Land of Kangaroo - New South Wales (Final Part)

Day 9 : Camden - Wollongong - Lane Cove

Another day passed with a complex emotion. Happy that I was still in Australia to observe, appreciate and enjoy the wonderful places that He created, and sad because the trip was almost coming to an end, and highly motivated to spend more time in Australia in the future.

The morning was pretty nice and great. We were neighboring with 2 guys from Victoria. I couldn't remember their name but one of them used to work as military medical caregiver in Butterworth around 1960s. He approached us when he knew that we were Malaysians. We had a long chat and they were chatty type and fun to be with. One thing I love about Australians, they are friendly and helpful. Not to say our Malaysians are sucked but most of the people there would greet us with either 'Hello' or 'Good Morning' whenever they pass by. 


We packed everything and checked out from the caravan park. Our initial plan was to head to Wollongong straight from Mittagong. But then we diverted to Camden when we saw a road sign to Camden after the exit at Hume highway. We didn't know what do they have in Camden but since we have ample time, we just rely on the roads signs. We couldn't find the TIC so we parked our motorhome at the center where a museum, the city council, old police station, fire station and library were located.

Camden City Council

Walking without the guide of map and not knowing the attractions were not one of our best. After taking photos of the Camden City Council, we returned to our motorhome, and head for Camden TIC which is 1.4 kilometers away. The TIC was a small cottage transformed to an office. There, we were told that Mt. Annan Botanical Park was worth visiting. And before leaving Camden TIC, we grabbed several small souvenirs. We headed to Mt. Annan Botanical Park and the weather was cloudy and grey. 

Camden Tourist Information Centre

One of my shots in Mt. Annan Botanical Park

This plant is really odd. It has small yellow flowers and its fruit resembles mini pea pod.

This is not a duck. It looks like a duck

The dried form of this flower is frequently used to make handcrafts sold almost everywhere in Cameron Highland

Next spot was Wollongong. We drove until Wollongong city and then made way to Wollongong Harbor. It was not a huge harbor but it has 2 lighthouses, the old and the new. I was not so sure which is which but I one thing I knew, this was my first 'close encounter' with lighthouses. There were two lighthouses, one was exactly at the harbor, and the other was larger and located a few minutes away uphill from the former. I guess I have a thing for lighthouses. Errr...that does not mean I am the most eligible individual to be a lighthouse keeper, do I? I saw many pictures of lighthouses in different places and I was hoping I would see one, and so did I. I wished to see another larger and more interesting lighthouses somewhere, someday. 

Wollongong Lighthouse

Birds were everywhere, especially the albatrosses. Sometimes I could see them flying and enjoying the blowing wind and once awhile they seem to hover in the air. There were also pelicans, with their long and strong-looking beak. They reminded me of the cartoon, Finding Nemo. Seriously, my heart was all about the natures; sea, hills, mountains, flora and fauna. I would spend time observing and appreciating the serene environment here but time and weather did not permit me to do so.

A pelican.

View from Wollongong Harbor

Lots of albatrosses 

The new, or maybe the old lighthouse, I'm not so sure.

It was starting to rain and dark. We left the harbor park, and went to a restaurant to take away fish and chips with salads. The restaurant, as I remembered, was Nonabel, owned by a Lebanese and it served halal chicken in any form. The Nonabel stood for Lebanon if you care to read it backward. We enjoyed our meal in our motorhome. It seemed it started to rain cats and dogs, but it got to rain only rabbit and squirrel. My apology, I have no other words to describe the less heavily rain than the cats and dogs.

When finished and our tummies were fulled with fish, chips and veges, we headed to Lane Cove Tourist Park. It was peak time so our plan to reach Lane Cove by 6.30 was delayed. The rain made us to slow down and we were worried that we couldn't reach Lane Cove by 7 pm, when the park office was already closed. So just to be safe and just to make sure we don't have  to spend extra money on accommodation, we called the office informing and confirming them our presence. And it was a wise thing to do because the park ranger would be in the office until we arrived. FYI, Lane Cove is actually a National Park. And rated as one of the most environmental friendly tourist park. When we head to our site, we saw wild animals such as possums and glimpses of raccoon passing our vehicle. Too bad it was dark and we couldn't take pictures of these cute creatures.

We ended our day today at approximately 9 pm. Sweet dreams to one side of the earth, and good day to another side of the earth.

Day 10 : Mascot - Bondi Beach - Sydney

Greetings from Lane Cove. We woke up in the middle of the national park, and helped ourselves with breads, peanut butter and hot beverages. While having breakfast, there were a bird and turkeys  nibbled on the the ground of our site, which I thought they were hoping for some free special feed from us. Sorry, park rule said visitors shouldn't feed animals here. 

Today, was the final day of our trip ..sob..sob...The first thing we must do was to secure a hotel in Sydney city or somewhere nearer to the airport. As I have recalled, the BIG4 was one of the tourist park nearest tp Sydney and we got there first. Well, it was neither close to Sydney nor the airport. While we have already decided to stay in BIG4 Tourist Park, the reception there was being so generous by helping us to search a reasonably priced hotel which is near to the airport. And finally we came out with IBIS Airport Hotel in Mascot, which was a few minutes away driving or from Mascot station. So we checked-in first and ensured all of our belonging were removed from the motorhome.

Next, we sent our motorhome to car wash centre. Well, for Malaysian, don't get surprised if you see the cheapest car wash service in Sydney is AUD35. Horrible isn't it. That was so typical of Sydney, being the 3rd most expensive city to live in, and maybe to visit after London, New York and Tokyo. Done with the expensive service, it's to say goodbye to our motorhome.

We have one whole day before we return home next morning. So we  decided to visit Bondi Beach, which was less than 10 kilometers away from Mascot. We took a train from Mascot train station to the Central, and changed train to Bondi Junction. And to get to the beach, we took a bus. Accessing every single attractions in Sydney was easy and should be cheap. We should have purchased the day card, which enabled us to go anywhere n Sydney with less hassle and saved us a lot of money. But since we didn't start the day much2 earlier, we had limited time and purchasing the day card would be a waste. I advice those who wished to visit Sydney and explore every single attraction in Sydney, please..I repeat...please purchase a 1-day card or multiple day card for your convenient, unless you have no other ways to waste money *wink*wink*.

Hot dude with his surfboard.

The nice cliff in Bondi

Really nice wave for surfing, but don't hit the rock.

Any idea what does it cost to buy a unit of apartment here?

Two rainbows at Bondi Beach. The secondary rainbow is the faint one.

I guess this pavilion would be full of happening things in Summer time.

By the way, Bondi beach is famous for those who wish to expose their body as a whole, especially in summer. I guess the nickname for Bondi beach is 'the nudist beach'. Hmmm....I would definitely avoid this beach because I'm not interested to see other people's body, when I have my own. Haha...sorry guys. And kudos to the surfers who have guts go through the fierce surge and conquer it. You guys looked so cool in those wetsuits and surfboards. I am not so sure if I should take up surfing lessons. But it 's going to be lots of fun I guess.

The sun was about to disappear, leaving its red-orange tint within the clouds. We left Bondi beach for Bondi Junction and took the train to Circular Quay. I was planning to stroll along the Royal Botanical Garden but since it was already dusk, we didn't manage to do that, rather strolling along Circular Quay and photographing the Harbor Bridge and Opera House by night. We did another round of souvenir shopping too. There wasn't much to do left for the night, so before we return to the hotel, we had dinner at McDonalds, having fillet-o-fish, fries and tea. That was sufficient for us.

It was a farewell time and we reluctantly left Sydney. Till we meet again some other day.

Harbor Bridge at night

Sydney Opera House at night

Day 11 : Country Home

We woke up at 5.30 am and took the 6.35 airport shuttle. At 11.20 am, D723 took off from Sydney International Airport. So long..land of kangaroo!!


EXPENDITURE

1. Motorhome hire/day                              : AUD53
2. Powered site for motorhome/day           : AUD33
3. IBIS Hotel                                            : AUD189 -
4. *Glenbrook Highway Hotel                   : AUD115 - did not book a site at caravan park earlier
5. *Less than 5 hrs parking in Sydney        : AUD83   - could not find a spot to park the motorhome
6. *Hop On Hop Off / person                   : AUD40   - totally forgot we parked the motorhome in Sydney
7. Taxi to motorvan depot                         : AUD21
8. Fuel                                                      : AUD210
9. Souvenirs & shopping                           : AUD 300++
10. Public transport /person                      : AUD 12
11. 2x groceries at Woolworth                  : AUD 160
12. *McDonalds                                       : AUD 70  - we bought lots of food, why waste?
13. Three Sisters Kebab                           : AUD 60
14. Airport shuttle/person                         : AUD 6

* indicates wastage that was not supposed to happen, with justification.

Land of Kangaroo - New South Wales (Part 4)

Day 8 : Collector - Goulburn - Berrima - Mittagong

It was time to leave Canberra and time to explore the small towns along Hume Highway. The weather was not the best with more clouds than sunshine and scattered drizzles. Actually, on our way to Canberra, we have marked the places that we would visit when we return to Sydney. The places of attractions were written on the signboard with brown background but 1or 2 places were visited ad hoc.

The first place we stopped-by was Collector.  This place was more like a village than a town. We couldn't see the 'real' town of Collector so logically it must be a village. And the most interesting part was the population in collector was 150 only. There were no development in Collector but I guess farming was the main activity here. We took several pictures here and as I approach a house, I saw a sheep grazing within the house compound. It looked at me and ran towards the gate, hoping that I would get it out from there. Awwww..it was so cute with pink nose and ears. "Sorry darling, I couldn't let you out. Otherwise your master would chase me". This reminded me of my visit to Caversham Wildlife Park where the sheeps surrounded me and followed me whenever I moved. Seriously, I adore sheeps so much, especially Australian sheeps because they are cute, cuddly and does not smell. Hehe...

The cute sheep at Collector

Next, we headed to Goulburn, which was the first inland city of Australia. The icon of Goulburn was the Big Merino sheep and that meant the wool industry was the major industry here. There were many interesting old buildings and the town itself was interesting to see. We walked from Goulburn TIC and I was glad to see something interesting in terms of architecture. There was also a park which was really charming. And by the way, it was another clear sky with less clouds and the sun was shining brightly, perfect for our outing. There were many things to see such as the Goulburn Court House, Town Hall, shop lots with European architecture and the religious sites. I thought there was a palace or mansion but it turned out that it was a big church in the middle of the town. 

Goulburn Court House

I'm not pregnant ok.

A park in Goulburn town. I couldn't remember its name.

Shop lots preserving colonial architecture

Goulburn Town Hall with nice trees

At the back alley

Another church, or a convent, maybe.

A cathedral,or church, in Golbourn. (What's the difference between a
cathedral and a church anyway?Please help)

There was another attraction in Goulburn which was The Rocky Hill War Memorial Tower. It was located approximately 1.3 kilometers from the TIC. There was also a museum but closed every Monday. The views of the Goulburn city from the hill were stunning. It was breezy and good enough to sit and relax. But of course we didn't stay that long because we were hunting for other attractions as well.

The Rocky Hill War Memorial Tower

And the next most important attraction of Goulburn was the Big Merino statue/sculpture or whatever you call it, which was outside of the town. It was not far from the town though. There was a souvenir shop at the base of the structure so we spent more time in the shop than photographing the Big Merino.

That's the Big Merino I'm talking about

 From Goulburn, we headed to Berrima, another small town with a population of 400. There was no TIC here and we depended on the GPS for the attractions. Well, since it was almost dark, we guessed that the attractions were already closed. Though we couldn't get to go to the attractions such as Berrima ghoul, Berrima court house and the cottages, we could see that Berrima has its own colour and environment compared to other towns and cities. It was a charming little town with many preserved old buildings but transformed to small business outlets. There were post offices and several other government offices. We parked our car and just walked by the town. It was like walking in a countryside far from any cities and development. Even a carved wooden ducks and penguins displayed outside a shop made the atmosphere so traditional and serene. There was also a shop selling various foodstuff such as olives, freshly made jams, chocolates, candies and many more,known as Mrs Oldbucks Pantry. I love the design and arrangement of the items sold here. My elder sister would love this kind of setting very much. It was simple, neat and very English. As we really love fresh jams, we bought a few bottles of jams for ourselves. We couldn't find any shops selling souvenirs of Berrima and that was a little frustrating.

Carved wooden ducks and penguins

The inner of Mrs Oldbucks Pantry

A few kilometers from Berrima exit, we entered Mittagong because it was almost dark and we need to get a place for our motorhome before the caraavn park office hour ended. We headed straight to Mittagong caravan park which was run by a family. It was a lot cheaper than any other caravan park we used to check-in. It was only AUD26 per night for powered site. There were many local tourists putting up several nights here while making their way up Sydney or Queensland to escape the cold winter in Victoria. We went to the city centre once we have secured the booking for a powered site. Unlike Berrima, there were many big outlets such as the Woolworth, furniture outlet, pet shop and others. So before we really settled at the caravan park for the day, we went to the supermarket to buy some food as we were running out of food stock. On our way back, we saw a TIC of Mittagong but there was no point of dropping by as it was already close. We would have gained some information on the attractions within Mittagong and would have made our way there the next day. I totally feel that we didn't spare enough time to thoroughly explore NSW. But this was a good reason to return back with bundles of green Australian notes in the future. Cross my fingers.

Good night world..

(Continued to Final Part)

Land of Kangaroo - New South Wales (Part 3)

Day 5 : Penrith - Canberra

We woke up after a very comfortable 9 hours sleep. I just realized that during this trip, our sleeping time was longer than we we normally have, 9-10 hours average. Yaikksss...that was so unproductive. But nothing much we could do since it was winter and the days got dark early. We had instant cup noodle, bread and peanut butter, and our favorite drinks for breakfast. We checked-out  around 9 am and our first destination was The Rock lookout point. It was quite far from Penrith town and we passed through a countryside. There were no other tourists there when we arrived. This lookout was an isolated place, being part of the Blue Mountain region. The view from the lookout was simple amazing though the sky was covered with clouds, permitting less sunlight. It was possible to hike from this point to Echo Point in Katoomba, which was 5 kms (or something like that) away.But the effect was dramatic where the Napean River flowing through the thousands of trees appeared golden. There was no public facilities here.

On our way out from the lookout point, we a wild grey kangaroo within the fenced bushes. It was huge. We stared at it, and it stared back at us. Haha...and off he hoped away. We was talking about encountering wild kangaroo, and we did. And there were more wild kangaroos a few minutes from the first sighting. I was lucky enough to have the 18-200 mm Nikon lens so I managed to get several pictures of the wild kangaroo colony from a distant. I couldn't stop admiring kangaroos and I just couldn't understand why.

Lovely flower with lovely scent just outside of our motel room

Napean River viewed from The Rock lookout

Kangaroos in the wild, staring at an Asian

We proceeded to Canberra passing through Hume highway first, exited Hume highway and passed through Federal highway towards Canberra. We made a few stops to ensure our dearly driver had enough rest so that he could focus on the driving. At one of the stops, which I couldn't recall the name, flocks of wild colourful birds kept my camera busy. It was tough because it was started to rain, and the birds were very sensitive to my movement. They flew away when I tried to approach them stealthily. Got a few pictures of the birds finally. 

The driving was quite worrying because cross winds appeared out of nowhere and we could feel the impact. In this scenario, it was wise to drive at a reasonable speed, especially for high centre of gravity vehicles with small tires. Or else accidents would occur and we didn't want that to happen. Driving at a normal pace good enough because we could enjoy the breathtaking views along the way and enabled us to get nice photos too. The scenery along our way to Canberra was beautiful. We made a stop at Lake George where we saw the windmills which were really far away. Having a high-range lens would definitely help though the cloudy day made the photography a little challenging.  

A simple, yet stunning view along the highway

It looks summer, but it's winter, really.

I love this view

Beautiful bird

Black cow hanging out at the field

Fresian cows grazing in the field

We arrived Canberra at 3 pm, so the first thing we did was finding a caravan park. We didn't have to trouble ourselves to find one because the there were a lot of caravan parks listed in it. We chose Carotel Motel & Caravan Park which is a few kilometers away fro Canberra CBD. This caravan park was a decent and it has sufficient facilities. After checking-in, we went to the city center just to have a look around because we didn't want to let go of the remaining time of the day doing nothing.

So we went to Canberra Center, a shopping mall in Canberra. I wasn't sure if it is the only shopping mall in Canberra because we couldn't see any other shopping mall, unless we missed them. Canberra Center was not that big but there many high-end apparels outlet. Well, those were obviously beyond my interest. There was a souvenir shop and spent more time there surveying and thinking on what to buy. It was impressive to see products made of Eucalyptus leaves. The leaves were coated with some metal elements that they harden and turned various products such as brooches, pendants, earrings and other. So creative!!.
There were also colourful accessories which made of oxides of metals. This was really a chemistry stuff and whoever hates chemistry, think again!! You can make money as long as you know your chemistry well, and creative enough to manipulate  your knowledge.

As for dinner, we had various Italian pastas, cheese penne, mushroom arrabiatta etc. Around 7, we returned to the caravan park. It was much colder in Canberra than in Sydney or Katoomba so we slept with 2-3 layers of pants and shirts.

Day 6 : Canberra

Another delightful day and our morning was very splendid to see birds of different colours nibbled on the grass beds near our motorhome. We prepared our breakfast on the caravan ground and it was very cold. I couldn't do things without gloves but doing the cooking with the gloves on was not convenient either. We had simple sunny side-up eggs, bread, cheese and peanut butter.

A galah. It's lovely, and it's pink too. *wink*wink*

Our plan for this day was to spend time around Canberra. We spent time at the Australia War Memorial. This memorial was built to reminisce the contribution of the fallen and alive Australians, as well as New Zealanders, involved in the WW1 and WW2. At first I thought this would be boring because wars were just not my thing. But in the end, I really enjoyed gaining some information on the history and the enlightening parts of the wars. I've just knew that there was no wars in Australia & New Zealand, but the military forces went out of the country to protect their countries from wars. It seemed that there were so many things on the history that I was totally sucked with, but good enough that I managed to replenish my knowledge in history, at least a little bit of it.

Australian War Memorial

A facade in the mausoleum 

The aircraft used by Australian air-force against the Germans in WW1

When we were done with the War Memorial, we took some time taking pictures within the memorial compound. It was sunny and cloudless sky so it was a waste to let the day went off just like that. The Parliament House could be seen from the memorial which was the most prominent landmark of Canberra.

Next, we visited Australia National Museum. There was no entry fee but one need to pay for certain exhibition held in the museum. It was quite interesting to get to know the trackback of old and modern Australia. But I couldn't spend another hour of walking slowly and observing various items displayed there. So we went off and tried to visit other attractions in Canberra. However, many attractions were under renovation. We kept on driving around the city until we say a lake with black swans here and there. We stopped, and got to know these beautiful creatures.

The Parliament House viewed from the Australia War Memorial

Black Swan at Lake Griffin

Before we returned to the caravan park, we went to the Canberra Center again for dinner. But it seemed that the operating hours was almost over and all food outlets were closed. So me had french fries and tea only since we were not hungry at all.

Day 7 : Cooma - Snowy Mountain

We planned to visit Snowy Mountain today to experience the snow. But had a late start today and that meant we wouldn't have much time at Snowy Mountain. Sometimes it was difficult to travel when one of the travel members did not care to stick on time and simply delaying this and that. Some things could be done while we were on the road. That saved a lot of time. Ok, enough with the nagging.

We left Canberra for Snowy Mountain at 10.30 am. The initial plan was to leave at 9. And we thought it was near to get the mountain but it took 2 hours or so to get there. Actually, we did another mistake by stopping for more than required time at a winter sports outlet just to get  pair of marked-down price thermal glove. And then, we stopped by at a TIC at Cooma town to get some useful information on Snowy Mountains.After getting all the information we required, we did another time wasting activity which was taking uninteresting pictures in Cooma.

Sheeps and sheeps and hills. 

Another nice view

Cooma welcoming us

My quite angry face and pose.Haha

But thank God the landscapes heading to Snowy Mountains were beautiful enough to make each and every of us felt calmer. We passed through Jindabyne town where the lake made the town pretty interesting and scenic. After Jindabyne, we went straight to Perisher Ski Tube where to get to the ski point, we need to ride on a electric train, or tube. Most of the people there went to Perisher and Blue Cow for skiing but we were the only without our ski equipment. We got onto the 3 pm tube and straight to Blue Cow which was higher than Perisher Valley. The return ticket of the tube costed AUD52 per adult and that was not something cool. At least we knew what the expect the next time we went travelling to winter destinations; bags and bags of money. Yaikkssssss!! We thought we could have nice time for photography here but it seemed that it was foggy and sun less. I didn't get good pictures here because I couldn't bare the coldness and that affected my control over my camera. I think if anyone wishes to do photography in a snowy area, it is wise to go to places where it is meant for photography, not a small place meant for skiing. There were lookouts as shown by the signs but walking in foggy and snow, wasn't a good idea for us. 

In Blue Cow ski point

If only we have that much money to go skiing.

Around 4.30 pm, we took the tube down to the main station and headed back to Canberra. It was almost dark. We stopped at Jindabyne for fuel and stopped at Cooma for dinner (at McDonalds). Around 9 pm, we arrived Canberra and time to zzzzzzzzzz!!!