David and Enid's Travels

We stayed in Narrabeen today. This morning we packed up our cabin (except for the refrigerator) and loaded it into a truck which the dealer loaned us for the morning. We then drove to the dealership and got our RV registered and insured. We were back in the campground by noon and went over how to set up the motorhome with the salesman. He left, and we tried to warm up hamburgers in the microwave. That was a problem, since while the light and fan came on, and the turntable worked, it wouldn’t heat anything. We had to remove the trim around the microwave in order to get it out, and we then dropped it off at the dealership. They are either going to get it fixed or replaced.

Next we went back to the small mall here and purchased more things we need, including a couple of outdoor folding chairs, a folding ourdoor table, and other things we need. After supper tonight we unpacked quite a bit, got all of our groceries put away, and our two big suitcases emptied. We still have a bit more room in the motorhome, but do have some more things to put away from our backpacks. There is quite a bit of storage underneath, so we should be ok,

After a stop at the RV dealers to give them final instructions on the height we want the table cut off to, and to check when we can pick up our motorhome tomorrow morning, we drove the rental car into Sydney.  We turned the wrong direction as we left the freeway, but were able to sort out the right route really easily.  We got the car back to the rental location in time that we got a reduction of one day on the cost.

We took the train into the central business district where we stopped at the bank again to get our purchase of the car finalized, and get a debit card.  There is a free shuttle bus (number 555) that travels around the central area of Sydney, which we took to Circular Quay, the harbour front, where we ate lunch beside the Sydney Opera House. 

We spent the afternoon in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, which have a large variety of plants.  Most of the plants are not indigenous to Australia, but were imported by early colonists.  As well as the plants there were a large number of big fruit bats, “Flying Foxes” that were hanging in the tree tops, and flying about.  They are a pest and the park is trying to cut their numbers down.  They have stripped the leaves from the tops of many of the trees.

We continued on around the park for several hours, then walked back to Wynyard Station where we got the bus back to our cabin.  We got off the bus one stop too early, so had to walk an extra 500 m, which we really didn’t need to do, since we had a lot of walking in the heat today already.

When we left the caravan park this morning we saw our first parrot, and a number of different birds in the botanic gardens, including some cockatoos.  We stopped at the gift shop in the gardens and bought a field guide to Australian Birds.  We also wanted a field guide for flowers, but couldn’t find one that we really liked.

It was the first really hot day we’ve had, with a temperature that was forecast to go to 27°C and it must have been close to that.  Some large thunderclouds built up later in the afternoon, and on tonight’s news they showed large hailstones falling somewhere in Sydney.

It was a very nice day today, sunny and warm in the mid 20’s, with a light breeze most of the day.  After picking up some groceries for the next two days (since we won’t have a car after tomorrow, and won’t get our motorhome until Tuesday we will have no way to shop) we drove north about 20 km to the end of the “Northern Beaches”.   Here there is a long beach, Palm Beach, and Barrenjoey Lighthouse on a head.

We hiked up to the lighthouse, a fairly steep climb on the Smugglers Cove trail, which is about 500 m long, and carved into the side of the hill with stone steps.  It was built by five convicts and was one of the access routes to the lighthouse.  There is another longer but less steep route that was used as a road to construct the lighthouse, but it is currently being rebuilt and isn’t open to use.  The views from the top of the head are very nice.  You can see for many miles in all directions.  We ate our lunch on a rocky point a few more hundred metres from the lighthouse overlooking Palm Beach and Little Head to the south.

After we came down we walked along the beach for almost an hour.  We did stop for a while to watch a fisherman in the surf.  He seemed to have something on his line, but after at least fifteen minutes of trying to land it, he broke his line so we don’t know what he had caught.

Tomorrow morning we will check in with the RV dealer, and then take our rental car back into Sydney.  We plan to spend the day in Sydney seeing some of the sights, so hope that the weather is as nice as it was today.

It was very wet during the night, and very cold in our room. I awoke not long after going to bed, and got another blanket to put over us. That helped, but I was still cold through much of the night. This morning I was able to get some heat in the room, so that it was much more comfortable by the time we ate breakfast.

After that we went for a short walk along the beach at Narrabeen. There are many beautiful beaches north of Sydney, and this is one. A few hardy surfers were out early in the morning. They also have breakwater pools that you can swim in. There was one man doing laps, but he was wearing a wetsuit. The water was not very warm. A couple of men were also standing on the pool edge and fishing in the surf. A quad with two surfboards atop came down to the edge of the lagoon where it empties into the ocean, and planted a sign, but we were too far away to read it. Next we walked along the trail to the top of Narrabeen Head, a cliff of perhaps 50 metres high, with spectacular views both north and south along the coast.

We went back to the motorhome dealer and took another look inside our vehicle. We want to get the table lowered about an inch, as it’s just uncomfortably high the way it is. We also looked through it carefully to try and decide what we wanted to purchase in the way of supplies.

We spent the rest of the morning shopping and gathering prices at a small mall just north of here. We discovered a better grocery store than the one we were in yesterday and bought a few more groceries. Then we drove south to where we had seen a camping supply store on the way up yesterday, larryadler.com, which sells Marmot equipment. We bought a tent – but not a Marmot tent, just a much cheaper dome tent. We hope that will be adequate for the few times we’ll need it. I guess we’ll see in just a couple of weeks as our first camping in it will be in the Whitsunday Islands. We also bought a small butane stove and a fuel canister.

Next we continued farther south to the Warringah Mall. This is a very large mall with many stores. The parking lot was packed, and we had to drive around for a long time to find a spot. We stopped in Target to look for some sheets, but couldn’t find much that were priced low enough, though we did get two good pillows. Enid asked a lady who was also shopping where the best place to buy bedding would be, and she indicated “Big W”. It turned out that was an excellent suggestion, as we were able to get almost everything we wanted for our motorhome and probably saved over 20 or 30 % from the other stores we were looking in. So we now have a lot of the goods we’ll need, such as a toaster, tea kettle, pots, some dishes, and bedding. It was a productive shopping trip, and we have enough to make our motorhome useable now.

We have just made our first foreign investment, our new-to-us motorhome.  We came up north today to Sydney RV Centre where we purchased a Mazda “Leisure Seeker” motorhome.  It was built in 2001, but only has 26000 km on it.  It’s built on a truck chassis and has a 4.6 L diesel motor with manual transmission.  Because of the size of the motor it is well powered, and climbs the hills where we test drove it very well.  It will take a while to get used to shifting with the left hand, another thing to learn to do on a right hand drive vehicle, but I didn’t find it too confusing during the test drive.

We spent a bit more on it than we had planned, but it is very nice and clean, and has a layout that we really like.  Anyone that would like to see the details of the vehicle can do so here http://sydneyrvcentre.com.au/slideshow.html?id=494 (at least for a while, though I suppose that this link will someday disappear).

We are now in a small cabin in the Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park where we will be for the next few days.  We should be able to pick up our RV on Tuesday morning, and then the company will host us here for a couple of days so that we can check out the motorhome and make sure everything functions up to spec.  Since there is very good bus coverage from here to Sydney we will be doubtless be visiting Sydney over the next few days.

We touched down right on schedule this morning at 9:30 Sydney time. It was somewhat overcast, and the temperature was about 15 º C. Later on it rained a bit while we were in the central business district and right now in the evening, it appears to be turning very stormy from out our hotel window. For us it felt like a very nice late spring day.

We took a shuttle van from the airport to our hotel – the Airport Ibis in Mascot – and then after a shower and cleanup, headed to the business core of Sydney. There is a train station just about 500 m from our hotel, so we walked to that. We only had Australian fifty dollar bills, and the ticket dispensers wouldn’t take anything that high. Without a ticket you can’t get through the gates, so we were stuck until a ticket clerk saw us and let us through. They do have a ticket wicket, but it’s on the inside of the turnstiles so I’m not quite sure what good that would be. The train is a double decker, and really is a subway for much of it’s travel from the airport to the city centre, only coming above ground once in the middle of the track.

I was very confused about direction. That is very unusual for me, as normally I have no trouble telling which way I am going. Not so today. It was cloudy, and rained some while we were in the city centre, so there was no sun. But since it’s to the north of you, I find that confusing in trying to decide which is east and west. We had a print out of the Google map of the city centre, but it wasn’t in enough detail to see all the streets, and when we came up from underground in the subway, we were turned around and walking the wrong way. We walked quite a bit farther than we needed to, but asking people on the street got us pointed in the correct direction.

The 48 Martin Place office of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a magnificent building. It has high ceilings, probably 30 or more feet high with green marble columns to an ornate gilded roof. The tellers were behind a high wooden wall with old style metal grills. The bank is obviously very old, and very large for the number of people that were inside. However, it is also the main commercial bank for Sydney.

Next we stopped in a computer store to inquire where the Telstra store was. We walked through downtown Sydney, which is a very nice city with an interesting mixture of new and old architecture. At one point we saw a Tiffany’s on one side of the street and Prada on the other, so it certainly wouldn’t take long to spend all your money.

When we returned from central Sydney we walked a couple of miles to the shopping area of Mascot. There we got a bit of groceries at the IGA – enough for supper tonight and breakfast and lunch tomorrow. So we have our phone, our banking sorted out, and now will be starting to look for our motorhome tomorrow. I don’t relish the thought of driving. It’s a busy city with heavy traffic, and of course it’s all on the wrong side of the road!

From Saskatoon to Vancouver, via Calgary, today is the start to our adventure in Australia.  It was great weather all the way, with just light cloud as we passed over the Rocky Mountains.  Now we’re just killing hours in the Vancouver airport.  We passed some of the time this afternoon with a game of Scrabble, which I won.  I’m sure that will mean Enid wants to play another tonight, so that I don’t break her winning streak for too long.

It will be a long fifteen hours in the plane tonight, but at least it is at night, so perhaps we’ll be able to sleep.  In any case, we’ll be in Sydney in just about 24 hours from now.  I’ll be journalling our travels daily in this blog for those interested in following our journey.

This is our last weekend at home.  We didn’t avoid all the winter snow, as we had our first snow of the winter this past week.  Ice has started to form on the river, and the geese are now flocking there, for all the sloughs will now be frozen and the river is the only open water left.  This morning was beautiful on the riverbank with hoar frost on the trees.  We will miss the winter activities – skiing, snowshoeing, winter camping – but we are also looking forward to our travel in the warmth of Australia where we will spend much of our time in different outdoor activities there, like snorkelling and kayaking.