Beautiful morning in Leura. Crisp and sunny, a perfect day for some bush walking. We had scoped out the different walks from literature picked up at the tourist information in Glenbrook (the very beginning of the Blue Mountains). Wanted to take a leisurely walk in the morning before heading out to Sydney sometime mid-day. There are a couple of waterfalls and good lookout points in Leura, so we decided to do our walk in town, and not drive to other sites.
Walked down to the lookout called Sublime Lookout Point for a look at the three sisters (a very neat rock formation) and then, from there walk through the bush to Gordon Falls. Depending on time, we’d continue on to Leura Falls or just head back to the hotel. The walk to the lookout didn’t look too far on the map – so off we went. Fortunately we are early risers – and love to walk! We headed out about 6 am, and walked, and walked, and walked! The map was “rubbish” as we heard one Aussie explorer remark later in the morning.
The walk to the lookout took us a good 45 minutes – and it was pretty strenuous. Nice in the weather, and the view from the point was sublime. Like looking out over a forested Grand Canyon – fabulous vistas across rolling green mountains, the mist hanging in the valleys and a good view of the three Sisters rock formation (if you knew what you were looking for!). Leaving the lookout, we diverted off the main street looking for the path to Gordon Falls that showed on our map. Wandered through scrub brush at the end of the street shown to be the trail head – but never found a thing (remember the map is rubbish!). We could see a path further down the mountainside heading in the right direction, but we couldn’t find any way to get there. Thoroughly frustrating! So we headed back the way we came – and bushwalked through the streets of Leura. Probably a lot safer activity as later in the day there were news reports of a lost bush walker whose body had just been found in the same basic region (further out than we’d ever be, but still! Two crazy Americans walking through the bush with little other than a bottle of water and a map that was rubbish! Make that 3 bodies……)
So, disappointed, but completely exercised, we showered up and drove around to some of the look out points on the Grand Circular Drive in the Blue Mountains. The sites were all really incredible and we were very glad we had made this little stop over, even if the drive on Saturday was brutal.
Ended up heading back in to Sydney very early, hitting the road about 10:15. Very easy and quick drive into town – we arrived at the airport to drop off our rental car in 1 ½ hours. While the drive is simple, one word of advice to driving visitors – Sydney has things called the “links” on their highway system. These are expressways that “link” major roads to one another – almost like a little beltway or loop system. The warning is that these links (or at least the one to the airport that is shown on all the maps and even on the highway directional signs) are toll roads. Fine you say, so what? Well, they are electronic toll roads – no cash, no tickets, no nothing. You have to have a sticker or an e-pass to use the roads. Of course, you don’t know that until you are on the road and see a bizillion signs about no cash, no tickets. There are also signs telling you to call 13-toll or go to their website if you don’t have a pass. Gee, how nice! So, long story short, ends up we had to set up a visitor’s pass on the web site to pay the 6.15 Aud toll, with a .75 Aud charge per trip and a 1.80 Aud set up fee (on the web, 3.30 via phone), completed by providing your credit card information. In addition, don’t forget to make the pass expire (or in Aussie terms: set a date of expiry) – because of course – it’s a rental car! If you keep the pass open for the whole length of the typical Visitor’s pass (30-days), you’ll end up paying every time that car goes on that road. As it was, the earliest we could set up the expiry date was April 17 – so we may get stuck with another toll or two. Charming!
That little incident aside – we are in Sydney! Very exciting as we take a cab into town for our hotel. Tell the cabbie where to go, but don’t have the exact address, just know the name of the hotel and it’s between such and such a street on Park. Even showed him the map. We head into town, it is a very quick drive, only about 20 minutes or so, and the cabbie pulls up to 27 Park, where he insists the hotel is located. No signs, just a big plate glass door on a busy street surrounded by coffee bars. We tell him it’s not right, he insists it is. Ed gets out an checks, comes back, tells him it’s not right, it’s an apartment building. Cabbie insists it’s right. Cabbie gets out and checks with the coffee shop next door – they say it used to be a hotel, but now it’s apartments. Cabbie thinks this is fine!
Finally we get him to keep going down the block because we’ve noticed he is one block short of the hotel. It’s right on the next block, we can see the sign. He starts driving, we tell him to stop, here it is. He keeps driving. “Sir, stop, it’s right here, see the sign”, he keeps driving. “Sir, Stop!!” Finally, the guy pulls over – finally in front of the hotel. Too funny!
Dump our bags at the hotel (too early for check in) and off we go. We walked the whole CBD (Central Business District). Walked down George Street, the main shopping drag with everything from souvenir shops to Gucci and Hermes. Headed into Circular Quay and watched the ferries, looked across the harbor at the Opera House and made it to the Sydney Harbor Bridge Pylon. We chose to climb the pylon instead of the bridge for a couple of reasons: 1) we could do it at our own pace, take our own cameras and it only takes about 15 minutes – the bridge climb takes about 3 hours once you go through all their rigmarole (including a breathalyzer test) and you can’t take a thing up there with you, they take your picture and then you have to buy it; 2) it was 18 Aud compared to 400 Aud. Hmm…… The view was fantastic (and really only 40 metres shorter than the bridge climb anyway), we took loads of pictures and stayed up there for quite a while. The inside of the pylon is also a museum dedicated to the building of the bridge and it was quite interesting as well. Did you know they used 6 million rivets on the bridge?
Down off the Pylon, and into Circular Quay. Had a refreshment at one of the many restaurants on the broad promenade around the Quay, then headed over to look at the Opera House up close. Fantastic building! Walked back to the hotel by way of the Botanical Gardens (skirting the outside of the gardens) and Hyde Park (lots of British references here, for obvious reasons). Rested up a bit before heading out for dinner in a section of town where there are “reasonable” restaurants (we asked the Tourist info gal for cheap places to eat and she directed us to Stanley Street).
Really fun little area, lots of little Italian Trattorias, a Sushi bar, Mexican place, etc. We ate at a place called Giardinetto’s – which was cute and lovely and bustling. Food was great – Barrimundi with Lemon sauce and Veal with red wine sauce, shared calamari appetizer. Everyone there was doing BYO – it was only a 4 Aud charge, so one couple even left their table to go out and buy a couple of bottles of wine right in the middle of their dinner!
Back to the hotel to drop exhausted into bed!
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