Thursday 23^rd Oct

Today we travelled by rail up to the Hawkesbury River meeting up with our friends Ann and Charlie on the way. Surprise, surprise I had everyone up by 0600 and we were on our way walking to the North Ryde rail station by a little after 7.00am, our train wasn’t due until 7.52am therefore allowing plenty of time for Nancy to do the 10 minute walk, which actually takes her 20 minutes (sore back and all).

We normally cut through the caravan park and out the back gate this is no shorter but it avoids walking on the roadway where there is no footpath. When we reached the back gate it was locked and the sign said ‘Gate locked between 9.30pm and 7.30am’. Kidding that didn’t send the old girl into a tizz, all of a sudden the casual stroll had to be upgraded to a brisk walk, bloody hell it was bad enough getting up at 6.00am now we’ve got to rush. Being the rat I am I didn’t tell her we had heaps of time.

We met up with our friends at the next station and two station further on we made a train change to an inter city unit. Sitting in the upper level we were all talking at once Nancy and Ann recounting the last couple of days, Charlie and myself discussing Caravans. Charlie is quite deaf and although he wears a hearing aid he talks at the top of his voice so the whole carriage can hear his conversation and he’s a real character. As the train pulled into one of the many stations a lady passing us as she alighted suddenly rapt hard on the carriage wall and snarled “Quiet Carriage”. We all sat here in stunned silence for a few moments looking at the sign she had been belting and reading ‘This is a Quiet Carriage keep chit chat to a minimum” etc etc. How embarrassing, talk about cringe.

At a little riverside village called Brooklyn after a coffee and muffin in a local café we boarded the Riverboat Postman for a mail run cruise up the Hawkesbury River. This very popular cruise is always booked out and no wonder, you are greeted with morning tea on boarding, then the vessel travels upstream delivering mail and various items to the numerous inhabited islands on this beautiful waterway while the skipper gives an interesting and at times tongue in cheek commentary. After about 1½ hrs of travelling upstream along one side of the river the vessel turns and proceeds to return downstream on the other shore, a ploughman’s lunch is served up followed by tea and coffee, there’s also a bar for those that wish to purchase beer or wine. In between eating we sat at the bow enjoying the scenery and commentary, taking happy snaps and soaking up the 27C temp and blue sky we hadn’t seen much of since being down here.

Thoroughly enjoyed it all, highly recommend it but pick the right weather and bookings are essential.