Sydney - Day 8 - An astronomical number of stairs

Today we were going to head back into town.  The Sydney Observatory, Nicholson Museum and some shopping in town and a walk across the Harbour Bridge for good measure.  We even got to a couple of them.

So back on the train.  Into Wynyard station and heading back north towards Sydney Observatory near the south end of the Harbour Bridge. Again this was supposed to only be about an hour visit.  Little did we know.  The observatory is on a hill, so up about 50 stairs.

I think that this observatory is even more interesting than that at Siding Springs.  Siding Springs is impressive, this is interesting and exciting. The place is chock full of history.  Did you know that one Sir Thomas Brisbane became the governor of New South Wales because he wanted to do astronomy there and was instrumental in setting the basis for Australia to be one of the world leaders in astronomy. Most of the instruments house in the observatory are designed to facilitate measuring time and recording accurately the locations of individual stars to allow for their use in accurate navigation.  One of the transit telescopes, designed to only move north - south in the sky was designed with a slot in the roof, the hatches were opened by way of long poles attached to them.

The kids had a great time, especially when they found that there was a room with a table full of Lego.

Whilst at the observatory Kerrie found that the Nicholson Museum was closed on Saturday, so we decided to walk over to the north side of the Harbour Bridge.  First we had to find out how to get to the bridge.  On the way we noticed the steeple of an old church. We just had to have a look so down some more stairs.

The Garrison Church is a beautiful building, built in the early days of the colony.  The stain glass windows are amazing.

So back up those stairs and on to more stairs to get to the deck of the bridge.

Now I had forgotten that Kerrie has a bit of a thing about heights.  This was going to be interesting.

It was windy, cold, noisy and an amazing view.  Add to that for Kerrie fairly scary, especially when somebody pointed out the how much the deck moved when the cars and trucks rolled over it.

At the north end of the bridge we found our way down (more stairs) to the street level, to find that there was a market with everything including a range of street food.  What more could you ask for (except maybe less stairs).  I enjoyed a Greek Chicken pancake thing, the kids had Indian and kerrie of course found a Japanese outlet that actually had yoki niku and economyyaki.

Up more stairs to the station and we headed back into town to go to the Queen Victoria Building and some shopping.

Sydney - Day 7 - It doesn't compute.

Today was all about Darling Harbour.

The plan was to go to Central and then catch the light rail (tram for those from Melbourne) to the Powerhouse Museum. 

We got to Central and found our way out of the labyrinthine exit tunnels. The tram was going to be 20 minutes so we decided to walk the Powerhouse.

We found our way across to the entrance to China Town.  Here was one of the old monorail (long defunct) stations. Up the stairs and onto a walkway to the Power House Museum.  We had lunch in the Museum cafe and headed on in.

The plan was to spend a few hours at the Powerhouse then move on to the Maritime Museum.  Well you know what plans are like.

The Powerhouse Museum is an amazing place.  I would guess that most people could find something here to interest them if they were to give it a chance.

There are four levels of the Museum.  We started on the first floor, and almost did not escape...
The first floor covers everything from space flight to computing, chemistry and radiation.

The first thing I noticed was the "Mars Yard".  An area designed to emulate the terrain on Mars.  This area is used by university students to test robots and methods of moving around the terrain.  Whilst we were there a couple of students were working with a couple of wheeled robots, without much success.  One of the robots was long legged, with wheels at the end of the legs.  He seemed to be having some difficulty getting the robot to coordinate all the wheels to be pointing in the same direction and managed to pull the tyre of one of the wheels a couple of times when it was dragged sideways.

The computing area had some relics from the early days of computing, including a part of the Silliac computer, one of the very early valve machines built by the University of Sydney.  This machine was so fast that it could do 13000 addition operations per second.  It had about 1024 bytes of memory.

Tim spent quite some time looking at a computer running a very old style program.  You entered your name and had a very simple conversation with the computer by answering questions.  An early version of Siri?  Just a bit more accurate.

At about this time we were called into the space flight hall to learn how a rocket was put together.  An old German accented man gave a very comprehensive show and tell on what makes up a rocket.  Tim and Sarah seem to enjoy it.  Emily and Kerrie went off to travel to the International Space Station.

Other displays on the floor covered how chocolate was made (along with free samples), how to build fireworks and many others.  The kids must have spent three hours on this floor alone.
Upstairs there were displays on the costumes from the movie Strictly Ballroom, jewellery and much else.

By this time it became obvious that we were not going to get to the Maritime Museum.  The Powerhouse closed at 5pm which saw us being hustled out the door.

From here we decided to walk around to Darling Harbour proper.  There are an amazing range of food and alcohol outlets along the shore here.  Of course we had forgotten that it was Friday evening and it seemed that every worker in the city had migrated to Darling Harbour for after work drinks.

We found a brilliant water play park here and had no choice but to let the kids go and explore.  Kerrie and I ducked off to grab a cache whilst the kids worked there way through the playground.

Working our way north and looking for a place for dinner we eventually found our way back to Wynyard station and decided to call it a day and get dinner back at the van.

Whilst on the train back North Ride it was decided that pizza was the ideal dinner, and I was dispatched back to the caravan park to get the car and pick up the others before diverting to the pizza shop.  Long wait.  Nice Pizza. Altogether a grate, though trying day.

Sydney -Day 6 -Wet behind the ears.

DToday was a bit of a down Tim day. Well a little bit anyway. 

Following breakfast with dark skies looming we ventured out from the caravan park into the Lane Cove National Park. This park runs east west along Sidney the creek through this part of Sydney. Kerrie had plans to visit the site of the oldest cache in Australia, a virtual now that caches are banned in National Parks. 

We headed down a track from the caravan park south towards the creek.  A steep track ending in a spectacular view of the creek causing Sarah to freak out about Tim walking close to the edge of rocky cliffs.  Heading west we worked along the creek, Emily on the lookout for water dragons which seem to have taken quiet a liking to her. 

This part of tHr parks seems to be fairly unmaintaned.  This could be because of the early season, but there are a number of tables and benches that have fallen int ruin. It looks like the park have been around since the early nineteen hundreds. There are a number of old sandstone steps and route markers that date from that time.  

There are a number of picnic areas along the creek and many with notable name like echidna and commandment rock. 

At the western end of this section of the park is an old boat house that is still in use hiring out row boats, canoes and paddle boats. We watch with some amusement as an older grandmother took out a couple of younger kids in a paddle boat.  She was quite concerned about how to steer the boat.  Last we saw they were getting along quiet well. 

Further west is a weir allowing us to cross the creek to get to the National Park Headquarters, a destination that was suddenly fairly urgent as the sky's that had been threatening all day finally decided to release their fury. We settled into the visitors centre to wait out the storm.  We were a little concerned about the van, whilst we had closed the windows we had left the roof vents fully open so expected some water to be inside. 

Whilst the storm played out the kids occupied themselves with drawing and reading the displays on the centre. After about 45 minutes the rain let up enough to allow us to move on. 

We went back across the weir and using the road this time we headed back to the caravan park.  It is amazing how much difference some rain can make to the bush. The walking paths were heavenly puddled and the colours were a lot stronger.  Emily was having a ball trying to shake rain off the trees onto me. I think she got herself most of the time. 

Back at the caravan park we had avoided any damage, with only a little water on the floor from the hatch.  Bangers for lunch, Emily cooking. 

The afternoon was given over to housekeeping, blogging and a little shopping. Dinner was burgers followed by a nighttime spotlight walk with one of the park rangers.  

Sydney -Day 5 - Up the creek and back

The question of the day this morning was "where to go?".

Sarah wanted to go to the pool at the caravan park,  Tim wanted anything involved with his kindle or the tv room and Emily didn't know.  

We decided to go on the ferry to Watsons Bay and take the kids togs so they could have a swim. So back to the train station and into the city. We managed to get a top deck on the train much to the kids enjoyment. We had to swap trains at Wynyard station for Circular Quay. A very helpful ticket collector pointed us the right way. 

Leaving from wharf 4, we caught a cat out onto the Harbour.  The view of the city, Opera House, bridge and the cruse liner that was still there, was amazing.  It was a beautiful day with a fair but warmish wind.  It was about a 20 minute ride out to Watsons Bay where we arrived at about 11:30. 

The plan was to get fish and chips from Doyles, a "famous" place much in the line of Morgans up in Redcliffe. Looking at the number of tourists getting off the ferry we decided to avoide the rush and grab lunch right away.  The food was not bad, but nothing on Marie's fish and chips back home. 

We ate in the park just off the beach overlooking the Harbour with a view of the city and the top of the bridge. Afterwards we headed to the eastern side of the headland and looked out on the Pacific Ocean. The lookout and path are being upgraded and will be closed next week so our timing was good. 

The view is brilliant, the sky is a beautiful clear blue with no clouds matched only by the colour of the water,  and to top it off looking out from the top of the cliffes we could see square rigger manovering under sail out to sea. This really is a beautiful part of the world. 

We headed north up the headland towards the Harbour entrance and encountered a couple of plaques describing some of the history of the military encampments on the headland. The area used to  be an artillery training camp and this area of it has been taken over by the national park. The native bush is gradually taking over from the old army gardens, but you can still see the edges for he garden beds hidden in the bush. 

Along the edge of the cliff ther is old cement barriers and gun emplacements. We got to the top of this walk and were able to look out over the entrance to the Harbour. Heading back we took a somewhat overgrown payh to the west leading back over the headland.

There is still a naval base on the headland and we found our way to the front gate.  We looked at the bomb and the mine they had on display then headed back down the hill towards Camp Cove where Emily and Sarah had their swim. We used an ice cream as a bribe to get Sarah back out of the water to let us continue on to the lighthouse.  

The 500 meter walk out to the light house passes one of the nudast beaches wher the kids were a bit taken aback to see an old couple walking around in their finery. Onwards and we reached some interesting rock walls sporting rifle shooting holes as well as a gun emplacement looking over the harbour and the light house keepers house.  Out the front of the house is a hole about two meters across dug about a meter down into the rock.  Seems to have been hand dug along with the rocks around it, not sure what this is but it has the look of the gun emplacements further around, however there is no visible evidence of fittings or fixtures. 

Further around we came across the lighthouse itself. A squat red and weight colored lighthouse built in the 1800's. 

Along the western end of the point there two more gun emplacements built from the bedrock as well as placed shaped stones. Tim did some more investigation and found some tunnels that appear to lead to an underground store, now bricked up. A torch through a steel door on one entrance shows that theirs used to be an extensive tunnel system under the top of the headland. Apparently there even more old fortifications in the navy restricted area. Tim was having a ball exploring the area and theorizing what each section might have been used for.

We're going to have to take the kids to Fort Lytton at some point as it has a very similar feel.  

From the gun emplacements the path leads back to camp cove.  We had to make tracks to see if we could get the 3:45 ferry. We made it with plenty of time and sat ourselves on the front deck for the return trip. On the way back we were treated to a float plane taking off as well as some more interesting though smokey views of the bridge and city. 

After exploring some more of The Rocks we decided to have dinner, Japanese, in the city to avoid peak hour. We also looked for a cache placed near some buildings used in the Matrix films, alas with no joy.  Apparently peak hour runs late in Sydney as the train we got at 6:30 was the busiest we have yet seen. Emily fell asleep on the train whilst Sarah and Kerrie worked on a sudoku they found in the newspaper. 

Walking back to the park from the station in the dark we treated by a possum chewing on the leftovers some grot had not cleaned off the camp BBQ. Looks like I'll have to clean it if I want to use it for breakfast.  

Sydney -Day 4 - Circular Quay, Mrs Macquarie's Chair and a step into The Rocks

Today was our first foray into Sydney.

Following a bacon and egg breakfast cooked on the park BBQ we walked the kilometer over to the North Ride train station. Kerrie was a bit taken aback to see the escalators plummet about 100 meters down to the station.  We descretely took the lift (glass) with Kerrie staring determinately at the door. 

After being helped by the ticket seller to find the cheapest way to travel around for the week ($63 for an adult - travel anywhere on anything, needing two adult and one child ticket for the family) we got onto the train. The kids were over the top about the double decker train, traveling through a tunnel for about fiveteen minutes and the seats that could swap direction. A girl sitting behind us cracked up at Sarah's reaction to seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opra House for the first time. 

Getting out of the station at Wynyard was a little less anxious than getting in and we made our way to Circular Quay and our first real view of the Opera House. 

Circular Quay was hosting a cruse ship. The kids were amazed at the Size of the thing. People were lining up to embark, the kids wanted to hang around and watch the ship leave so we decided to head up to the visitors centre in the rocks to get the compulsory sticker, spoon and key ring. 

Adjacent to the visitors centre was the Rocks Museum where we spent some time.  The kids were given a quiz to do whilst in the museum and had a great time looking for the answers until they got to the last question which was a lot more obscure than the rest. The museum was really quite well laid out.

We had lunch in the rocks, Asian of course, and headed via every alley we could find back to Circular Quay. Dodging the midday traffic at the docks we moved around towards the Opera House. It was really windy and the girls donned jumpers. I'd forgotten just how big the Opera House was. 

A visit to the flash dunnies at the Opra House and a view of Fort Dennison we started the long walk around to Mrs Macquaries Seat. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens are impressive. The kids and I enjoyed rock hopping around the point.  The sandstone is amazingly eroded. 

We at in the good ladies chair and took in the view. Sydney really is a beautiful city from this point.  

The kids declared that their feet had had almost enough so we decided to start heading back towards the city. Well somewhat directly.  

Did I say that this was an impressive gardens.  

Looking over Garden Island Naval Dockyard we could see a couple of supply ships moored.  

Back through the gardens with a stop at the caffe for an ice cream (closed) we found our way back to the city. Impressive gardens. 

Back on the train at Wynyard (top deck this time) and back to the caravan park for dinner. 

After dinner we went to get the makings of dinner for the next few days and decided to go for a drive to see the city at night. 

We didn't want to pay the toll on the bridge so Kerrie found us a way in via Victoria Rd. We ended up in Darling harbour, and with a little luck, good navigation and tricky driving (sorry to all the Sydney drivers) we go to Mrs Macquaries Chair. From there we had a great view of the bridge and Opera house.  

The drive back saw us travelling through Kings Cross, not the exciting place it used to be, and into the tunnel to the other side of the harbour.  

The kids are devided on what is worse, night driving in Sydney or Melbourne.  

We got home at about 11pm and dropped exhausted into bed. 

Sydney Bound - Day 3 - ups and downs.

Following an early morning wake up call consisting of kookaburras laughing and young children screaming we got up and started breakfast and getting the camp in order. The kids were a great help in getting things packed up.  Tim helped by sneaking the car forward off the leveling ramp. 

We were packed up in record time and headed off into the Coopanook state forest on a dirt track looking for a way to the Pacific Highway.  Great track, a lot better than the rocky one we entered on. We found the south track and after a rickety bridge over the main railway line we found the town of Coopanook. From here we had two options for getting to the Pacific Highway.  Of course we went to the one that only allowed us to turn north.  

Heading south we found some wonderful sections of road interposed with crappy cement surface.  We managed to get in behind a courier truck traveling at a good speed and saved some fuel by slip streaming. 

After passing what passers as the Pacific Highway around Newcastle the kids declared it was time for lunch. There are of course no shoppes in this area to purchase the makings, so we gave the a treat of some burgers from a roadhouse. 

Back on the road and we reached the national parks north of Sydney.  The kids were fascinated by the scenery and the massive cuttings through the rocky hills. Tim was trying to work out how much explosive would be required to clear them. 

I've always loved this part of Sydney but unfortunately never took the opportunity to explore whilst I lived down here.  

On reaching Sydney the six lane Pacific Highway turned into a four lane city street. No doubt there is an easier way to get into the city but it did not jump out at us. After some deft navigation by Kerrie and some deft lane changes by me we got heading in the right direction for the caravan park. Street signs in Sydney are brilliant, pity that warning of those roads are a little late.  I'm sure those drivers following me will recover after a few stiff drinks. 

The Lane Cove River Tourist Park is a nice park. Run by National Parks it is situated in the national park and offers bush walks and hosted spotlight tours. We are about a kilometer from the station so getting to the city tomorrow should be fairly easy tomorrow. We're planning on doing essential tourist spots whilst the weather is great. 

Sydney Bound - Day 2 - Valves, Old Cars and everything everywhere

A great driving day today.  

We left fairly early after a nice hot shower and grabbed a cache at Apollo eleven park.  I was impressed that the plaque was dedicated to the orbit solo by Michael Collins around the moon. Oh and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon.

Whilst the kids and Kerrie were at the visitors centre collecting spoons and stickers I got some valve cores and tool from Super Cheap and swapped out the valve on the vans spare tyre.  Taking out the old valve I found a small metal filing jamming it.  I'm thinking the metal filing would have been created when the tyre was fitted.  I'm just hoping that there are no more of them and all will be well.  Anyway, I've now done a wheel change on the van and learned how to swap out a valve core.

We noticed a large number of "hot rod" vintage cars heading north, must have seen at least 30 during the day.  Some towing some quite old caravans.

A lot of the trip was spent at 80 km/h.  Work is being done on a new dual carriage way highway.  Amazing how people behave when they are stuck on a single lane and have to slow down for trucks or slow cars.  Seems that every overtaking lane ended with somebody trying to shove past us when we were trying to form one lane.

We dropped into the Big Banana, which is a lot smaller than I remember, so the kids could see the place.  The kids (all four of them) purchased some "candy" front he manufactures there.  Apparently it is quite nice.   Pity they did not have a chocolate fudge factory as well.

at about 3pm we were starting to get a bit tired, so Kerrie pulled out the magic map and declared that our destination was Coopernook state forest.  There is a free camp here, no cost, with a toilet.

After heading west down a fairly rocky forest road for about 3 km we found a large grassed area covered with vans, tents and campers of all descriptions.  Mostly grey nomads the people are all friendly and commented positively on how much the kids helped us set up.  The site is really nice.  Quiet, grassed, reasonable drop toilet and 4 bars of phone coverage, what more could you want.

Tomorrow is into Sydney.  This should be fun...  We've about 350km to go, so hope to get in soon after the check in time of 2pm.  Of course this will not happen as we will no doubt see something interesting on the way and have to sidetrack.  Is no matter, that is the point of this trip.  I've a feeling that we will get in and set up and have to go for a drive into the city.  Will be nice to see the harbour by night.

Sydney Bound - Day 1 - The Carparks

After a bit of a sleep in and a slow pack, we finally got moving from home at about 11am.  The kids settled in, reading, sleeping and generally just chilling.

Through the Tunnel and out onto the Pacific Highway we were hoping that the late start would allow us to avoid the worst of the holiday rush...  Things were looking good all the way from Brisbane until the end of the 110 km zone before the Gold Coast.  Then we reached the first of the car parks.

I think most of the problems in this area were caused by road works and changes in speed limit  80, 100, no 80... no 100, well maybe try 70.  Enough of this, lets get something for lunch.

Into the second carper at some unknown shopping centre...  bit of fun finding somewhere to put the van, but wedged ourselves in three free spaces between a couple of cars.  I decided to stay with the car to make sure that somebody did not jam us in just for the fun of it.  The girls and tim headed off to get the makings of lunch.

Time to be a good little driver and do a halt parade service on the rig.  Oil good, coolant - well there is some in there somewhere, now to check the tyre pressures.   Truck, good, van all good.....   hang on what is that?   hissssssssssss   - bloody valve had decided to jam open after I checked the air pressure. what the heck?    !@#@@.

Well I'd been planning on trying out a wheel change on the van, just to ensure I knew what I was doing, here was my chance...  Nice level area, solid ground, what could be better..

It all worked out pretty well.  Dig jack out, jack up wheel, drop wheel down, loosen nuts, jack wheel up, get spare of back, swap wheels, put wheel on back.  pack up, all good.  Just got to find a new valve core and valve tool to swap out the valve on the spare and we should be great.

A bit of wandering around looking for somewhere to have lunch, and we decided that the Gold Coast region did not know what a park was.  We decided to brave the slow traffic and head south, time was getting on.

We found a nice little rest stop about 20 km into NSW and stopped for a much needed feed.  Was a popular stop with a coffee/pie van and a lot of travellers and a couple of trucks.  Bit windy but a much enjoyed lunch.

The rest of the trip went fairly quietly (although windy) apart from some discussion as to if we had actually booked into the caravan park at Grafton and looking out for the place we saved a field of sugar cane from burning down about 6 years ago when we were down here for Christmas with Mum Dad and Rob.

After spotting the place where we fought the fire (cane field now harvested) and braving the kinky bridge on the entry into Grafton we found the caravan park just in time (office was closing at 5pm) and got a powered sit for the unheard of price of $22.   Don't think the girl could count, or she just wanted to get home, as she did not charge for the kids.

Well tomorrow is totally unplanned, we are trying to get another 400 km or so south, maybe stopping at a national park for the night.  We will see what happens.