting was a little dim in some cases, and we enjoyed the 'hands on' experience.
They had something for everyone, something from the first flight - by a box kite to USSR space craft.
Michael was both impressed and amused when at the section on radiation I chose the correct scan for each patient!
The next day we took a bus down to Manly wharf - then got the Ferry across to Circular Quay.
- then got a train to Central station, - then got a tram out to the end of the line (Lilyfield) before returning by tram to Paddy's Market. We couldn't think of what to spend our tourist dollar on until I spotted a bright pink very large wristwatch - $15. I had to have it, it's big and trashy.
After a couple of days the city was starting to appeal but the sheer volume of traffic makes travelling into the city very time consuming - using the 24hr bus lane the 24kms trip into the city still takes 1hour.
So despite the defeat in the hunt for cousins, and it's scary size we did enjoy Sydney, but it was time to leave. On our way out, we detoured to French's Forest Cemetery where we did indeed find some relatives, Michael's aunt and uncle are buried side by side, although 53yrs apart.
Then it was a long hard very slow grind in heavy traffic across to the 'Sydney to Newcastle Freeway', this was a Saturday morning and the only reason for the slow crawl was sheer traffic volume!
We stopped to shop at Gosford, not a thriving town. In the shopping centre I think the customers were equal in number to the shop assistants. We drove on to The Entrance, now this town was busy and it is a very pretty place but we only wanted an overnighter not a holiday so we carried on and stopped for the night at the caravan park in Budgewoi. A lovely name and a lovely quiet place on a lake.
We drove up through back roads and more quaint lakeside hamlets before rejoining the Pacific Hwy and on into Newcastle - and of course had to drive down Hunter Street! The significance of that will probably be lost on most of you. Does anyone remember "The Newcastle Song"?
We had a free overnighter planned for a stay in Newcastle, out at the Mayfield Sports Club - luckily we went to check it out early in the day because the club was placed in the hands of the liquidators just before Christmas and was closed in January 2012. The large carpark at the back was still there but we thought it just a bit too cheeky to park there.
We checked the camping books and headed off down the 'Tourist Route' to Forster. It is a pretty road, lots of twists and turns but the road condition was appalling making it a really rough trip. The rest stop was just outside Bungewahl and it was a large bitumen area, surrounded by lots of bush, there was quite a bit of traffic noise but as the afternoon wore into evening the traffic diminished and the birds increased; we saw our first finches twittering away just outside our window as well as our little friends the blue wrens, a very peaceful evening.
We continued heading up the northern coast using the Pacific Highway, we drove on, bypassing Kempsey and Port Macquarie settling on Nambucca Heads for our night's stop. We chose a caravan park on the Headland but were a little disappointed that we couldn't see the sea from the park. There is a track leading down to the beach and it is a really nice beach but the climb back up is a killer!
This little whinge was forgotten once we looked along the path and spotted this little chap
- a tawny frogmouth,
and then a little later this fella sat next to our van!
Tomorrow we hope to get the van serviced in Coffs Harbour.
No comments:
Post a Comment