Arrival in Australia 3/25/2008 from a
note written 4/3/2008
After much warning to be sure to declare anything and everything
at
Australian customs, we did. We opened our suitcases and
proceeded
to unpack any and all purchases, my collection of stones and
shells.
The agent took one shell explaining it was a land snail and not
allowed, gave a cursory glance at our purchases and said
everything
was fine except one other shell that had sand and barnacles. The
sand
was
the issue and he kindly took the shell and removed the sand!
Leonard
had been threatening me that all my stuff would cause problems and he'd
only visit monthly if they put me in the clink.
While waiting for our bags, Leonard had registered the SIM card
for our Australian cell phone number, but was told it could be a while
before the
number would work. After the time spent at customs, the
phone was working and he called the toll free number
for the camper van rental. While they couldn't find any record of
our
web
site
application and didn't have what we wanted available, the woman was
very helpful and eventually came up with one on Thursday that we could
have for as long as we wanted. We took it for 11 days, leaving us
looking for a
place to spend the intervening time in Sydney.
At the airport "I" center we found a helpful woman who got us a last
minute deal in a place in China Town. It's not far from the
harbor and
the historic part of town. She also gave us tips on getting
around
sans auto in town and directed us to a van service that delivered us to
the door for a reasonable fee. Although we were the first one to sign
up for the van, the driver waited for more passengers as he had a
fairly large van. This gave Leonard a chance to use the free
internet
service terminal for a quick check of e-mail. He was pleased to
NOT
find another campervan booking from the original web site giving us one
too many rentals.
The airport van driver dropped us at the door of our hotel which was in
the
heart of China Town. Our room was in the 10th floor, so noise
wouldn't
a major factor. The room was small, but nicely done up in an art
deco
style. While it was a "self catering" room complete with
microwave, 2
burner hot plate, fridge, electric kettle and dishes, there were no
pots or pans in the cabinets. We were promised some, but they
never
arrived. That was okay as we found lots to eat across the
street in a
variety of Chinese bakeries and grocery stores. We didn't venture
all
that far having found more than enough food for dinner and the fact
that it was raining lightly.
There was and continues to be a question about the correct time.
The
flight crew gave us the local time when we arrived which was only one
hour different from NZ. All the info we had indicated a two hour
change (it HAD been two on our flight from Sydney to
Christchurch). It
also seemed light really late into the evening. In the morning
when we
turned on the TV to check news and weather, all indications pointed to
the fact that we were up and about an hour earlier than our watches
said. One of our things to do was to find a clock somewhere we
could
trust!
Walking in in the park
We set out after breakfast to explore the city. Our hotel was on
the
oldest paved street in town, which took us toward the center of the
city. We deviated to walk through a beautiful park where it was
much
more pleasant to walk than amidst the throngs of people rushing to
work. We checked at a Starbucks about internet connection but the
barista didn't know the cost. When we got to the "I" site in town
we
found both a connection to the web and the time. We were an hour
ahead
of the rest of Sydney.
The Sydney Bridge
Old construction preserved in the Rocks Area
Mrs. Macquaries Chair
Explanation of Mrs Macquaries Chair
Harbor View
A colorful parrot among the flowers
Sulfer Crested Parrot
Bats (Flying Foxes) over Sydney at Sunset
We were up bright and early in the morning. First of all,
checkout
time is 10:00 in this part of the world, and the campervan place opened
at 8:00. After breakfast and getting everything packed up again,
we
headed out for one of the internet places I'd found.
Unfortunately
neither of the two terminals they had for laptops worked so we headed
for another place. Eventually we found a one, but decided to use
one
of their computers which would take less time.
At the van rental place we were fitted out with a (to us) huge
vehicle. I'd watched one drive in while Leonard was doing the
paperwork and hoped what we got would be shorter. It
wasn't. We were
told we'd been upgraded. It's unclear which van we would have
had, but
what we got is a VW version of the Benz we'd seen. After stowing all
our gear and being checked out on the various systems, Leonard
practiced driving a bit in the very limited space (about two van
lengths), before heading out. He did great, only shifting from
1st
into 4th (stalling out) a few time before he got the hang of the
gears. Getting used to the size is something else, the lanes seem
very
narrow, especially when a semi is next to you.
Our camper van
Sea coast, Sea Cliff Bridge, and a hang glider (far upper right)
We stopped in a little town to get groceries, and while I was getting
produce at the green grocers, Leonard went back to the van with the
other stuff. When I got there, he was talking to a local who was
anxious to go exploring and happened to own the shop where we'd
parked. He commented that campers always seemed to park
there.
Perhaps it was because they could easily pull in to the spot. He
sent
us down to the town beach where we made lunch and took a walk.
The first beach in AU
After having driven through most of NZ, we've decided not to have any
agenda and keep driving time down. Much as we'd like to see the
Great
Barrier Reef, it ain't gonna happen. That would be equivalent to
driving from VT to FL and given time (11 days) and fuel costs ($3/gal
is cheap compared to $1.60/ltr) it would be more of an endurance feat
than a vacation.
I think we did about 70km the first day, stopping just north of
Wollongong (touted as an hour south of Sydney) in a town called Fairy
Meadow. We checked into a camping site on the ocean and got a
site
with an ocean view and a short walk to the beach. After getting
the
power cable connected, Leonard got out our table and chairs and sat
down to read while I went for a walk on the beach. Day one ended
with
a nice dinner and we settled in for a quiet night. The bunk was more
comfortable than it appeared. The sheets just covered the
cushions,
forget tucking anything in, and the duvet and pillows a bit shop
worn, perhaps not surprising when the vehicle has 150,000 plus km on
the odometer.
The small harbor at Wolongong
Back on the road, we did the tourist route and headed up a hill to
another view spot. The folks here are very friendly, a woman
explained
on a clear day the view is really great and chatted with us for a few
minutes. We debated taking a slightly inland loop that went to
the top
of a hill, but decided to just head for our next stop instead.
Day two
was maybe 30 km.
Just after we got set up at our site it began to rain, delaying our
intended walk. We watched as campers scurried about taking in
laundry
and setting up tents. Once the rain stopped we headed for the
beach
where we were greeted with a rainbow. The beach was small
and we
headed for the rocky headland where we met a man and a dog who gave us
directions to the path along the point.
The beach and rainbow at Kiama
The town of Kiama looked interesting as we drove through on the way to
the camper park, so we planned on taking a closer look in the morning
after checking out of the park
Note from 4/9/2008
April 3,2008 Crowley National Park
It's been some time since I last worked on the log. We've not
connected with the web for a number of days, and were unable to use the
laptop when we did connect. Since then it's been a combination of
long
days with
shorter daylight hours. We haven't always been connected to power
either, so after a long day I'm ready to crawl into the bunk by
9:00. Anyway, I'll try to fill in the days.
Kiama blow hole - Note people standing at lookout (upper left)
As w walked back toward the van we saw a sign for a rain forest reserve
and headed to it. The
reserve was up in the hills and had an interesting walk with a
suspension bridge that took us over a gorge. A lyre bird with its
elaborate tail landed by us as we walked, posing long enough for
us to
get
a photo. Some of the trees were very impressive with big
buttressing
roots.
Lyre Bird
Small Leaf Fig
A twisted tree
Waterfall
With no definite destination in mind we headed further south along the
coast,
stopping at Broulee Beach for the night. The area is a popular
surfing
destination, and there were a number
of surfers waiting for the right wave. Other than the surfers it
was a
boring beach by my standards. I was tempted to pick up seaweed
floats
(little air sacks that support the seaweed in the water). There
was
almost no shells and little other to see than lots of grains of sand
which squeaks when you walk.
When we'd
checked into the park the woman mentioned it was possible to walk
around the head of land on the point that was a nature reserve.
Being
the last Sunday in March, we inquired about the switch back to standard
time and were told yes, it was the right weekend. Waking up early
and
with an extra hour, we thought we'd plenty of time to do the hike and
check out at 10. However, her husband saw us as we headed out for
the
hike and said we'd been
misinformed, the time change was the next weekend, but not to worry, we
should go for the hike and leave when we got back.
It was an interesting hike with beach and rocky areas with several
little indentations. We
saw a number of people running along the beach then get into the water
and swim across a small bay and repeat the process a number of
times.
I saw in one of the info brochures that an iron man event takes place
at Port Macquarie on April 6th,. perhaps they were training for
that.
Broulee Island beach at low tide
The city of Canberra is located on the ancient lands of the Aboriginal
people and the name was derived from their word Kamberra, or meeting
place. It was a sacred site between two hills which gave view to
the
plain below which had an abundance of food with fish from the stream
and native animals. It was first settled by Europeans in the
1830's
and was chosen as the site for the federal capitol in 1908.
An international competition to design the city was held and awarded to
Walter Burley Griffin, a Chicago architect who was the master designer
of the city. The city was designed as a series of circular areas
transected by the river which would be dammed to form a lake and
several major boulevards. The design is attractive, but without a
map
it is possible to go in circles instead of reaching your
destination.
Even with a map it can be a challenge.
A small portion of the Canberra city layout
We managed to find our way to Stirling Park on the lake front where a
sail boat race was taking place. It was beautiful in the park and
we
wondered about the possibility of spending the night in the park as
opposed to locating another official camper van park. There were
no
signs posted forbidding camping, but to be on the safe side, Leonard
called the territorial police (Canberra and the surrounding area is
similar to Washington, DC and is referred to as the Australian Capitol
Territory or ACT). They referred him to the park wardens who
tried to
direct him back to the police. Finally the woman on the phone
said to
just do it, only don't say she said it was OK.
The War Memorial, Anzac Boulevard and State Circle in the distance from
Mt Anslie
Undecided about what to do, we went searching for kangaroos. We
ended
up on Mt. Ainslie, one of the hills overlooking the town. While
it was
interesting, there weren't any kangaroos, so on the way down we stopped
and took a hike in the bush. Eventually we found a group of them
grazing. We watched them and they watched us. Eventually
some hikers
with a dog came into view and a bunch more kangaroos joined the group
we were watching. They are very interesting animals. They
use their
tail and fore paws to move slowly as they graze, but they really move
when the hop on their hind legs.
Wild Kangaroos in the park by Mt. Ainslie
As we headed back to the park to spend the night we spotted another
camper, so we joined them under some trees close to the local yacht
club. It was a quiet night and no one objected to our spending it
in
the park.
An outdoor exhibit at the Art Museum
Nation Carillon with 55 bells
In the morning after walking through the Japanese Garden we headed to
the Natural History Museum where we spent several hours. We also
toured the National Botanic Gardens and the National Art Museum.
After
a long day of sightseeing, we stopped by the Carillon in time to catch
the evening concert before heading off to find a spot for the
night.
We found a lovely spot overlooking the lake on a peninsula in a park
with gates that were locked at night. We watched as all the
visitors
departed while we ate our dinner, and 8 pm came and went (the time we
thought the gates were locked) with no one objecting to our choice of
sites. So we settled in for the night.
About 10 pm there was a knock on the van which got us up. The
guard
wanted to make sure we knew the gate would be locked until 7 or
possibly 8 in the morning, and then apologized for waking us and
wished us a good night. After that it was a very peaceful
night. It
would be nice if we could do this in any park! Most have
restrictions
against camping or parking overnight.
A Kookaburra at the Botanical Gardens
We'd spent the morning traveling on an interstate type road which
Leonard found more to his liking than the narrow, twisty country roads
we've been using. We planned to get off the highway and use back
roads
to look at the Southern Highlands area. We managed to get through
one
town before he started grumbling about the road conditions, so rather
than continue, I navigated us back to the main road. I was all
set to
take the toll road system around Sydney (it's almost impossible to
avoid Sydney) when a sign flashed past informing us there are no
toll booths on the road. It is necessary to prepay, although you
have
up to 48 hours after traveling on the toll roads to set up an account
to pay. Given the lack of internet availability we took the last
possible exit before the tolls started. We did three sides of a
rectangle and landed up not far from where we'd left the back road.
After driving even more back roads we ended up at
Wisemans Ferry on the Hunter River where we spent the night in a camper
van park. Back before bridges were the norm, free cable
ferries had
been
established at various points along the river which remain the way to
get from one side to the other. Unfortunately for us, there were
two
crossings at Wisemans Ferry. We almost got on the wrong ferry
before
we asked for directions. We needed to backtrack through town to
catch
the ferry that went across at a different bend.
In the morning after getting directions from the camp staff, we took
more gravel back roads to avoid backtracking. We were under the
impression that the ferry we were heading toward would be closed for a
few hours for monthly maintenance, we weren't too concerned about
meeting oncoming traffic on what frequently amounted to a one lane
road. As we approached the next settlement, we met some traffic
and
then saw a bridge crossing the river. Turns out we didn't need
to use the ferry as that would have been the wrong way. Instead,
we headed north between two large national parks.
I'd planned on stopping to see some cave paintings that were in one of
the parks. But it wasn't until we reached the next "I" site and
got a
map that we learned we had passed the place about 30 km back.
Apparently
the
cave was on private land which allows access, but wasn't
identified.
After a lunch break we headed toward Myall Lakes National Park rather
than head back. Our site for the night was in a quiet spot mainly
used
by surf fishermen. After a walk on the beach I got the impression
I
was the only female at the camp site. The preferred camping
grounds
in the park were along the lake shore where folks can swim and water
ski.
The steep stairs to the Seal Rocks Lighthouse
We also spent a night at Crowdy National Park, a bit further north
along the coast, where the camp ground had resident kangaroos.
They
were very acclimated to people and did a good job of keeping the grass
clipped. We had two tawny frogmouth owls in the tree in front of
us at
dusk too. It was an interesting park with nice facilities and
some
interesting walks. We hiked over the headland before departing in
the
morning. On our return there was a very large lizard sitting
under
one of the trees whose tail I originally mistook as a gray water hose
from
one of the vans.
A Tawny Frogmouth Owl sleeping in the tree
Large lizzard at Crowey Park
Although Leonard hadn't wanted to go any further north, we did drive up
to Port Macquarie the next day. The Koala Hospital is located
there
and we arrived just in time for the afternoon feeding. The
hospital
has been in existence for a number of years and treats koalas that have
been injured and successfully returns many of them back to the
wild.
It was worth the drive, especially since we hadn't spotted any in the
wild.
Koala bear
Port Macquarie was also gearing up for an Iron Man (and Woman)
competition on Sunday the 6th. The town was filled with bikers
and
runners. Lucky for us we would depart before they closed much of
the
area to traffic. For once the camper park wasn't insisting
people
depart by 10 and they weren't charging extra for the delayed
departure. Either you left prior to 6 in the morning, or waited
until
after 6 at night.
We did the nature preserve hike in town before we left. It is a
wetlands walk with several kilometers of boardwalk. As we started
there was a lot of squabbling in the trees and we found them filled
with flying foxes trying to get the best roosting spot in the trees for
the day. I had hoped to see more wildlife, but perhaps we were a
bit
too late to catch it. There were a number of ibis gleaning
grubs
in
the grass and perched in trees.
We spent our last night out in the Port Stephens area which consists of
a number of small towns located around a large enclosed bay.
Although
there is a national park in the area, it doesn't allow camping and all
the public parks banned camping. I suspect they would be overrun
during summer and holiday seasons since it's only a couple of hours
north of Sydney. After checking out another beach we spent the
night
at Shoal Bay in a camper park.
A wedding had taken place at a resort along the bay and the bride and
groom left in a nifty red hot rod. It appeared that one of the
fathers
was also into hot rods as he departed in a noisy blue one as we
returned from our walk. They had had a perfect day for a wedding
with
a beautiful sunset to finish the day.
Our plan was to hike to the top of the headland in the park before
departing for Sydney. However there had been a number of showers
that
had passed through during the night and we woke up to a pattering of
rain in the morning. Daylight Savings Time had concluded and we
had an
extra hour of time, so when it cleared briefly, we went on the
hike.
The lower portion of the trail was paved in smooth bricks which made
for slippery going, but the view from the top was worth the
effort.
Being a headland to a major port the area had also been used as a
defense site during the war, so we took the extra walk to the gun
emplacements, but the view was overgrown with trees and not as good as
it had been at the top.
Bays and Headland at Shoal Bay
With showers returning, we headed toward Sydney to return the
van.
Although I had bought a map of New South Wales, the Sydney area is
comprised of a largish yellow blob with a smattering if green and red
lines. Apparently they think you should also purchase one
specifically
for town. We had picked up one booklet at an "I" site that had a
beautifully detailed map, but it required close study with a magnifying
glass to make out names and highway numbers. The map included
with our
rental helped, but in the one critical area we needed they had blocked
out to point to their location. Not ideal navigational materials.
I suppose the weather kept some folks at home, but there were plenty
out and about. I had picked a coastal route back to town thinking
it
would e a bit more scenic and would avoid backtracking to pickup Route
1. What the map neglected to show was a series of towns strung
along
the road. With a lake between us and Route 1, there was no
alternative
but to continue on our way.
Luckily Leonard had gotten a lot more comfortable driving the van in
what I still considered to be tight quarters. It's difficult to
navigate with my eyes either glued to the road or shut. While
it's
nice to sit high enough to see the road, at 110 km it still felt top
heavy to me and I was delighted to have reached out destination without
having gotten lost with an
hour to spare before the rental place closed. However, we needed to get
more fuel to avoid the penalty for a less
than full tank. We'd filled the tank before we reached Sydney,
but
needed to top it off. There were no gas stations. We
finally located
one, but on the return missed the turn off (the road name wasn't the
same) and got thoroughly lost. The area had a canal which limited
access to most of it. By the time we found the rental place, we'd
driven another 6 km. Fortunately the check out went smoothly and
a cab
arrived to whisk us back to town.
That was another adventure. The cabbie asked if we wanted to take
the
"freeway" into town as it would be faster. Dumb us, we
agreed. I had
my doubts when he headed away from town, but looking on the bright
side, we got a tour of parts we'd not seen, including a tunnel with a
$6 add on fee. The cab fare was almost double that we'd paid from
the
hotel
and since tipping isn't the norm here we didn't see the need to donate
any more cash. It didn't help when Leonard accidentally dropped a
handful of change down the drain either. It wasn't the big sized
coins
that went through the grate, but the little $2 ones. We were very
glad
to get all our bags into our room.
Darling Harbor in the evening
Lynnea
