Australia – Brisbane to Stanthorpe via the Gold Coast

I had a hire car to pick up and a ledge booked for the Monday night, I was off on a road trip. We work up in the G&L household to a power cut. G dropped me off at Europcar and I picked up a Subaru Forrester. I headed for the Gold Coast on the M1 which quite busy, but I eventually arrived at the Gold Coast. However the traffic light were always red so I really wonder why I had bothered. I stopped and grabbed a coffee and then headed in land.

My accommodation was booked at a vineyard just outside Stanthorpe, but I was going to take my time getting there taking in the landscape. First I headed for Mount Tambourine which is actually a town. I stopped off at the tourist information then headed out to the Skywalk a raised walkway int he rain forest. It was raining a bit when I got there which ironically was probably the right sort of weather to visit a rain forest. I grabbed a macadamia nut biscuit from the cafe then headed towards Warwick.

I took a few small roads on the way taking in some great views of the agricultural area where most cleared fields had cattle grazing. At Warwick I parked up and stretched my legs with a walk up the high street where the cars all park at 45 degrees to the pavement down both sides.

As I approached my final destination it started to rain/drizzle, but I managed to find the Ridgemill estate at about 17:00. The accommodation was one of 8 chalets all with a parking porch. I headed into Stanthorpe and grabbed some fish and chops for dinner, which would be the second night in a row.

Australia – Wireless museum Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens

I thought I would have an easy day, without too much walking, a few weeks earlier I had discovered that there was a wireless museum, towards the Blue Mountains but I had not managed to check it out. So my plan was to drive out there and take a look, then take it from there.

I parked up at the museum, there was space fire just five cars, just my sort of museum. The owner cam out of his house, and introduced himself, Ian ran the museum and I it seemed was his only visitor so far that day. He unlocked and took my $10 entrance fee. It was my type of museum, packed the the rafters, in this case with old radios, there must have been at least a thousand. Most of them worked or did when they were put out on display.

Ian was a friendly chap, and was keen to demonstrate and explain the history of some of them. He warnede that Rodger would might turn up and that if he did he would have a Philips radio with him. I was so ask Ian questions if he did. Five minutes later Rodger turned up, with his Philips radio set, which he plonked down and started to explain that it needed repairing. I asked Ian at me questions, but Rodger was keen to demonstrate his knowledge of radios.

A little while later a young guy called Rex turned up with his partner, they had not however been warned about Rodger and got drawn into conversation. Rodgers carer came in and lurked around and left with Rodger a while later when he had got bored. One of the biggest radios was off a ship which had been seized by the authorities for drug smuggling. It was about six feet wide and tall, and was fully functional, Ian had acquired it through an aquaintance who helped him transport it back to the museum on a trailer.

Ian was a mine of information he played a record that was the theme music of an Australian radio soap that was supposedly the inspiration for the Archers. He also has the first FM radio station transmitter in Australia, and knew the weaknesses in all the radios he had, apparently through repairing them all. He learnt radio when as a child his parents ownedba newsagents, and he used to look at the Wireless hobby magazine which intrigued him, he has to write down the queries he had and ask the people who collected the magazines to get the answers, but after a while he realises he had learnt enough to know more than some of them.

I said said my goodbyes and headed out to the Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens, glad I had remembered that the museum existed. It was a pleasant 30 minute drive to the gardens, the road was steep and twisty on places. I parked up and had a wander around. Although there was a lot of work going on in the gardens it was well worth the visit, plenty of the plants were flowering. I spotted plenty of birds as well, Crimson rosella, Blackbird, New Holland Honeyeater, and Eastern Spinebill. Best of all and one of my top three Australian birds was the Fairy Wrens, a bright blue male and the drab female, pecking around in the grass.

I grabbed a coffee on the way out which as I have found in Australia always involves a long wait, I don’t know why but it seems to be the rule here. Before I found the car I detoured to look at the spring garden flowers, which I am not sure whether they were native, the plans looked to delicate, Iris, pansy and tulip, were the main ones.

I decided to take the long way back via some small roads, and my adventured started with a 5km dirt track which led to another road across rolling agricultural land, it was very scenic. Eventually I came a cross a roll on roll off ferry. It was free but the ferry man said I had to stay in my car so I could not get any pictures. I stopped at an apple shop in Bilpin which is a local apple producing area.

I headed out and had a Lhaksa with prawns for dinner and had an early night as I had work in the morning and was still adjusting to Sydney time.

Australia -Sydney Spit Bridge to North Head via Manly

I got back to the hotel late, so with no time to research a day out I decided to drive to North Head then get the bus to Spot Bridge then do the classic walk back to Manly. After going off track and bus went crossing the harbour bridge again, that’s three times now, I got to North Head at 09:00. I parked up and then walked from the head to Manly where I caught a bus.

According to Wikipedia “North Head is a headland south-east of the suburb of Manly. It is part of Sydney Harbour National Park. The headland is a promontory of sandstone and is 3.85 square kilometers (1.49 sq mi) in area.” There were a lot of military buildings, defense positions, and a military memorial wall.

It was mainly down hill Manly via Shelly beach whilst taking photos some lifeguards asked me if I had seen it, I said what! There had apparently been a shark spotted. They warned some swimmers, then radio’d base and ran off to save some more people. Manly is pretty much you typical seaside town lots of shops selling either beach wear or souvenirs. I wandered down to the ferry terminal, and grabbed a falafel salad from one of the food stands for later. Google directed me to the next bus to Spit Bridge.

The bus did not take long to get to Spit Bridge as the bus took the more direct route rather than hugging the twisted coast line which the path hugs closely even using a beach at one point. I saw an interesting business a guy in a speed boat was selling ice creams to people on the beaches. He went from beach to beach the boat name was the Sea-ducer I wonder if he sold juices as well. I managed a couple of time lapses on the walk. The weather was mainly sunny with some clouds, in the lee of the wind and in the sun it was hot but in the shade with the wind it was cold.

Ahead of me two girls ran screaming, I asked them what the matter was, they explained that there was a lizard on the path. It turned out to be a dragon lizard which are fairly common in the area. It was sat on the path and quite brave not moving when I approached. It was about a foot long excluding the tail, i.e. nose to rear legs. I went to take a picture but some people coming the other way scared it off. Later on nearer Manly I came a cross a very obliging one and was able to get a close up at eye level shot with my fish eye.

When I got to manly I decided that I could get a taxi back to the car as I had done the bit to North head earlier. I was quite tired by the time I was back at the car so I headed back to my hotel via the local supermarket fish stall for some grilled sea perch and chips.

Australia – Last days in Perth and trip back to Sydney

The project had been on the whole successful and as a treat we were all take out to see some Japanese Taiko drummers who happened to be at His Majesty’s Theatre on the Thursday. The show was at 19:30 and we had a table booked for 16 at a restaurant called The Stables near by. The food was excellent we shared three starters of Sashimi, Goats cheese balls and Duck leg confit. Fo rmain I had a Salmon dish which was excellent.

Although we had plenty of time we almost got locked out of the theatre, arriving just before the lights went down. I did not really know what to expect as how many ways are there to hit a drum? I was about to be corrected, they did set pieces and geez were they good at at it, and the combined sound of many drums is with different stick weights is surprisingly versatile.

The show was about 2 hours including the interval, we then split into three groups those who where staying the south of Perth, local and 4 of us who were staying at the Quality Ambassador. We were on a mission to track down a pale ale from the Cheeky Monkey brewery, we had tried it a previous night. It is a long story regardin how we came to find it but it involved, not going to a Chinese for a curry, a long walk, and a very hot Lhaksa. We headed back to the hotel but stopped off at a multi bar restaurant building. We tried to get our chosen beer at the “Beer corner” but they didn’t have it, so we went down stairs to to the Asian Fusion restaurant, they had the beer we were looking for.

We stopped for a couple and had a great laugh chewing the cud and celbrating the success of the project. Then we headed back to the hotel where we arrived slightly later than anticipated. We went straight to our rooms and some of us met for breakfast at 07:00 and others skipped breakfast for an extra 30 hour in bed.

We were only at the office till just before 12 the airport was close, however we took a wrong turning, and ended up at the wrong terminal and had to double back. For some reason I could not check my bag in, so S took me to the check in desk with his Qantas Gold card. Unfortunatley it was too late, I would have to get the next flight. Luckily it was only an hour after the original,but they wanted $150 to change flight. The 15:15 left on time and I even managed to get my centre seat changed for a window seat.

I landed at 10 and got to my hotel at 23:30 it had been a long day.

Australia – Double Header Weekend at Work

As it was the cutover weeked for the project I was working on there would be not a lot of leisure time as we would be working the Saturday and Sunday. The weeked coincided with a double header weekend the final of the Ozzie rules football was on the Saturday and the Ozzie rugby league final was on the Sunday.

We went for a leisurely 08:00 start on the Saturday after early starts all week, and we were in the office by 09:00. The plan was to do all the cutover stuff, such as making sure all the transactional stuff which was partially processed was put on the system whilst normal users were not, so that the postings wold be done in way that was not the same as for normal processing.

The AFL final was being listened to or streamed to mobiles by some of us, one person in particular was a Brisbane fan, they were the under dogs but there was high hopes as they had pulled something out of the bag as the season completed, winning crucial matches when it counted. They started off slightly behind but towards the end they had a commanding lead, and eventually won by 48 points. Someone had arranged for a bottle of champagne, and we all had a glass to celebrate.

We worked until 19:00 so it was a longer day than we anticipated. We went back to the hotel and did a quick turnaround and headed out to a pub called The Grovesnor for some dinner. I had a light meal grill Barramundi on crushed potatoes and salad, which was nice, a couple of schonners of a local ale washed it al down. I was in bed by 21:00 we had another early start on Sunday.

We had breakfast at 07:00 and left for the office at 07:30, when we arrived we had a five minute wait for a key holder to let us in. It was a to be a ground hog day, we we mostly doing data entry tasks to get open balances for customers, vendors and stock, although some of it could be uploaded, there was upfront Excel work to get it all in the right format.

The day dragged on a bit, I busied myself getting reporting to see the new transactions. By 16:30 we were still in the office, and the Rugby League Final was to start at 17:00ish. Someone managed to get sign up for a weekly free pass trial, and managed to get the game running on a laptop. We would at least be able to keep track of the game.

In the end Storm won and the Tigers lost it was the wrong result for the people at work, as a couple came from the East Coast. It was getting late in the day sowe called it a day at 19:00 it had been a long day, and there was still Monday morning to face when the users come in and use the system.

Australia – John Forrest National park Eagle View Walk Trail

I was up relatively early, and left the hotel at 0800, my destination was the John Forrest Nature Park, to walk the Eagle View Walk Trail. It is only a short 30 minute drive out of Perth, but I didn’t go direct I took the less travelled road as you see more stuff. In Midland I came across signs for a market, so I stopped hoping to get something to take with me for lunch. An English guy selling bread supplied me with a long sour dough garlic and herb roll, and a cinamen twirl. I grabbed a coffee from what must be the biggest coffee shop I have ever seen, a vast hall with food down one side and a coffee serving counter island in the middle, it reminded me of a transport cafe.

The park was easy to find as it was well sign posted, a 1km tarmac track lead to a picnic area and parking. The entrance fee was $13 per car, so cheaper if you are with friends. I parked up and finished my coffee off and then went to the wardens hut to sign the book to register my walk.

There was a slight detour at the start of the walk, due to a new bridge installation, and once detoured the track headed up hill for a couple of km’s. The sun was out but I expected rain and the cumulus clouds were building and it looked a bit grey in the west where the weather comes from. There were lots of large boulders and rocky it crops, on one I spied a parrot, with a yellow splash on its neck, it was an Australian Ring Necked Parrot. The spring flowers were really starting to show there was plenty of yellow red and blue ones, I hadn’t a clue what their names were. I was quite lucky on the bird id front I spotted the distinctive Red Tailed Black Cocatoo, as well as Rufous Whistler and Shining Cuckoo.

At about the 2km to go mark I felt I had walked far enough which is perfect as I like to go just a little bit further than that. As I got back to the picnic area where the walked started would you believe it, two kangaroos hopped past, I had just spent 5 hours walking through the forest and hadn’t seen any, only the odd print in the sandy track.

It was around 1400 which meant I would have time to get a haircut, I don’t have a comb and although I got it cut before I left the UK it sometimes looked like it needed a comb. I headed back towards Perth but stopped at a shopping centre and did a Google map search for haircut open on Sunday’s Samurai Japanese barbers was only 4 minutes drive away. I found it it was one of three shops in a row on a main road the other two were shut and so did the barbers look. I pushed on the door and to my surprise it was open, a short (aren’t they all) stout Japanese guy with a pork pie hat at first said he did not have a slot but I explained I just wanted the clippers on it he agreed. I must say he paid the most attention to detail I have ever experienced from a barber. Apart from trimming my nose, and ear hairs he trimmed my eye brows and did a wet shave on my neck. Finally he washed my hair and then checked that there were no stray longer hairs missed by the clippers. For all that he only charged $20, great value.

I went to the Italian around the block from the hotel and had squid for dinner, then chilled out before going to the airport to pick up A who was flying in from Sydney and staying for the next two weeks.

Australia – A car tour south of Perth

I had a walk planned for Sunday not far from Perth city, and I wanted to make the most of my unplanned weekend on the area, so I decided to head south on the car to see what I could find.

Highway 2 is the main road that heads south, I decided to head out on that road, as far as Bunbury then take my time on the way back. I stopped for petrol and a coffee about 30 minutes out, it is surprising how quickly it becomes rural, some of the roads leading off the dual carriageway were just dirt tracks. I took a detour about an hour out near a lake, and in a field close by were a troop of Kangaroo, lazing about as they do. I didn’t quite get to Bunbury I came across a shopping centre with a post office, I needed some stamps for some postcards, although I was not on holiday I thought I should make an effort.

I had driven far enough and chose to head in land to see what I could find. It became very rural very quickly all I passed were villages ans communities most often at cross roads. On the main roads there was the odd cafe or garage, as well as small businesses feed merchants featured, I was in cattle country, the fields were flat and lush green. Some fields had watering apparatus, where water lay the indigenous scrubby trees remained, no point in grubbing them out cattle won’t graze on water logged marsh.

At a place called Harvey I stopped at an information centre, to find out what was in the surrounding area. I opted to go and look at the Harvey dam, from which there were some good views but there was no real scope for taking a hike anywhere, so I took some pictures and moved on to Clifton Lake where I read there are Thrombolytes, which are primitive living organisms which create limestone jumps on the lake bed as they extract calcium from the lake water.

I took a smallish road back to the coast where the lake is, I stopped a couple of times to take photos as the light was really good. The area around Clifton Lake is a globally significant area for migrating birds. I passed the lake to have a look at the sea then headed back to where the Thrombolytes are. The site is at the end of a wooden walkway over the lake a few hundred metres from the car park, again I grabbed some puctures, but hung around watching birds in the reeds, and a lizard sunning itself on the sun warmed wood.

Next I needed to stretch my legs and I remembered I had passed a parking area near a circular walk about 5 km’s long. The walk was quite Holly and the terrain very rocky made of limestone. I kept seeing what looked like prints from Jurassic park, and it took me a while to figure out what they were, at the time I decided they were Kangaroo tracks, but later after some research I decided they must have been Emu tracks they were just like the pictures and Emus gave been spotted in the area. At the point where the track looped back I heard something in the bushes that was quite big I like to think it was the Emu I had been stalking. The path goes on a one way detour up high at one point and I took the detour and had some rolls and Tasmanian blue cheese whilst enjoying the view.

I took the coast road back through Rockingham, which seemed to be fully of heavy industry, and Fremantle which I had not seen from the fishing port end. There was a Ferris wheel and lots of sea front restaurant chains.

It had been a good road trip and I think I got a good flavour of the South Perth area including the farming landscape. For dinner I went to the Balti Indian restaurant, and retired early to bed I had a hike planned for Sunday.

Australia – Return to Perth

Following a project conference call on Thursday, and changes to our original plans, we decided I would be better for me to be where the action was in Perth a week earlier than anticipated. Hotel arrangements were changrd, flights adjusted, and I was set to fly back to Perth on the Saturday. We tried for a Sunday flight but due to flight cancellations caused by strong winds during the week, flights were at a premium, and Saturday was the only practical option, which was a shame because I had planned to meet up with a school friend who was passing through Sydney on holiday.

I planned on an early night, and luckily the false fire alarm was just before I was about to retire. The fire brigade turned up and everything, they switched off the alarm and we all returned to our rooms. The alarm was very effective, it made voice anouncements, and it closed all the fire doors, however there was no evidence of staff checking that everyone was accounted for. I was in bed early enough, and got up at 06:30 so that I as not rushing, I had a hire car to fill up and return, and the airport was unfamiliar.

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800 I could not see any spare seats. I had a window seat and enjoyed just staring out and trying to spot vehicles on the dirt tracks, which stood out from the trees and other vegetation. Soon after take off I thought this looks a lot like the Blue Mountains, and then when I looked directly down I saw the Three Sisters at Katoomba which I had visited a previous weekend.

There are plenty of entertainment choices and I opted to watch an episode of Coast Australia, followed by the film Hidden Figures. The flight time would be 5:05, but strangely the return journey is only just over 4 hours, I’m guessing that the prevailing winds at altitude account for the sigificamt difference. A from work picked me up from the airport, he lives in Sydney but decided that flying back to Sydney just to do washing and return, 10 hours in a plane, was a waste of time.

I checked into the hotel and we agreed to take a stroll and I suggested the Perth Mint which I had spotted a few weeks back. The entrance for a tour and a look at the museum was $18. It was worth the effort, we got a bit of history, a multi-media experience, a look at the world’s largest coin, 1012kg, the chance to lift a gold bar (very dense), and a demonstration pouring of a gold bar.

We took a wander down to the water front and then went back to the hotel, and met up in reception for an evening meal. We walked up the road to an Indian restaurant I had fish curry which was nice and coconutty, and just about the right heat for me.

Australia – Bouddi National Park

After some internet research the night before I decided to head north of Sydney to a peninsula just south of the Central Coast, to have a look at the Bouddi National Park. I had found a walk that takes in forest and sea views and beaches. The plan was to park at Little Beach parking hem walk to Killcare surf club then take a more direct route back.

I left Sydney at abut 8:30 and was parked up at 10:00. The journey was mainly motorway, which gave me a chance to think about how they build roads. There is a lot of rock removal, at times the road was carved through tens of metres of rock, on some sections they had left a strip in the middle to serve as a central reservation. The most spectacular points were where there was a turn off in a cut through it was like the canyon I has in had another canyon going away to the left. I have come to the conclusion that Australia is just a big rock with a thin layer of dry sandy soil topped off with trees.

The path started to descend from the car park and then left the Little beach path and headed very steeply up hill in a tight path through the forest, this was to be the theme of the day. At the top of the hill I was on a wide track with low bushes. I spied the odd bird but most were the familiar ones. After a kilometer the path headed steadily down hill for quite a while, then as I could hear the sea it started to descend very steeply till it reached the bottom of the valley. A small cover where the sea smashed against large boulders was revealed. I sat a watched the waves for a while before tackling the up on the other side of the valley.

In total I think I counted 5 down then up sections all equally as long. One of the highlights was Maitland bay, where the coastal path is on the beach rather than high up on the cliff, the final section of path is a very well made steep set of steps made of brick shaped lumps of rock. My timing wasn’t perfect as the tide was in, and the waves were reaching the bottom of the rocks for a couple of sections. I had passed a couple on the steps so I assumed that had made it past the rocks. I had to get my timing right, I read somewhere that every seventh wave is a big one so I waited for a big one then made my way in a few legs across the beach, and managed it without getting wet feet. My perfect timing inspired a couple who had been waiting the other side to give it ago. At the end of the beach the path headed up to the top of the cliff again.

Before tackling the steep up, I stopped off at the end of the beach and watched while a couple flew their DJI drone. The path was again, like the day before, really well marked and when there was a sheer drop railing and wooden walkways made the going safe. At the top one cliff there was a large area of rock some of it washed away to reveal almost square sections, like terracotta tiles. The people flying the drone on the beach turned up and flew it from the top of the cliff from a look out I was sitting at. We chatted and he showed me the features which really make getting great footage easy. For example you can ask it to circle about and keep the camera on you, or fly up high, or fly away then come back, all you have to chose is how high or haw far then press a button and it does it all autonomously.

Eventually the the path duped me on to the final beach, an I realised that I would have to take a more direct route back to the car. Google said it was about an hour and a half back to the car via the road, not ideal but I could not face the cliff path again I had already walked 7 miles. The route took me through a housing estate with little traffic for a while, where I spotted quite a few birds. It was getting a bit hot so I had to go easy on the water I had, but at a small information shack by the road side a volunteer let me use the staff kitchen to fill up my bottle. The walk back to the car was about an hour and a half, some sections quite steep but not as bad at the coastal path. In all I had walked 11 miles.

The drive back was quite busy and I could see smoke from bush fire turning the sun red. I stopped off at the local supermarket for supplies and a tuna steak and chips from the amazing fishmongers, so I could get an early night after a weekend exertion.

 

 

 

Australia – Circular walk from Garrawarra Farm to Otford and back

Walk from Garrawarra Farm to Otford

Having done extensive research I settled on a walk along the coast south of Sydney, in the Royal National Park, it is a circular walk starting at Otford Rail Station, to Garrawarra Farm carpark. One way is up high and the other is down near the sea, I opted to start at Garrawarra and go close to the aea, so I could get a coffee and cake at Otford before walking the high road which is slightly shorter and does not involve steep down and up sections.

I left the hotel just beforeI08:00, and took the M7/5, and A5/6, the drive was just around the 90 minute mark. I nearly missed the car park road because it is not a road but rather a track, that leads to the car park, it was 1.5km long and quite rutted, but the hire car made it ok. I was surprised at the size of he car park at the end, there was room for a couple of hundred cars, but there were only about 20 parked up. Parking was $12 which covered the park entrance fee.

Walk from Garrawarra Farm to Otford

The track was well sign posted and led me through the forest, and was downhill and quite steep, very rocky and covered in roots. I could see the sea before I saw it, but when I did the view was fantastic. I could see the bright exit of the forest and once out there was a great vista with Burning Palm beach at the bottom. Interestingly there were lots of shacks and a life guard hut down there, however there was no road in. I passed a guy with a large water container on his back.

I had a wander down on the beach, and dipped my toes into the Pacific Ocean, and grabbed a few shots before heading up and over the outcrop. I had hoped to get a look at Figure of Eight pool but the tide was wrong, and there was no way to get to them with the sea up against the cliff bottom. Given the remoteness of the walk it was surprisingly busy, I passed people once or twice a kilometre.

The path eventually gained height very quickly for quite a while which made sense given I had walked a long way down hill to get to the beach, I would definitely take the flatter path back to the car. I came across a few more people as I got closer to Otford, including a kind couple, with camera gear who patiently figured out the names of the birds I had seen from my vague descriptions.

The path dumped me on a road, and I checked the map there was a coffee shop about 500m down the road, The Otford Pantry provided a cake and coffee and a water bottle fill. The couple I had met earlier were also in the café. I took my time earlier my snail, a literal translation of the French pastry Escargot, it was lovely and doughy, with just enough raisins and crème patttisier.

Suitably rests I headed back the way I certainly until the track split and I took the high road, i.e. one that does not descend the reascend, as I had already done that. I passed quite a few large plants which are just a bit taller than me and consist of broad long leaves growing out from the ground and bending away from the center, like a large climb of grass. Some has a long shoot at least, and often more, the height of the plant it self, about 2m high. The shoot has a large complex dark red flower at the top.

The walk back to the car park undulated just a bit. It was interesting to see the usual plants. At one point I saw a large ground bird with an interesting curly tail, it was scratching the ground looking for food. I got close enough for a look, I think it might be the bird on the NSW wildlife reserves logo. It was only 15:00 when I got to tg car so it drove down to take a look at Bundeena a village at the end of the peninsula I was on. It was a sleepy little place with a ferry quay and a golden sandy curving beach, with houses with beach front locations. I wandered around and got some pictures while the sun was low on the sky.

The drive back was interesting because I took the route that took me across town rather than round. I got off track a few times but satnav soon put me right again. Helen called at one point it was great to catch up a by voice rather than text a as we had been for the last few days. Iropped the car off at the hotel then headed over to the nice Italian called Il Lago, I had tagliatelle with chilli, tomato and crab, it was delicious. I spent the rest of the evening developing my photos and trying to figure out where to go on Sunday.