After several hours we had travelled a good way and by mid afternoon drove into the driveway of old friends who had invited us to spend the weekend with them at their new home in Somersby, only 1 hour north of Sydney.
They had moved from the UK to Sydney approx 18 years previously for a 1 year work secondment, fell in love with Australia and it's way of life so stayed on and some while ago became Australian Citizens
Their house is on a hill and has far reaching views across forests to the ocean
Both KC and her daughter are huge horse lovers and explained that after years of living in central Sydney and keeping their horses at livery they were now realising their dream of having their own equestrian property. They had recently installed an impressive stable block and contractors were building an arena but due to a huge storm some months back and other 'issues' it's completion had been delayed by weeks, hopefully this will soon be finished
We had a walk around their land which includes an attractive lake that also provides them with freshwater as the house is not connected to mains water
It was getting late in the afternoon and it was surprisingly cold, maybe 6 or 7 degrees max. I had known that I was visiting Australia during the winter time but in my ignorance had not expected it to be this cold! Apparently the Sydney area was experiencing an unusually cold snap and some high areas, such as Barrington Tops, might even get some snow that night.
We had a lovely sunset that evening and enjoyed the warmth from their log burner, fuelled with their own logs-a happy by product of the storm. Having lived in Singapore for 18months it was wonderful to laze in front of a real fire again.
The following morning; we set off to visit the Hunter Valley and a spot of wine tasting. Driving down their drive KC pointed out several Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos, these are large birds and were very noisy. I failed to get photos of the very pretty and smaller pink and white Galahs also flying around
We stopped for a late breakfast at the quaint village of Wollombi, with it's old colonial architecture and old world general store
On the cafe verandah a customer was hand feeding a bird some scraps of food, he said it was a Blue Faced Honeyeater, it was pretty brazen and not put off by the comings and goings of everyone
The countryside around us was very pretty and quite rugged but initially there were no sign of any vineyards. Then the landscape became more open and the vineyards, or wineries as they call them here, started to appear, lots of them in fact
We stopped at 3 of our friends favourite wineries and at each tasted their wares, which included not only wine but olives, olive oils and citrus fruit products all of which grow well here
HT is not an avid wine drinker and initially was not that keen on tasting the wines but soon got into it. At Tulloch Winery they had a lovely old delivery car that had been turned into a table
I liked the way they have used empty wine bottles stacked up to create the room partition in the photo below. It was funny when KC's bag caught on one of the bottles causing several to fall, luckily none were broken and we put them all back before anyone could see
As we came up the drive to the next winery we saw lots of Kangaroos and Wallabies in amongst the vines. We could see more clearly the difference between the two species-Kangaroos as well as generally being bigger have very long fore arms whereas Wallabies have shorter and better proportioned forearms
This chap was huge, he must have been at least 6 ft tall, his tail was thick and looked incredibly powerful, it certainly gave him rock solid support as he stood up
Our next stop; Tinklers Winery lies at the foot of an inactive volcano, although I couldn't actually see what looked like a volcano nearby, the wines were however very tasty
Driving through the area we passed several larger scale wineries that I recognised and had often bought their wines back in the UK, such as McGuigan and Lindemans, it was interesting to see where they actually come from but I was pleased that we had visited and supported the smaller firms that day
Here's HT, KC and her 2 rescue dogs; Tetley a lovely cheeky terrier and Runa a Huskey with very beautiful blue eyes and gentle temperament
It was time now to say goodbye to our friends and head to our last destination;Sydney, where we had to return our hire car. PC was able to give us excellent directions so the nerve wracking drive into central Sydney passed without any wrong turns, I was very excited to actually be drive over the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge!
We checked into the Sydney Harbour Bridge YHA and checked out the amazing view from their roof terrace. This particular YHA hostel is expensive by hostel standards but the view alone was worth it, on top of this we had a room with ensuite bathroom and tea/coffee making facilities, youth hostels seem to have moved up in the world.
The hostel was also very well sited in the Rocks area of Sydney a lovely historical area with hidden stairways
between sandstone buildings
We went out to explore, it was a another thrill for me to see such famous sights up close and walk around them in such lovely weather. Harry had been here several times and was more blasé about it all
We took a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly and on the way had great views of the Bridge
and the Opera House
and a tiny fortified island; Fort Denison in the middle of the river. Here, in colonial times, recalcitrant convicts were isolated and some were executed.
We landed at Manly and walked through the town to the beach and on to...
Shelley Beach, the only west facing beach on the western coast of Australia-apparently
and then up on to the headland to the lookout point with extensive ocean views
We later returned to the ferry and back to Sydney as the sun was setting and we had one last wonderful sighting of a whale breaching in the harbour itself
The Opera House at night...
and at dawn, what an iconic building
On our last full day I went for my usual morning walk whilst HT had his usual lie in. I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens.
This iron sculpture called A Folly For Mrs Macquarie, included a ceiling of skulls and bones representing the animals that once lived in the area, barbed wire walls and a lattice roof work representing the Norfolk Island Pine fronds
Below is Mrs Macquaries chair. Mrs Macquarie was the wife of the Governor of Sydney in the early 1800's. Major General Macquarie arranged for convicts to carve a seat into this sandstone rock so his wife could watch ships coming into harbour
This is Government House which had been the home of NSW governors until 1996 and is still used for weekly meetings and hosting visiting heads of state and royalty
One particular plant that I had seen close my friends house was also in the Botanic gardens-its the Gymea Lily and the flower spike was about 10ft high
That afternoon I surprised HT by revealing that I had booked for us to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb.
We arrived for the 3 and half hour experience, got changed into special jump suits, put all our loose belongings in a locker including cameras, watches and even hair clips, in fact anything that could fall off and endanger pedestrians and car drivers below us. We were fitted with a headset and radio so we could hear our guide, and a harness with attachments to clip onto the safety lines. We went through to the practice area where we instructed in the correct way to climb the ladders and steps.
And then we stepped through the door into a tunnel that would take us out onto the bridge.
This photo is of a previous group, looks a bit like prisoners heading off to their prison!
The climb was exciting and good exercise as there were over 1330 steps but it didn't feel terribly exposed although we could see the road and river below our feet most of the time.
The views were absolutely amazing as we had such a clear day. We could see all of Sydney, the whole Harbour and the Blue Mountains over 70km away. It was a shame we couldn't take photos.
At the top of the bridge at 440ft from the water below, we stood close to Blinky Bill, the nickname given to the light at the very top, and two flags, the one on the right is the Australian flag and the left flag is the Australian Aboriginal flag designed in the 1970s as a symbol of the unity and identity of Aboriginal people
The Bridge Climb was an exciting experience and seemed a fitting way to celebrate our successful and very happy road trip together and was further complimented by one more fabulous sunset
The last morning together we had time for a late breakfast overlooking the Bridge and the Opera House whilst been watched by some Rainbow parakeets
and then it was time to say goodbye and make my way back to Singapore. HT has stayed on in Oz for a few more weeks and returned to our friends to help put up fences and saw up some of their fallen trees.
I'm looking forward to seeing HT again very soon and also at some point hopefully to returning to Australia as there's lots more I would love to see, it might of course take several trips as it's an awfully big country!
