31st Oct 2014

Friday 31^st Oct

No wonder we are all sneezing it went from 30+ degrees to 5C overnight and back up to around 30C again today.

Armed with a couple of trees worth of pamphlets from a very well organised information centre in the city, we headed to the ‘Old Parliament House’ where we had a light lunch (yes it was that time we had a late start, at 5C you have no show of getting Nancy out of bed until the place heats up). Then we joined a guided tour that turned out was just us three and a very nice and knowledgeable lady guide.

From here we went to the Australian War Memorial and were just in time to join the last tour of the day. World War 1 main display is being re-vamped and overhauled for the want of a better term and unfortunately won’t be re-opened until December however there is a temporary section that is very interesting and although I feel fairly well informed regarding ‘The war to end all wars’. I still get astounded when reading the statistics of every nation involved at the total waste of young lives and the futility of it all and countries continue to do it somewhere in the world for one supposedly honourable and just reason or other.

Are wars and epidemics such as Ebola just another form of attrition in the scheme of things.   

We stayed for the closing ceremony and Last Post that the Hon Dr.Brendan Nelson introduced as a daily commitment to the memory of our fallen in all wars and although it is a short ceremony it is symbolic and no less meaningful than a full blown ANZAC service and the large crowd that gathered for it was testament to that. We plan on making several visits to the War Memorial but will keep them short so we don’t become museum-ed out.  

I have found a strong WiFi in the Canberra Visitors Centre across town so will be able to up-date periodically. I'll try photos next.

30th Oct 2014

Thursday 30^th October 2014

Getting away from Lane Cove at 9.00am we had a straight forward run down M2 and M7 to Canberra although we were punching into a pretty strong wind on our starboard quarter and that makes vans move about a bit and increases fuel consumption considerably. Stopping once for a rest break and the obligatory coffee we finally arrived in Canberra and found the Fyshwick Caravan Park sometime early afternoon. None too soon as far as I was concerned by the time I had set everything up including the tent I was feeling quite grotty with this head cold, virus thing that seems to be hanging on.

29th Oct 2014

Wednesday 29^th

Rest day – although most of the day was taken up with washing and preparation to re-locate from Sydney to Canberra. Wednesday evening we had dinner at Ann and Charlie’s, we are going to miss them when we move on, they are great friends and we have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them having some good laughs and reminiscing about our time together travelling around Australia.

28th Oct

Tuesday 28^th Jenolan Caves

Early start (about 0730) we joined the morning peak hour traffic out of Sydney enroute to Jenolan Caves by way of the Blue Mountains and pleased we weren’t towing the caravan. Fortunately as we passed by major suburbs traffic density started to reduce allowing our travelling speed to increase gradually up to the signed limits. It is only about 180 kls to Jenolan Caves but with heavy traffic and extensive roadworks on the moutains it seemed to take a long time to get there. Mind you the road from the highway down into the caves locality isn’t conducive to high speed travel, in fact several sections are only one way, so sensible driving is necessary.

We booked on two guided tours both 1½ hours each the second starting ½ hr after the first one’s finishing time allowing time to grab some lunch.

Lucas Cave was the first one we toured it is 860m long and you negotiate 910 steps doesn’t sound much if you say it quickly, ask Nancy about them. As the brochure says. “An awe inspiring cave containing the highest and largest chambers. One large chamber is called the Cathedral where weddings have taken place and operas have been held. Nancy particularly wanted to do this cave as her eldest sister Betty also sang in it many years ago.

Being a largish group we were a little slow going through the Lucas cave and when we eventually emerged there wasn’t enough time to grab lunch before our next tour started, which really didn’t worry us at that stage.

Orient Cave was our next tour another 1.5 hrs, the length of this cave is 470m and better still only 358 steps (I’m sure Nancy was counting them). According to the glossy, the ‘Orient’ is one of the world’s most beautiful caves. ‘A dazzling visual impact which is just overwhelming – rich crystal decorations beautifully illuminated by the latest technology lighting.’

It is all it is cracked up to be and we all were in awe of its natural beauty. At each observation point in the cave the guide would turn on individual spotlights to emphasise a particular highlight, he would then talk about it and then repeat the process with other highlights eventually turning them all on together. It was all quite breath taking and we were so pleased we had toured the other cave first and had unknowingly left the best to last.

Emerging from this tour once again we were well behind schedule and discovered the lunchtime hot food was off so we settled for tea and coffee and decide to get a meal on the way back through the Blue Mountains at one of the numerous little cafes that dot the region.

Nancy decide she wanted a wood fired Pizza - we diverted off the highway so many times into villages sure we would find something but to no avail. Would you believe it once the main tourist run is over the places close down. So we continued on home and had a light meal in the caravan. – Another fabulous and rewarding day.

Sunday 26th Oct

Sunday 26^th

Track work was being carried out on the local line over the weekend so buses replaced trains between two stations. So bus, then the train into the city – big ferry from Circular Quay across the harbour to Manly on a perfect day 30C, fish and chips at Manly (as you do), ferry back to C/Quay, train two stops to Town Hall and wait nearly ‘three hours’ while David does the sky tower thing (I’m sick of coffee) train and bus home. Yes and all for $2.50, another great day but too late for dinner.

25th Oct

Saturday 25^th Oct

Once again I shall rave about Sydney’s public transport system. We boarded a fast ferry at Meadowbank 10 to 15 minutes from our friends place. These ferries travel all the way to Paramatta but we were heading in the other direction toward the city and enjoyed a scenic trip through the waterways to Darling Harbour where we alighted for a walk around and had a look at Packers new casino well under construction. Next to the casino construction site the state government is re-developing the remainder of the point called Barangaroo, where the over-seas cruise ships used to berth. In keeping with heritage I believe it is being established back to how it was originally. I wonder if Packer contributed to any of that to get his approval? After spending sometime wandering around Darling Harbour and checking out the very obvious female hostesses on what was obviously to be a bucks party cruise, we once again hopped onto another fast ferry for the run around to Circular Quay. From here we strolled up-town checking out the old buildings, and taking in good historical information that our well informed friends passed on. Eventually we got to Hyde Park where a Noodles festival was being held there must have been every type of Asian food available from every Asian country, a bit like Mindil Market in Darwin only this was just food. After spending a couple of hours there and of course indulging, we wandered back down through town to Circular Quay and did the reverse trip only in the dark which was a whole new ball game. – A glorious day and no clouds.