Author: rodney

So today was the big winery day! Andrea and Bessy work at the YHA, cleaning up the rooms and common areas and generally making it look spiffy. I saw a walking vacuum cleaner in the common room early in the morning and was perturbed until I saw it was just the vacuum cleaner wearing Andrea for propulsion. They stay for free in exchange for work. A lot of places that cater to backpackers in Oz have this kind of arrangement, according to Andrea. She’s doing this because picking fruit for 10 hours a day is not her cuppa tea (she’s English).

Andrea on the left side from LHR, Bessy’s to her left from YYZ
Florio also joined us. He’s from northern Italy. The part of Italy where they learn German in addition to Italian and the nearest airport is in Austria (?). I think he was either camera shy or was taking pix of the girls too. He learned english in four weeks using CDs and books and he’s more articulate than many of my frens in SF. Of course a lot of them are in IT so they speak an completely different language.

Today was the first day of me driving on the “wrong”, erm, “other” side of the road (thx, Christine! =P), It was a bit of a white knuckle ride getting from SYD back to the hostel. Unfamiliar roads, fast traffic on the RIGHT and right turns added up to thrills galore.
Since I now had passengers and they had stuff, I figured that getting a bigger car than the Toyota rollerskate I had originally reserved was a good idea. I wound up with a Ford Falcon XR6. Not bad! It’s rear wheel drive, solid and not bad to drive. Why can’t Ford US build them like this?

These girls had a lot of stuff. They filled up the boot and the part of the interior that they weren’t sitting in. In short, we packed up the car (backpacks, bags, my roller and go-bag, skateboard and surfboard) and took off across the Harbour Bridge northbound around 1400.
Some on the road silliness:

Lisa #1 (because I met her first) in the backseat, drowning in luggage.

Luggage!

A very serious me, trying not to drive the wrong way down the highway

Lisa #2 (because I met her after Lisa #1) in a neat shot. I like this one.
After 2+ hours of Portishead, a meal and gas break and mixed roads, we arrived at Newcastle and their oceanside YHA. Originally the plan was to drop them off at the city center, but that wouldn’t be right, would it?

The open road
I eventually made it to Cessnock, the city in the Hunter Valley where my hostel was. I wound up taking the long way around, but didn’t know it at the time. All I did was ask “where’s Cessnock” and got there eventually. I arrived around 2000. In the dark. But I got a room all to myself, yay! After 5 days in an 8 bed dorm, this is a welcome change. I met the other guests and the staffers and wound up organizing a self-guided winery tour. Self-guided = map and recommendations. That happens tomorrow. It’s going to be fun!
It doesn’t look far on the map, but 40% of the journey was on highways with the rest of it on freeways. But strangely, it wasn’t that bad. Australian drivers generally follow the rules of the road. Stay left. Pass on the right. And I didn’t see too many overt acts of stupidity. I found out later that it’s illegal to talk on cell phones while driving here. Also to eat or drink while driving. And despite Australia’s reputation as a hard charging, hard partying, hard farting people, their drink-driving laws are pretty stringent.
Hope you two made it to Brisbane!

Was wandering around the Bondi beach area when I saw these places:


I dun think they’re related to the places in LA that I remember. Ha!

Today is the first day when it’s not even threatening to rain. Yay. I even got to sleep in for a bit.
Big Hostel is right next to Chinatown (which, btw, is ROCKIN’ on Saturday nights) which means that decently priced (as opposed to bargain-priced) food is close by. I was steered toward a dim sum house called Regal. Had yum cha there. It wasn’t bad. The siu-mai was a bit dry and the mango pudding was kinda bland. Otherwise, not bad. Their daan taat is very good and they had these mango pancakes on the cart.

Naturally, it came out last, so full, cannot eat. Grrrrr.
Since it was a sunny Sunday, it was a good day to go to Bondi Beach. There was a flea market in one of the schools and a lot of people about.

Sunny Sunday at Bondi Beach

Appropriate advertising…

Sunbathers on the sand
Bondi is a top optional beach and I figure that 40% of the people about were sans top. No pix though. So get your hom-suppy minds outta the gutter, this ain’t that kinda blog!!! In the words of Ice Cube, “…today was a good day”
Some pix of the neighbourhood too. If Newport Beach became a big ass city, it would become what Sydney is.

I could live here…
This little doggie was waiting in front of the restaurant for 2 minutes before I snapped it. Either was really hungry or a good subject…

Since it’s really THAT impressive, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

These are the fabled Blue Mountains.
The haze that envelopes them is blue. The legend back in the day before they were crossed was that China and freedom waited for whoever made it across.
Remember that Australia was settled primarily by convicts…

These are the “Three Sisters”, one of the most photographed sights here in Oz.
They are a rock formation high up that guard the entrance into this valley. Wah.
Once the train arrived at Katoomba, there is a tourist bus that runs the circuit within the town, hitting several vista points and areas to hike in. If you’re planning a day trip, get the combo train/bus ticket at Central before you leave.
You begin your hike at the top and work your way down. Very down. Because you’re really high up. Check out the pic below and note the heads at the bottom for scale.

There are a lot of people who hike this trail so unless you go off of it, there’s no worries about getting lost. These three are students from New York and the Clairmont Colleges who are doing a semester abroad in Melbourne.

Yeah, you meet a lot of people traveling. Fun!

An abandoned “State Use Only” train stop on the way to the Blue Mountains

Today is an excursion to the Blue Mountains for a much needed nature walk.
Needed like a hole in the head.
But it is one impressive sight and a wonder of nature. I’m taking CityRail to Katoomba, the town that serves the tourist industry that is the Blue Mountains.
The ride there is two hours in each direction so that will give my feet ample time to recover from the thrashing (and blisters) they got on the other day’s Coast Walk.

中環? No, this is a diff Central.
I like to travel by train, provided the rail network is expansive and isn’t a complete rip-off (saaaaay, like Amtrak. Or British Rail). Most of my train experience involves Asian trains. The MTR. MRT. Tokyo Metro. JR. Even, to an extent (because of value for money), China Rail. I’m used to punctual trains. Which CityRail isn’t!
I haul ass from one end of Sydney Central to the other because the train is scheduled to leave at 11:07 AM. Turns out I didn’t have to run. Or walk. Or even get to the station when I did. The train left at 11:28 AM. Then it went hella slow. Then it stopped dead a few times on the way out of town.
Feels like British Rail.
Speaking of old trains, check out the interior of the train I was on.

hey, the 70’s called and they want their color scheme back…
These are similar trains to what they run within Sydney. Heavy Rail. Imagine if CalTrain ran the Muni Metro with its own cars. Comfy.
Finally, we got some speed up and off we went. Whoosh. What will I see on the two hour journey there?

Now imagine yourself on a ferry boat coming back from Manly Beach, passing close to the bridge with cheesy Cantopop in the background…

“Stick a fork in me, I’m done”

Bondi’s northern counterpart, a bit bigger, not as curved and more business friendly .

First you gotta take a 30 minute ferry trip from Circular Quay.

Once you arrive at Manly Wharf, follow the signs to the beach.
But first you walk the gauntlet of shops and restaurants.

About two blocks later, here you are.

It’s not as dramatic as Bondi with the cliffs that surround it. The ride here is more fun than getting off the Eastern Suburbs line at Bondi Junction and taking the X81 basi for 6 minutes.
So in the whole, it’s a trade off. Fun ride versus fun beach.