Monday April 28, 2014

We left Port Macquarie early as the forecast was for more rain.  It was a lovely sunny morning and quite warm.  We joined the Princes Highway and realized that this section of the highway was built and designed by a New Zealander !! Cycling along on a nice shoulder and we came to a bridge and they take the shoulder away.  Same thing happens when the road is widened to two-lanes, they take the shoulder away.  We found this all the time in NZ, but had not come across it in Australia before now.

One of the things we have been disappointed in is the amount of garbage along the road side, especially glass. We saw a garbage bin today.  It was located in the most oddest of places.  At the top of a hill with absolutely nowhere to be able stop to use it.  It had a large sign above it which said “Please dispose of your rubbish responsibly”.  Ralf and I could not stop laughing.

It rained briefly on the way to Kempsey and we didn\’t take any photos.

We arrived in Kempsey at about 12:30.  We are staying at a warm showers again tonight. Adam and Colette have recently opened a bike shop in Kempsey and it looks awesome. We had lunch and a wander around Kempsey then went back to the shop. We had a lovely evening with them, chatting about their new venture and our trip.

Sunday April 27, 2014

It was a lovely sunrise this morning.

We stopped at this lookout and spotted this storm cloud, I am not sure this photo really shows the depth of the storm cell, but it was a long way out and we figured it would stay behind us.

The road was undulating for the first part and then became hillier as we got into the outskirts of Port Macquarie and even hillier when we got into Port Macquarie.  Next week-end they are holding an Ironman competition in this area.  Those guys are nuts!  It starts with a 2 or 3km swim followed by a 185 km bike ride followed by a full marathon road race.  I will stick to my round the world bicycle trip a much saner thing to do.

This area must be the area for “Big Things”.  We passed the big bowling ball today, but didn’t stop to take a photo as I thought it was just to advertise the lawn bowling club.  I only found out that it was another “Big Thing” when I googled the “Big Axe”.  I will have to pay more attention to the “Big things”.

We arrived in Port Macquarie at around 10:30 and sat down for a second breakfast.  We knew we had about 40 ks to go to get to Kempsey and needed the extra energy:)  As we sat down to eat, the storm cell that we had taken a photo of earlier arrived in Port Macquarie and the heavens opened.  It poured and continued to pour for the next hour.  As I have said before Ralf and I are not made of sugar, but we really don’t like riding in the rain and this was straight down soaking rain.  We sat it out for a bit and then decided that Port Macquarie looked to be a nice place to stay for the night and we booked into a YHA.

Saturday April 26, 2014

We stayed last night in a lovely motel in Taree (Chatham Motel) it was clean and the owner was really helpful.

We left the motel at 8:30 and headed out of Taree to the A1 (motorway).  Australia like Canada has a variety of “Big Things” – road side attractions!  We have posted a few of them like the Giant Lobster in Kingston.  As we were leaving Taree we came across the Big Oyster.  We presumed it was a restaurant prior to becoming a car dealership.

Motorway cycling is the same as motorway driving – fairly boring but quick.  The road had an excellent full-lane for a shoulder which was surprisingly clear of debris.  We cycled the first 45 kms on the highway and then came of at a small Town called Kew.  The people at the Information Centre were very helpful with maps and directions.  But didn’t tell us why there was a ruddy great axe outside of their Information Centre.    Even after “googling” it we are still none the wiser why there is a Big Axe located there. Except it is another one of those “Big” roadside attractions.

We stopped for lunch at a little café and then continued on the scenic route to Bonny Hills.  The problem with the scenic routes are that they are generally narrower roads and the shoulders are variable.  Sometimes the car drivers are considerate and other times they are not.

Ralf and I have often discussed why there aren’t more bike lanes across bridges.  Today we found one, I headed for it, Ralf stayed on the road muttering something like I will never fit.  I got to a point of no return and realized that I couldn’t actually pedal on the bike lane because of the two barriers that protected me from falling into the river on one side and falling into traffic on the other side.  I also could not get off my bike to push it as there was not enough room.  I had to get off my seat and waddle across straddling my bike.  How ridiculous, but even more serious, this pathway is not even big enough for mobility scooters and they have to go on the road.

In Bonny Hills we found this lovely campsite at the top of a hill.  It is reasonably priced and very clean.  We arrived just after 12:15 pm, we could have continued to Port MacQuarrie – another 25 ks, but it is nice to finish early and get some washing done and  on the line etc.  We have great views of the sea and this afternoon we can relax a little.

We chatted for a while to a lovely lady called Carol.  Her grandson Oscar joined us and when she told him what we were doing he asked “Why?”  What a great question, Carol answered – “Because they can.” – Great answer.

Later Carol tried to show me a pod of dolphins, but it was getting dark and I couldn\’t see a thing.

Friday April 25, 2014

I was not really sure why we choose to stay in a motel last night, but thank goodness we did.

We were woken at 3:30 am by hail stones bouncing on the roof of the motel and the cars outside of our door.  Ralf opened the door and hail stones the size of a baseball (cricket ball) came bouncing into the room.  It was a storm that I haven’t seen in years, thunder, lightening and hail stones, it lasted for over half an hour.

Out of the cars in the car park 3 out of the 4 were damaged by the hail.  Most of them had damage to the windshields and/or dents to the roofs of the car.  If we had stayed in the tent, it would have been wrecked.  Maybe all yesterdays issues happened for a reason – if we hadn\’t arrived late in Bulahdelah at the time we did, we would have been in our tent through this storm.

At 5:30am the alarm went of and Ralf and I went over to the cenotaph.  The roads were covered in tree debris and I was surprised to see quite a crowd waiting for the service.  It was a very simple service to commemorate the ANZAC’s landing in Gallipoli.

As the service started it was dark and by the time it finished it was light.  The service was very moving and sincere. The Town’s population is approximately 900 people there were over 150 people at the cenotaph from a babe in arms to the veterans of the second world war.

The Pledge was read by the RSL President:

“To make peace the noble cause for which our comrades dies, we dedicate ourselves.  We believe that war between members of the human race is an evil thing.  We believe that all Nations should work together to secure a better and nobler life for all the world, to try and act on these beliefs”.

Ralf took these two photos in Upper Hutt in New Zealand.  I thought the sentiment and the statue was awesome.  We Will Remember Them.

This is the explanation of the statue.  I hope you can read it.

Friday April 25, 2014

Bulahdelah to Taree

After the service we went back to the room and prepared to leave.  Once again the heavens opened and the forecast for the day was rain and thunderstorms – a severe weather warning was issued for the Hunter area for the day.  We had to decide whether to stay or go, our neighbour in the room next door offered us a lift to Taree.  If we stayed we would have to spend another night in the motel, if we left we would have to spend a night in a motel.  After a discussion and check on the map to see if we would miss anything spectacular on the way we choose to take the lift.

We are now in Taree waiting for the rain to go away and we will carry on to Port MacQuarrie tomorrow.

The Blog is up to date 🙂

Thursday April 24, 2014

Up early and away by 8:00 am to catch the ferry from Nelsons Bay to Tea Gardens.  It was a lovely ride to Nelsons Bay, fairly flat then a couple of hills to get into Nelson Bay.  The temperature at 9:00 was 19 degrees and sunny.  Today was fraught with problems.

Problem number one – no directions at all to the ferry.  We eventually found it and tried to get on the next ferry at 10:15 – was not allowed on this ferry as it is too small to take the bicycles.  The next ferry was at 11:15. We had a two hour wait.

I was chatting to a couple of older guys who I told you see so much from a bike.  Not sure how I missed seeing this coming into Port Stephens.

This is Dutchmans Bay next to Nelson\’s Bay.

Problem number two – everything had to be removed from the bikes and the bikes had to be lifted on to the roof of the boat!! The little green boat is the same kind of boat that we had to lift our bikes on to.

When we got to Tea Garden we headed out towards the Myall Lake National Park.  It was a lovely ride all the way to the next ferry from Bombah Point.

When we crossed the lake on the cable ferry, we carried on the Bombah Point Road towards Bulahdelah, it was a rough gravel road.

Problem number three – 16kms of gravel road really tough on the hands.

Due to our delayed start we got into Bulahdelah at 4:00.  It gets darks by 5:30 now. There didn’t appear to be any camp sites here, so we opted for a motel. We also opted to go to the local pub for dinner.  On our way back we passed the RSL Hall – which had an ANZAC display.  We went in and looked at the display.  A group of volunteers had put together a display of local families that had served at Gallipoli and other wars.  We also found out the dawn service is at 6:00 am at the cenotaph.  The cenotaph is almost next door to the motel.  I plan on getting up early to go to the service.

I wanted to be in a small town to commemorate ANZAC day and I don’t think I could have picked a better town.

Wednesday April 23, 2014

After saying our thank-yous and farewells to Sue and Graeme we headed towards Stockton and Anna Bay.

We discovered there is a ferry from Nelson Bay, we can stay away from the busy Princes Highway for another day, although we still have to get around Newcastle and Stockton.  It seemed to take us forever to get to Stockton and pass the loading docks for the coal and over the bridge on to the more scenic route to Nelsons Bay.

Stockton has a port where Newcastle coal is loaded.  It is a huge port area and there were at least 6 ocean going tanker ships waiting to be loaded.  We thought it quite ironic that this lonely wind turbine – promoting green energy – stood in front of mountains of coal.

Once we were over the bridge at Stockton, we were in a more rural setting with bushland and some small farming areas.  We also passed a large airbase where fighter jets were landing.

We had a quick lunch in Williamstown and carried on towards Anna Bay.  You could buy your own castle here.

There are major road works happening in this area – 4-laning the road from Bob’s Farm to Anna Bay and Nelsons Bay.  The traffic was a bit busy but most cars passed us with some space.

We arrived in Anna Bay to discover there was only a caravan park with no tent sites available.  We were told there was a camping site about 1 km away at One Mile Beach.

We are staying at One Mile Beach at an expensive site with lots of amenities for kids and families and there seems to be hundreds of the little rugrats all over the place.  At the moment they are fairly quiet, hopefully they stay that way.  One of the reasons this place is so popular with families, is this very safe beach just over the dunes from where we were staying.

Tuesday April 22, 2014

Today was another rest day – I needed to get the taxes done and update the blog.  Graeme offered to take us around the area again and we took him up on the offer.  We went in to the wineries area and started drinking wine at 10:30 in the morning.  I was trying the Semillon and Chardonnay wines and Ralf was trying the Shiraz.  I think both of us had a bit of a buzz on by 11:30.  Graeme took us to four wineries, two smaller ones (family-run), one medium sized and a bigger more corporate one.

Graeme knew one of the people who works at this vineyard.  We got very personalized service and a lot of information about the area wine growers. All the tastings were free!

He also took us to a massive winery which all the tour buses usually stop at.  It had gardens and gift shops, very commercialized.  We didn’t do a tasting at this winery. We bought Sue and Graeme a bottle from one of the original smaller wineries, but didn’t buy any for ourselves as it is rather difficult to carry it on the bike.  The woman who is the Cellar Sales manager at Ivanhoe Wines is also from Nottingham (the world is getting smaller).

The wineries area was very pretty, but I am glad we didn’t have to cycle through this area, as it was hilly.

After we visited the wineries, Graeme then took us to the City of Newcastle.  It is a big city and has a large port for shipping coal and grain.  There is a lot of regeneration happening with plans for large apartment buildings.  On the outskirts of the Central Business District (CBD) were two very nice beaches.

We had a great day and saw areas that we would not be seeing on our trip as we are heading up the coast tomorrow.

Monday April 21, 2014

I was awake early as usual, but we were not going to leave until after 8:00 because the breakfast was free and we needed to get our key deposit back.

Last night we shared the hostel with a group of Irish/Scottish couples – the girls went out shopping in the afternoon and the guys were getting drunk in the hostel.  Why do I mention this?

At any of the hostels we have stayed at, we put our water bottles in the fridge in a bag along with any food that needs to be refrigerated.  We have not had any problems with people taking our stuff.  Last night, we put our water bottles in the fridge and added another bottle of water for our hydration packs that are attached to the bikes.  We needed to add another bottle of water in the fridge, so we used our wine bottle (rinsed of course).  This morning when we went to get our water bottles the wine bottle was missing.  I would have loved to have seen their faces when they thought they were drinking a nice glass of wine and it turned out to be water!!

Tonight we are staying with Sue and Graeme in Carey Bay (Toronto) we had met them in New Zealand (Masterton).

It was a lovely ride, fairly flat and bushland until we got to Morriset and then hilly into Toronto.  I love the names of some of the Towns,  so good they name them twice.

The roads were fairly good and for the most part had a shoulder. We arrived at Sue and Graeme’s just after 1:00 pm.  We had a lovely lunch and a nice shower and then they took us for a drive of the area around Lake MacQuarie.  The Lake is about 150 kms around and is very pretty with lots of nice little bays with coffee shops on the lakeshore.  It is similar to Lake Simcoe, except without the ice floating on it.

We also went out to the old mental institution!! This is an area that has hundreds of kangaroos.  Some people go out to this place and feed them (bread) not a good idea.  We could get quite close to them, but didn’t touch them.  As we were leaving we spotted these two having a fight.  Graeme was just saying they were playing, when they started kicking and scratching at each other – no they were really getting into it.

Best of all a mum kangaroo with a joey hanging out of her pouch – awesome.

Ralf caught this one, which I think the Joey looks very uncomfortable, maybe Mum is telling him its time to move out.

Sunday April 20, 2014

We are on the road again.  We decided to take the train out of Sydney to Gosford to avoid the traffic and I didn’t want to ride on a highway (motorway).

We were late leaving because my new tires were rubbing against my mudguards.  We spent about half an hour sorting out my bike and then we headed downtown to the train station.  The tickets cost $8.50 each for a 2 hour journey.  Because we started at the Central Station we were able to get the bikes in a carriage in a secure position and have a seat as well.  In NZ they had special areas where you could put the bikes, not in Australia.

When we got out at Gosford, we took the road to The Entrance. This is actually the name of a Town. It was quite a nice day, sunny and warm.  The route was very nice, a few hills out of Gosford and then flat to The Entrance.

When we got into The Entrance we went into the Information Centre and discovered that there was no camp sites available in the Town or up the coast, because it is the Easter long weekend and school holidays.  We are staying tonight in another backpackers hostel, it is clean and managed by a guy from Nottingham (small world).

The Entrance is famous for its pelican feeding.  At 3:30 every day the pelicans are fed, apparently it is very popular.  It started with the local fish monger feeding them the scraps at the end of the day, then the pelicans decided to wander up to the fish monger to be fed.  Now they get fed by a group of volunteers.

The Town is a very busy seaside town a bit like Wasaga Beach. There is a nice cycle path which takes you along the beach area for abut 14 kms.

Wednesday April 16 to Saturday April 19, 2014

Woo hoo we are in Sydney.  Twenty-nine years ago I had plans on coming to Australia, then I met Ralf.  We have finally got here together and I couldn\’t have wished for a better person to share this adventure with.  He is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Last night after we had settled into the YHA and had dinner, Ralf and I sat down and we both wrote down what we wanted to do while we were in Sydney. Then we checked each others list and they matched, the only extra thing on Ralf’s list was the Military museum, but not bad for 28 years of marriage and we still agree on things we want to do together.

We then had to decide when we would do what, not forgetting the essential stuff like updating the blog, and cleaning the bikes and planning a route out of Sydney to Brisbane.

We were both awake early and had breakfast and was out of the hostel by 8:30 am.

We decided we would check out the Harbour Bridge walk and walk inside the pilon, take in a tour of the Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay and maybe a ferry ride across the harbour.

We decided not to do the Bridge Walk, it was too expensive and although we would probably have got some awesome photos we decided we could get some good photos from the top of the “pilon”.

We walked across the Bridge and up the pilon and then had lunch on the other side of the harbour.

Ralf has got some great photos of the bridge and the Opera House.

After lunch we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and wandered up towards the Opera House.

We were going to do the Tour of the Opera House but unfortunately we couldn’t get in because Will and Kate were due to arrive.  Bloody royals spoiling my plan.  Thinking of my friend Celeste, an avid royalist, I said to Ralf it would be really neat if I could get a photo of Will and Kate for Celeste.  We waited for them to arrive and then had to wait an hour and a half for them to finish their engagement inside the Opera House before they came out to greet the crowd.  Ralf got a great photo of them.

Thursday April 17, 2014

Today’s plan was to have a wander down town, get my tire replaced and check out bike shops, camp stores and just take in the atmosphere of the downtown.

This is the part of Sydney where we are staying, it is about 2.5 ks from the downtown and is very Bohemian – that is what the guide book says anyway. We were awake early again and after breakfast we walked towards the downtown area.  We spotted a local bike shop and popped in to see if they had any Schwalbe tires for my bike.  Yep they had the perfect tires for my bike, we walked back to the hostel for the bikes.  They replaced the tires and the tubes, Ralf also got his bike checked out as his back brakes were rubbing. His wheel needed to be trued.

After leaving the bikes at the bike shop, we continued to walk downtown again.  I stopped at a hairdressers and got my hair cut.  While we were downtown we checked out 5 other bike shops and no one else had 26” touring tires.  We also found the street that has all the camping/outdoor stores.  We both would really like to find a decent pillow.  The two things we really miss, are good towels and good pillows. Whenever we get to a warmshowers or stay in a motel/cabin it is so nice to have a good pillow and a fluffy towel.

Throughout the downtown of Sydney they had these statues of rhinos – there were about 100 of them in different guises.  They were going to have an auction at some stage in the future.  Joy I have put a bid on this one for you!! Not really.

This guy was a \”living statue\”.  We saw him again later when he was putting his stuff away and he told us about the busking licenses they have to get and where he can perform.  Apparently there are discs embedded into the side walk with letters in them for instance QP which means quiet performance area.  All the buskers have to get a license and abide by what the disc indicates – quiet, musical etc.

We have found a difference between the people who stay in backpackers/hostels and camp sites/caravan parks.

The campers we have met are primarily that, on vacation and staying at a camp site for a week or so.  They are generally interested in what we are doing and where we are going etc.  Some of them are permanent stays, but are still very friendly and like to talk about Oz and the Town we are staying in, giving us advice where to go and what to see.  Backpackers are not always young people, we have met a range in ages from 18 to 60.  Apparently there are 40,000 over 60 year olds ‘travelling’ and working in transient jobs throughout Australia every year.  The lady I spoke to was over 60 working in a variety of tourist related jobs around Australia.  She had decided to do it for 2 years and is still travelling and working 2 years later, she intends to carry on doing it for as long as she can.  The other backpackers are generally younger people who are on a ‘gap’ year and are travelling from one place to another.  Some are working, but they stay at hostels with other backpackers and in my opinion do not always get to see and talk to regular Australians.  We are so fortunate in the way we are seeing this country and able to talk to the average Australian, especially when we stay with warm showers hosts.

Friday April 18, 2014

We actually had a lie-in, until 8:00 am.  We made a lovely breakfast of cheese omelette and fruit salad with yogurt.  It kept us going for our visit to Bondi beach.  One of the things we have noticed about backpackers is their very unhealthy eating habits.  Part of it is because they don’t know how to budget and cook but today we watched a young couple eat the most unhealthy, bizaare breakfast ever – Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits) dunked in milk followed by white bread, also dunked in milk.

Today we took a bus to Cogee and then walked along the coastal route to Bondi.  When we arrived in Cogee, Ralf noticed this sky-writer and pointed it out to me.  I gave him a big hug and pretended that he had done it for me. People around us thought it was lovely.

It was a long walk about 7.5 kms but very nice.  There were a lot of people walking the route as it was a lovely warm day.

Ralf had to go out on this ledge.  I was having kittens and got annoyed at him, he could have fallen to his death. I thought I had better get a photo of him before the ledge broke off!!

We had a second breakfast at a café in Bondi, then had a wander along the beach and caught the bus back to the hostel.

Yeah I have actually been to Bondi Beach.

The YHA here offers various activities and different meals for a good price.  On Wednesay night when we arrived we joined them for their pizza night $5.00 a pizza.  Today, Friday is BBQ night, BBQ and a beer for $5.00 each can’t complain at those prices.

Saturday 19 April

Today\’s plan was to clean the bikes, visit the local market and go to the Convict museum.

I cleaned the bikes while Ralf headed into Town for a much needed hair cut.  He looks much better now.  I must admit I was beginning to nag him.  He had never let his hair grow this long before.  He hadn\’t had it cut since leaving Canada in December and he was beginning to look a little unkempt (in my opinion).

After a quick lunch we walked to the local Saturday market.  We thought it might be a farmers market but it was actually a market with local crafts, food and clothes.  We both enjoy wandering around markets, even if we are only window shopping and not in the market to buy anything.

We then caught the bus to the Historical Barracks, which houses the convict museum.  It was really interesting, you could type in your name and find out if you had any convicts transported from England.

Now my maiden name (Hall) is quite a common name and that is probably why there were 10 pages of Halls that were transported to Australia – not one of them, am I related to according to my Dad!!  There were only about a two pages of Coopers (my Mum’s maiden name) again it is a very common name.

We are now getting ready to leave Sydney tomorrow and head up towards Brisbane.  Our last leg of the Tour de Down Under.