Six weeks through the fifth continent
11th day:
This morning (it was the 24th December) we started about 8 a.m. The weather was very unsteadily: bright sunshine and heavy rain took turns and so that we could not go as fast as we wanted. We drove via Rockhampton to Maryborough, where we had `All you can eat`-lunch at Pizza Hut. In Australia they call it `works`, but that does not mean that you have to work for it... Then we continued our travel, went to Gimpy and made a trip to the Glasshouse Mountains. These are a couple of rocks that raise from the lowlands. They got their names from Captain Cook, who remembered the chimneys of the glass factories in England, when he passed this coastline in 1770. Late in the afternoon we arrived in Brisbane and rented two rooms for the next days in a motel. Then we went to the South Bank Parklands, a big park at the bank of the Brisbane River, where they have a lot of restaurants, two large swimming pools with palm trees and beaches around and even a christmas market. After we had eaten something we strolled thru the market until we became aware of the people walking to the boardwalk. So we went down there too and so participated a big christmas party with a fireworks as a great finish.
12th day:
The morning of Boxing day. We wanted to stroll thru the city and parked our car in a parking garage. But in the Queen-Street, the big alameda of Brisbane, everything was closed due to the holy days. So we decided to have breakfast in the only restaurant that was open (even Mc Donalds was closed for christmas) and then to walk on a sightseeing tour, we read about in our tour guide. We also read, that in the early morning and late evening dolphins can be watched at North Stratbroke Island. So after our sightseeing tour we went to Cleveland to inform about the ferry timetable. Unfortunately only two ferries were available per day during the christmas days, at 11 a.m. and at 4 p.m., so we gave up the plans for watching dolphins there. We went back to Brisbane and watched out for lunch facilities. On our way we saw a Sizzler´s (a steak house chain), but there was no way to get a table there without any reservation. Even all the fast food restaurants were closed except the Red Rooster, but there we did not want to eat a second time. So we were lucky to find a `King Chicken` that was open this day. We drove to Mount Coot-Tha then, where we had a wonderful view over Brisbane. From there we went to the Lone Pine Koala Park, but it was closed already and so we were very disappointed, went back to our motel and spent some time at the pool. In the evening we went out for dinner into a chinese restaurant at the South-Banks, where we did not need a reservation. Later we planned the route for the next days. Because most places in Brisbane were closed for christmas we decided to leave this city next morning and hoped to get refund from the host.
13th day:
The eve before we had already told our host, that we want to leave one day earlier and we gave us back the money for this one day. So we had no problems to continue our travel. At a gas station we bought something for breakfast because most of the shops in the city were still closed. We drove some kilometers along the Gold Coast and made a short stop in Surfers Paradise. But in fact is was not like paradise there because they had built some hotels directly at the beach and the rest of the city ist minted from hotel towers too. So we went on immediately and were in Byron Bay at noon. This is the most easterly point of the australian mainland and so very attractive vor tourists. Of course we visited the lighthouse but we did not walk the steep trail down the cliffs. In the town center of Ballina we made another short stop for lunch, then we left the Bruce Highway that keeps following the costline to get more into the hinterland. We came to Casino, where they had a small pool that was inhabited by platypuses, but we were told that these shy animals are only to be seen at dawn, but we did not want to spend the night there. We continued our way and reached Glen Innes late in the afternoon. Here it seemed that time has been standing still for years, the town looked like in the nineteenfifties. We found a motel quickly, left our baggage there and walked thru the town. The visitors information was closed due to the holy days and moreover it was some minutes past 4 p.m. already. We informed about sights and walking tracks in a map and became aware that there was an old celtic monument on a hill nearby. We jumped in the car and went there at once, it was really not far away...we could have gone there on foot. Something like Stonhenge has been built there at a big glade, some monoliths were standing in circles and we thougt they should represent some kind of calendar. The assembly had been built to remember the first celtic immigrants in Australia. We decided to drive to Inverell now, because the dusk had still not began until now. Inverell is one of the bigest centers of saphir mining in Australia. On our way we passed a saphire museum but it was closed. So we got doubts if in Inverell anything would be open but we continued the trip. Meanwhile it got darker and darker and so we had to drive carefully if we did not want to knock down a kangaroo crossing the road. And some minutes later we saw a kangaroo beside the road indeed. Of course we stopped to take some photos but the kangaroo was very shy and vanished into the forest. We went on for a few miles but turned back soon because it was too late to do something in Inverell now. Back in Glen Innes we watched out for a restaurant for dinner, but there was not a big variety and so we got into a pizza booth finally. Actually these `Eagle Boys` were a delivery service, but there were a few tables too, and so we decided to have dinner in this shop. We ordered two big pizzas and four cups of Coke, but the employee got problems with this order anyhow and so he recommended some special offers to us and it got cheaper every time. Finally we got four carlic toasts, two big pizzas, six chicken wings and two bottles of Coke for about $25. This was a really good deal, because for that what we wanted originally we would have payed about $34...and the pizzas really were excellent. And so we `rolled` back to the motel late in the evening...
14th day:
We left Glen Innes and drove along the New England Highway to Armidale. There we had breakfast at McDonalds and continued our travel. When we reached Tamworht we left the Highway to make a trip to Nundle. We were told, that here should be an old gold digger town but what we found was not even a town, not to mention an old historic center; they did not even had a pub there. The visitors center was closed but we read some notes that nearby was an old gold mine still working. So we went on immediately and after a twenty minutes walk we arrived at the Dead Horse Gold Mine. 120 years ago thousands of people worked here, today there was only one single digger who gained a digging license and still found some remarkable nuggets. For A$5,- per person we could visit the mine, he showed the old and his new tunnels to us and he explained his further plans. He hoped to find once a 600 pound nugget and to retire then; till then the few nuggets he finds and the money he gets from tourists like us must be enough...
After this we returned to the highway, where suddenly heavy rainfalls broke in on us so that it was almost impossible to watch as far as five meters and the windscreen wiper were overcharged by far. But anywhen we were trough and could make another trip from our way to the Burning Mountain. This is a hill where coal seams inside glim since thousands of years. After a 30-minutes-walk at a didactic path we reached the top, where it smelled like brimstone and sometimes we watched a small column of smoke coming from inside the hill.
We continued our travel and arrived in Muswillbroke at 4 p.m. where we stopped at McDonalds again because we did not eat anything since breakfast but hiked a lot after all. In the evening we crossed the Pacific Highway near Newcastle and arrived in Nelson Bay a short time later. This is a very pupular place for jaunts from Sydney and so it was not surprising that now during the holidays there was almost no vacancy anymore. After we hunted thru the whole town for an accommodation we were already on the way back to Newcastle when we found a double room in the last motel, but for A$138 indeed. The hostess was very kind and so we got some additional blankets, took the mattresses from the queensize bed and so we all could sleep in this room, even if we had to pay A$20 extra. Our hostess helped us to book a dolphin-watching-tour for the next morning and then we went to the alameda for dinner. In the Fisherman´s Wharf Restaurant they had a delicious all-you-can-eat-buffet with more than seafood only and so we stayed there for a while. Finally we were the last guests and around they started to tidy the room. When we left the restaurant at 9:30 p.m. we read that they normally close at 9 p.m. ...
15th day:
We got up at 6:30 a.m., because a 8 our dolphin-watching tour started and we wanted to have breakfast at the alameda before. When we arrived there wa saw a lot of people getting aboard and so we decided to buy the tickets first. As the captain told us that the ship will leave in fifteen minutes, we got doubts but a look into the travel guide made it clear. The day before we crossed the line between Queensland and New South Wales. It was still the same time zone, but in Queensland they did not have the summer time, so we should have adjusted our watches the eve before...and suddenly we thought back to the restaurant and its business hours... During the boat trip in the bay the weather was not ideal, nevertheless we could watch a few dolphins passing the boat in groups or single. After the tour we took the car to Mungo Beach at the other side of the bay. If you go the dunes up you can see the ocean in front of you having a big lake in the back that can be crossed by a car ferry. For lunch we drove to Pizza Hut in Newcastle, where we had all-you-can-eat again. Then we drove via Cessnock into the Hunter Valley, one of the best known wine growing areas in Australia. Here a couple of vinyards are at close quarters with many hotels and boarding-houses inbetween. After searching a while for an accommodation in our price niveau we got a two sleepingroom suite with big bathroom and whirlpool for A$135 at the Hermitage Lodge. Most of the wineries closed at 4 p.m. already and so we only found one where we bought a bottle for the evening after a short tasting. We went in our hotel restaurant for dinner, where we had a really good (and expensive) meal after all the fast food of the last days. The rest of the evening we spent in our suite, where we watched what we had filmed until now while we drunk the wine from the Limestone Winery.
16th day:
On this day we wanted to visit the Hunter Valley with iths many vinyards. Most of them do not open before 10 a.m. so we could sleep late. We had breakfast at the terrace of our suite and left at 9 p.m. In all wineries you can taste several wines and of course you can buy it too.
Due to the need of a license for serving alcohol in Australia the winetastings are basically gratis, no matter how many wines you may taste. Therefore a bottle of wine is quite expensive. In the morning we visited seven wineries, where we tasted about three or four wines in each of them. Even if this were small tasting glasses the alcohol showed its effects already and so we decided to have a break. We went to Cessnock and had lunch at a KFC´s. Strengthened again we continued our tour through the vinyards and visited four more winieries before we got back to the hotel. Later in the afternoon we drove to Cessnock again for shopping where we bought a big pack of wine (five liters, but even cheaper than one or two bottles and it tasted not bad) as like some cheese and olives. We did not want to go out for dinner this eavening and so we had a snack at McDonalds before returning to our hotel. Here we finished with the day at our terrace having the cheese, the olives and some glasses of wine.
17th day:
After breakfast we drove a quite lonely road up to the Hunter Valley Lookout. From top of a hill we had a wounderful view over the whole valley with its many vinyards. Then we left the Hunter Valley and went to Katoomba, the main town in the Blue Mountains. In a small restaurant, a bit away from the town center, we had lunch and then we drove to the Evans Point Lookout. From there we enjoyed the view over the Grand Canyon of the Blue Mountains. We went on tu the Skyway, a scenic ropeway crossing a 250 meters wide and 300 meters deep canyon. The cage goes from one edge almost to the other, it does not reach the other end but returns to the starting point. On the way you have a breathtaking view into the canyon, at a weterfall and to the Tree Sisters, the best known rocks of the Blue Mountains.
From the Skyway we walked along the edge of the canyon to Echo Point, where we had another beautiful view to the Tree Sisters. After a short visit into the visitors center we stepped down a steep stairway with nearly 1,000 steps into the canyon. After about 40 minutes we reached the other side, where a rack-railway goes up, back to the Skyway station. But we had missed the last tram and so we had to climb up the Forbes Steps. This way was straining but marvellous, passing a waterfall, some caves and a couple of beautiful lookouts. In the meantime the dusk started and so we continued our travel to Sydney. About 8 p.m. we arrived there and watched out for our hotel - the only one we prebooked from Germany already because we guessed it would be difficult to get a room on New Years Eve. We were quite tyred after this long day and decided not to go out for dinner. So we contented with the rest of the cheese and olives and of course some wine before we went to bed.
18th day:
Today was the 31st December and we wanted to stroll thru Australias bigest city. In our hotel we bought a Sydney-Pass, with that you can get reduced entry fee at some sights and all public conveyance (including the ferries) are for free for three days. Then we went to Hungry Jack´s (the australian Burger King) for breakfast. From there we took the City Rail to Circular Quay. This is the main traffic junction, from here the ferries leave in any direction and a couple of busses and even the City Rail stop at Circular Quay. Firstly we walked to the Sydney Opera House. At the one hand it looks unique and marvellous from outside, at the other hand we were dissappointet about the inner design, at least from the entrance hall. We got the feeling to be in the main railway station. From the Opera House we walked thru the Botanic Gardens passing the Governments House to Mrs. MacQuires Point. This is a chair chiseled in a rock (for the wife of the former goernor MacQuire) which offers a beautiful view around the bay. Here we got into the City Explorer Bus. This busses go every 20 minutes on a two hour city tour where they give hints and information about the sights. We got out at `The Rocks` and strolled a while thru this old district. After a little lunch snack we walked to the Harbour Bridge and got up one pillar. There is an exhibition about the bridges history inside and from top we had a nice view to the city, the opera, Darling Harbour and the suburbs.
We went back to Circular Quay and took a ferry to Darling Harbour, where we had a cup of coffee and bought some donuts for the breakfast next morning. Then we went to St. Martins Place where we took the City Rail back to our hotel. About 8:30 p.m. we got off again with the rest of our five-liters-pack of wine and two bottles of sparkling wine to get to the harbour for watching the long promoted New-Years-fireworks. But even before arriving at Circular Quay we heared the salutes and saw light and when we got out of the train we could watch the last minutes of the tree-million-dollar-fireworks. In Sydney they have a great show at about 8:30 p.m. where people go to. It finishes with a magnificent fireworks and then people go home to celebrate the new year with their families. Of course we were very disappointed and perplex. We decided to sit on the steps in front of the opera and to wait there for midnight. But it was not easy to get to the opera yet because thousands of people came from there right now. After about one hour of pushing and pitchforking we managed this 500 meters way and set on the steps in front of the opera and by far we were not the only ones. At midnight some boats made a little fireworks but it was not the high spirit like three hours before.
19th day:
This morning we slept late, brewed some coffee at about 9 a.m. and had some donuts for breakfast. Then we went to Circular Quay by bus where we took a ferry to Manly, wher the great Oceanworld is the main attraction. We asked for special events there and were told about the shark feeding at 2 p.m. So we had enough time for a dinner. We found a pretty nice cafe at a corner where we got an excellent barramundi fillet (a native fish). After dinner we visited the Oceanworld. There we could walk thru ducts from glass with a couple of fish swimming around...including some really big sharks. Furthermore they had a pool with seals, one pool with turtles and they teached a lot about seaplants and sea animals. At about 2 p.m. two men dived into the big pool and started feeding the sharks and we could watch it in the glass ducts. After this we went back to the ferry to get back to Circular Quay. But this time we took a CityCat, a fast catamaran which is two times as quick as a common ferry boat, then we went back to the hotel by the City Rail. Here we took our car and drove out of the city on the highway to Kiama. This small town is famous for its blowhole, a hole in the rock, where a seawater fountain speeds up several meters at stormy weather. But unfortunately the weather was not as stormy as necessary for this spectacle. So we kept on driving to Bundanoon, where we wanted to visit the Glow Worm Glen. In this glen glowworms are to be seen after dark, but when we arrived at the path leading to the glen it was not dark indeed and it started raining. So we decided to watch out for a restaurant for dinner and finally got to the `Old Heidelberg`. This was a very snugly tavern serving excellent german meals. The hostess immigrated from Cologne 41 years ago and we talked togethet a while. When we left she gave us an acommodation guide covering the whole Australia where almost all hotels with address and prices were registered. This was very useful for us in finding accommodations for the next days and weeks. Now we went to the path to the Glow Worm Glen again. It was about 9:30 p.m. now and absolutely dark. We stumbled the way along using a flashlight, reached the glen after about 20 minutes and saw a couple of glowworms there indeed. Then we returned to our car and drove at the Hume Highway back to Sydney where we arrived at midnight.
20th day:
We only had a coffee in our hotel this morning and then took the City Rail to St. Martins Place. From there we went to the Sydney Tower and got up for a view. Then we went to the Circular Quay and made a harbour cruise. Following we strolled thru the city on seperate ways. We, Doreen and me, went to the Queen Victoria Building, a big and quite exclusive store. In the ground floor there we bought two sandwiches for lunch and went to the Hyde Park then. We visited St. Marys Cathedral and took a bus to Bondi Beach then. This is the most popular beach of Sydney, here was a high spirit comparable with Surfers Paradise at the Gold Coast. We looked around for some minutes and sipped a cup of coffee in a small cafe at the alameda. Then we returned to the city center. We went by bus to Bondy Junction, where we shopped a while and then took the City Rail to Central Station. So we were even faster then the bus from Bondi Beach to the city. From Central Station we walked to the Market Place, another big store, and from there to Chinatown, where we had an excellent dinner. Finally we went back to our hotel in Kings Cross, where we wanted to meet our friends again.
Together we went to the Hars Rock Cafe into the city. Here it was quite crowded and it was not possible to get a table. Anyway we already had our dinner, so we sat on the bar for a drink. On our way back we visited some shops in Kings Cross and in a small boutique I got some nice shirts, even cheaper than in the city center.