Sydney and Surfers Paradise

gennaio 2019

Un’avventura di 15 giorni di A ticket to ... Leggi altro

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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 17 gen 2019, 11:42
- ☀️ 26 °C
- Altitudine: 968 m
- Australia State of New South Wales Blue Mountains Municipality Katoomba Echo Park -33.73183, 150.3124333°43’55” S 150°18’45” E
Giorno 5
Three sisters
17 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Our first stop in the Blue Mountains was a lookout over the 3 sisters - figures from the dreamtime. The views are spectacuar, but the part that cannot be captured in a photo is the fragrance. Stepping out to the edge, waves of scent come up from the gums, pines and warm rocks, enveloping everything.

Having said it can't be captured in a photo, you can actually see the scent - the resinous vapour causes Reyleigh scattering that gives the Blue Mountains their name.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 17 gen 2019, 13:54
- ☀️ 32 °C
- Altitudine: 960 m
- Australia State of New South Wales Blue Mountains Municipality Katoomba Scenic World -33.7288, 150.3012333°43’44” S 150°18’4” E
Giorno 5
Scenic point
17 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Most of the scenic views are on my other camera, so will need to wait for a later post. Its a beautiful area, also overlooking the 3 sisters, with lots of ways to view it.

We started with a short, almost horizonal, cable car ride across a gorge and past a waterfall. Bit short on water at the moment, but plenty of birds flying around. Some were definitely cocakatoos, others may have been, or some other parroty thing, but were too far away to be certain.

After that we rode down into the valley on the world's steepest railway, which is impressively steep. The seats are park bench style, facing forwards, but tipped back at an angle more usually associated with a visit to the dentist. Tricky to get into, and impossible to do so elegantly. Once we'd wriggled into place they close the doors, warn you to hang on to any valuables, and set off. A few seconds in you realise that the steeply sloping platform was the shallow part of the journey - the train lurches suddenly downwards and the reclined seats become bolt upright ones.

At the bottom theres a choice of boardwalks through the rainforest - an hour for the full circuit, half an hour for the animatronic dinosaur display, or 10 minutes for those who find 36°C a bit on the warm side (the record fhere is 37°, and they were forecast 39° for the next day). At the end we took the cable car back up, with anothe r good view of the 3 sisters and - according to the guide - through a very clear transition from the rainforest at the bottom to the gum forest at the top. If you don't know the local trees all that well it's not a particularly obvious difference.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 17 gen 2019, 17:15
- 🌬 31 °C
- Altitudine: 20 m
- Australia State of New South Wales Marrickville Lewisham -33.89355, 151.1491733°53’37” S 151°8’57” E
Giorno 5
Clyde
17 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ 🌬 31 °C
There is a very secure rail yard at Clyde. Train shed and loading yards all surrounded by high fences topped with razor wire. There's just one tiny flaw in the system - they need to be able to get the trains in and out. So the fence that runs along the bottom and up both sides just stops at the top end, and anyone who had been prevented from climbing over by the razor wire could simply walk around.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 18 gen 2019, 12:04
- ☀️ 32 °C
- Altitudine: 10 m
- Australia State of New South Wales Woollahra Watsons Bay The Gap -33.84332, 151.2844133°50’36” S 151°17’4” E
Giorno 6
Tasman sea
18 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Friday was another scorcher of a day, and Derek had a pile of marking to do, so we took the ferry to the end of the Harbour - about a 40 minute ride on a fast catamaran. Watson's Bay is on a tiny strip of peninsula, so from the Sudney harbour side it's only a 5-minute walk across the land to the Tasman Sea on the other side. Bit rough, thpugh, and no easy way down to the water, so I wasn't able to add it to my 'paddled in' list.

We found a shady table at an old-fashioned milk bar with carved wooden doors and a beaten copper counter. Derek worked, I read, and we both worked our way through the soda flavours.

We'd been told that Watson is the place for chips, so we got a box to eat in the park. Excellent chips, but we were horrified to discover they charge extra - $1.20! - for ketchup or vinegar (and the vinegar is clear, not malt). Very impressed by the politeness of the gulls though - they don't mug people for chips, just stand around looking hopeful.

Back in Sydney we found they were setting up a Chinese night market in the road behind our hotel. Had a quick look before we headed off for dinner - and were glad we did,, becaise by the time we got back it was *heaving*. Just enough of a clear patch to take a photo of what may be Sydney's prettiest tourist information kiosk, which was all lit up for the evening.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 19 gen 2019, 11:34
- 🌬 23 °C
- Altitudine: 7 m
- Australia State of New South Wales City of Sydney Chinatown Tumbalong Park -33.87679, 151.2021733°52’36” S 151°12’8” E
Giorno 7
An ideal fragment of China
19 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
The Chinese Friendship Garden is quite small on the outside - no more than a 2 minute walk along each edge - and most of the middle is taken up by a lake, but it still manages to be a good 2 hour walk around the inside. Traditional Chinese garden design creates winding paths lead up and down hills and across the water, holes in trees and walls are designed to frame views into the next section, and there's plenty to look at. Elaborate ceramic and wooden screens, interesting rocks, cases of artefacts, bonsai trees, bonsai mountains (yes, you read that correctly - tiny mountains, that are home to even tinier pagodas, boats and philosophers, with a precise misting system to ensure moss grows in all the right places), carved stone plaques, tiny zodiac figures hidden in the undergrowth and hanging from trees, and water dragons everywhere.

It's not quite as serene as the photos imply, though - it appears to be home to every cricket and grasshopper in Sydney. And they are LOUD.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 19 gen 2019, 18:40
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitudine: 10 m
- Australia State of Queensland Gold Coast Surfers Paradise Surfers Paradise Beach -28.00048, 153.4289928°0’2” S 153°25’44” E
Giorno 7
Off to Surfers Paradise
19 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
After a week on the lookout, I finally tracked down a lamington at the airport. I'd already had banana bread, a breakfast of fruit loaf, and tried vegemite (verdict: marmite after a partially successful anger management course) so I'm well on the way to the full set of traditional Aussie foodstuffs. Just Tim Tams, tasty cheese and a pie to go.

Pleasant flight with Virgin Australia. We had an exit row, so lots of legroom. And it's one of the few that still gives out free drinks and snacks even on very short flights. Taxi from the airport to the hotel, with a driver who talked constantly but very quietly. Sometimes to us, sometimes to Google - and it was rarely possible to tell which. Some of the bits I could hear were quite interessting, though, and he pointed out some useful things around the hotel.

Surfers is definitely more resort than city, and pretty built up. But we have a view of the distant mountains from our balcony, and it's virtually impossible to be more than a 5-minute walk from the sea.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 20 gen 2019, 18:00
- ☀️ 27 °C
- Altitudine: 23 m
- Australia State of Queensland Gold Coast Bundall Nerang River -27.99864, 153.4288627°59’55” S 153°25’44” E
Giorno 8
Persian feast
20 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Wonderful dinner - the dips are smoked aubergine, hummus, and a raita-like yoghurt and cucumber dip topped with dried mint and dried rose petal powder. The main dishes are ghorme sabzi (halloumi, red beans and dried limes) and fesenjan (mushrooms pomegranate and walnuts), both with saffron rice.

Strolled back to the hotel along the esplanade, under a full moon. We may be 4.5 degrees off the true tropics here but the air smells tropical - full of exotic fruit and heady flowers.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 22 gen 2019, 18:06
- ⛅ 27 °C
- Altitudine: 13 m
- Australia State of Queensland Gold Coast Bundall Nerang River -27.99877, 153.4287127°59’56” S 153°25’43” E
Giorno 10
Why I'm not swimming in the sea
22 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
Normally I like to swim - or at least paddle - in every sea I encounter. Even in wintry Vladivostok I found a crack in the ice large enough to briefly dip a finger in the water.

Surfers Paradise should be perfect for my first dunk in the Coral Sea. The weather (and I assume the water) is warm, the beach is litter free and gently sloping, the sand is fine and soft, the surf big enough for a brief tumble but not enough to pose a threat.

But there are these all over the beach, and in the water. Bluebottles. Similar to the Portugese man o'war.

Physalia utriculus is smaller than Physalia physalis - the main stinging tentacle is only about 1 metre long. But the sting apparently causes 'extreme pain, which usually subsides after 20-40 minutes unless the venom gets into the lymph nodes'.

Think I'll stick to the pool.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 23 gen 2019, 18:00
- ⛅ 28 °C
- Altitudine: 40 m
- Australia State of Queensland Gold Coast Bundall Nerang River -27.9982, 153.4291227°59’54” S 153°25’45” E
Giorno 11
The clock
23 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Our hotel balcony overlooks the Clock Hotel. The notable feature of which is, unsurprisingly, a clock. This lives on a turret on one corner of the building, and at every quarter hour it plays a tune while large but unidenfiable figures parade aound the turret. One saving grace is that it is not the same tune every 15 minutes. There are repeats, but on a cycle of 5 hours or so.

The tunes have been transposed for clock bells by someone more interested in showing off the number of bells than in a strictly accurate rendition. And I suspect if you asked them to sing the tunes in question there would be significant passages of lalalalalas. Despite these obstacles we have so far identified Brahms lullaby, The Hills are Alive, Edelweiss, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Auld Lang Syne, and When the Saints go Marching In, Greensleeves, and something that might possibly be The Blue Danube, although I'm not sure Strauss himself could swear to it.Leggi altro
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Viaggiatore Sydney and Surfers Paradise
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- 23 gen 2019, 20:00
- ⛅ 26 °C
- Altitudine: 23 m
- Australia State of Queensland Gold Coast Bundall Nerang River -27.99854, 153.4288327°59’55” S 153°25’44” E
Giorno 11
Stroll along the prom prom prom
23 gennaio 2019, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Evening walk along the esplanade.
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