Burringham to Boston-My 2003 World Trip-Part 3-Sydney

Lane Cove-Sydney

19th June. Qantas Flight 525 to Sydney was a Boeing 767. Flight of only one hour and uneventful.

          I was met by my niece Jo. Jo is the daughter of Andrew and Anne, my brother and my sister in law. She is married to Mike , a banker with the Commonwealth bank, and they have two young daughters Lucy and Caitlin.

     Caitlin was in the car with Jo and I could tell straight away she was trouble by the cheeky grin she gave me.

           Lane Cove is anything from 20 to 40 minutes out of the city depending on traffic and I had my first view of Sydney Harbour Bridge as we crossed it and just a glimpse of the Opera House.

            Lane Cove is a nice suburb with all its own amenities such as shopping, hotels and restaurants, schools, swimming pools etc, and Jo and Mike have a nice house and garden with palm trees and other exotic plants. The swimming pool should be in by now.

    I hadn't seen Jo and Mike since my dads funeral in 2001,so that evening was spent catching up, and getting to know my two grandnieces. I hadn't seen Lucy since she was a baby and now she was a very talkative schoolgirl.

            Mike works a long day, and with Lucy at school and Caitlin going to playgroup I was going to have a fair bit of time on my own to explore the city.

Jo, Caitlin, Mike and Lucy

            Friday June 20th.Breakfast then I'm keeping Lucy company in her school playground until the bell rings and she's scaring the life out of me the way she's swinging on the climbing frame.

            I start walking with the purpose of getting into the city and I make enquiries with a businessman fuelling up at a garage, who turns out to be very pleasant and offers me a lift part way. His name is Robert and after picking up his wife Jill, a Canadian, we have a good chat and they drop me near Blues Point North Sydney.

       I walk down to Blues point and there in front of me is the amazing spectacle of the Harbour the Bridge and the Opera House.(Throughout my trip I concentrated more on my video camera than still pictures, that was a mistake and next time it'll be the other way round.).The sun is shining and I fill up thinking about Peggy and how she would have loved this view. I do believe she was with me for my entire trip, but quite often I'd feel utter despair that she wasn't physically beside me.

Bridge and Opera House

I talk to a couple of elderly contractors Len and Tom who share some heavy black tea with me, I then start heading for the bridge.

                Seeing the Harbour and Bridge on TV doesn't give you a true picture of the magnitude of it all and after walking round by McMahon Point Wharf, Lavender bay and the Luna fun park I eventually get up to the pedestrian walkway over the bridge .I need some sustenance before going any further and a shop advertising 'The best pies in North Sydney' gets me a bottle of water and a truly delicious steak and kidney pie, which I decided not to share with the pigeons.

              Now I'm heading over this amazing structure and it truly is an awesome and an amazing feat of engineering. I get a great view of the Opera House and the harbour and ships and boats. Then nearing the other side I find what I'm looking for under the bridge, big steel beams bearing the inscription 'Appleby-Frodingham England'. That’s Scunthorpe steelworks and being an ex steelworker I feel a sense of ownership and a 'yehah 'gets me a funny look from a passing gent.

              A walk down to the very busy ferry terminal and I'd done enough for one day, my feet were killing me. I got myself well stocked with bus train and ferry timetables and I boarded a bus for the Queen Victoria Building where I changed to a Lane Cove bus.

Back to Bridge St for a relaxing evening with the family and 'Tooheys New'.

          Saturday 21st June. Mike and Jo are having a lie in after a busy week so I'm entertained by Lucy and Caitlin and in return make them their toast. I usually get called Uncle Jim by the girls, but once or twice, I’ve no idea why but they mistakenly call me granddad.

         Later in the morning Mike and myself, Lucy and Caitlin head for Iron Bay where the girls ride their bikes and Mike runs to keep fit. Mike and Lucy would go clockwise round the lake, myself and Caitlin the other way. Sorry Caitlin I know you could've gone further,but I'd been wining and dining for a month solid .That's my excuse.

        Now in the afternoon we're all heading for the city and Jo's driving. We’re going to park in North Sydney and get a train over. Parking was fun you guys, it gave me a feeling of dejavu.

We do get a train over and start walking through the City.

  Sydney is a very vibrant city, this is part of one of my brochures.

Sydney is Australia's oldest city, the economic powerhouse of the nation and the country's capital in everything but name. It's blessed with sun-drenched natural attractions, dizzy skyscrapers, delicious and daring restaurants, superb shopping and friendly folk

          We walked up towards Centrepoint, window shopping, until Jo spotted a Harry Potter promotion and got herself a 50 dollar voucher with her purchase in Wizard Alley.

         We then went down to Darling Harbour, this must be one of the worlds most popular waterfronts. Pleasure craft of all shapes and sizes, restaurants and cafés, a floating restaurant, the Harbour side shopping arcade, lots of kids rides, the monorail system boardwalks and water features, the Imax theatre and the aquarium, and all of it traffic free.

Visit to Darling Harbour

We had a great afternoon, the ice creams were delicious and as the girls were having a great time in the play park we witnessed a gorgeous golden sunset.

Sunset on Darling Harbour

             Back in Lane Cove that evening, I became useful, my video camera resurrected Jo and Mikes own home movies and we transferred them onto regular cassettes.

            Sunday 22nd June. We all piled into the car today and headed for Ku-Ring-Gai national park, a beautiful country park with mangroves, swamps, bushwalks and a fishing lake and marina.

We picnicked and the girls played, I did a mini indigenous bushwalk. Later we walked round the marina and saw lots of fish. Something ended up in the water and Mike had to secure the aid of some boatmen for a successful rescue. Not funny at the time but certainly funny now.

            Jo cooked the tastiest lamb ever today.

          Monday 23rd June. Exploring on my own today. Take a bus down to the QVB and walk round the library, the Palace Park and the Botanical Gardens. There are two big American naval vessels in the Harbour,7000 US sailors on R&R from the gulf, I have a chat with two of them in the Botanical gardens. I then walk along the waterfront to the Opera House where I talk to a Maori security guard who turns out to be a Carlos Santana fan and he tells me to visit his home town of Te Kuiti on North Island New Zealand.

Opera House

I sit and watch a one man steel band and other street entertainers then have lunch in 'The Fortune of War', Sydney’s oldest pub, before heading for the ferries and a trip to Manly.

Boat to Manly

             Manly would be Sydney’s Blackpool, very seaside, enjoyable walk round and a paddle in the sea. Nice views of the city from the ferry.

     More exploration of the city then home.

             Tuesday 24th June. A bus trip today on the Bondi Explorer. I could get on and off all day and explored Rose Bay, Watson Bay, Bondi which I found slightly disappointing and Fox studios and Aussie Stadium. Evening time when I got back to the city and walked through the enchanting Hyde Park.

Bondi Beach

                Wednesday 25th June. Mikes birthday, went swimming with Jo and Caitlin, then I went for a tough bushwalk along the river to the impressive St Ignatius college. Raining most of the day, worst weather since leaving the UK. Great Tortillas for tea Jo.

              Thursday 26th June. Walk to Drumoyne and enjoyed the city views.

              Friday 27th June. Heard on the radio that the sea swell and the waves would be exceptionally high and that even the most experienced surfers should stay out of the water. Jo myself Lucy and Caitlin took sandwiches and headed for Bondi.

What an amazing sight the sea was that day.

This was one time the video camera did more justice than the stills. We went on the cliff walks Coogee to Clovelly where we had our sandwiches ,there were quite a few people about and in the water a few speed boats, jet skis and a handful of surfers. To begin with the waves were only big, but as we did the cliff walks at Bronte and Bondi, the waves started to get bigger and walls of water began crashing against the rocks causing a lot of surf. At one point on the cliffs, the spray was coming up to the walkway, which thrilled the kids .The surfers were having trouble getting up on these waves some I estimated at 20ft.As the day wore on lots more spectators took up positions on the cliffs. We were standing next to an American when one of the surfers was successful and it seemed his vocabulary consisted only of two four letter words the first of which was holy. Later that day we heard there had to be six rescues. Totally amazing.

A wavy day

               Saturday 28th June .I went exploring the city again today, had a trip on the monorail, paid a visit to the casino, another look round Darling harbour and Centrepoint. Looked round the magnificent Cathedral and conversed with Kevin and Melly from Leicester and County Tyrone respectively.

              Sunday 29th.Mike and I played golf at Lane Cove golf course, what a great little course and some good shots were hit.

           A visit to Jo's friend Emma, resulted in an invite to stay for dinner, lots of wine and the most beautiful Irish Whiskey. Jo and Emma’s children put on a lovely show for the grown ups, and myself and Emma’s dad Michael talked a lot and arranged golf for Monday. A great night.

           Monday 30th.Michael and I played 18 holes where we managed quite a few pars and the odd birdie between us.

           Tuesday 1st July. Explored Millers Point ,the Observatory, and the docks. Lunched on the corner of Kent and Margaret St.

          Wednesday 2nd July. Swimming with Jo and Caitlin again today. Wish I had a Jacuzzi and Sauna this handy.

       Mike took me down late evening to McMahon’s Point to film the bridge, harbour and city by night. It’s a brilliant sight, still a lot of boats on the move, Luxury yachts ,speed boats and a big paddle steamer. And the trains all lit up going over the bridge, and the city all lit up with big neon signs standing out in the night sky. And the constant buzz of the city.

The city that never sleeps

             Thursday 3rd July. Last day in Australia. Jo Caitlin and me head off to Balmoral and a nice sandy beach to enjoy Fish and chips, look at the boats and enjoy a nice sunny day.

         We pick up Lucy from school then Jo and the girls take me to the airport and it's goodbye Australia, and it's goodbye to my lovely niece and her family.