Port Macquarie to Sydney – January 27 – February 3, 2007
Leaving the party that was Byron Bay, we drove to Port Macquarie – a quiet, mid-sized town on the coast with breathtaking views from the public beaches and parks but a little too spread out and quiet (empty) for us. We had to venture inland about a mile to find a hotel we could afford but we were rewarded with cable TV, a fridge and our own bathroom! Although we didn’t find much to do in the area we stayed two nights just to soak in the luxury. It was here that, during our usual “what do you miss most about home” game, that we started to feel homesick.
Newcastle was next on the itinerary but we ended up just passing through since it felt very similar to a decent-sized industrial American city on the water. It did have a nice revived arts district where we found an all-organic burger joint for lunch. There is also reportedly great surf in the area but of course the swell was down when we passed through. We couldn’t wait to see Sydney since we had heard so may different things on our way South so we made a full day’s drive to get to there by sunset.
The small beach towns of Northern Sydney from Manly to Palm Beach run together with indistinguishable boundaries however each has a unique personality. Manly is teeming with shops and restaurants with a mixed buzz from the tourist beachgoers and the flow of residents making the ferry commute from Sydney. Dee Why and Narrabeen further north are more residential but just as crowded and at the far end of the peninsula are the small, exclusive communities of Avalon and Palm Beach, Australia’s versions of Laguna Beach. Of course, we based ourselves in Manly since it had the cheapest (not cheap!) accommodation and more food options. Still not ready again for the crowded, constant mildew smell of the few overpriced hostels in town, we found a nice guesthouse with clean rooms, a kitchen and free internet ($6-10 per hr). The real selling point though, was the free parking which would save us over $30 a day. We had heard horror stories about Sydney parking (“they make it clear they do not want cars in Sydney”) but we were still being shocked daily with the prices. We begrudgingly paid $80 AUS a night for the room but it was worth it when we discovered Sydney’s other secret – cheap steak dinners at the bars.
Our first week in Aus. I asked a local if you could find a good, cheap steak anywhere, having heard they have terrific beef. He told us the bars in Sydney run specials to get patrons in the door but we were skeptical about how good a cheap steak served at a bar could be. Let me tell you – we found excellent, large steak dinners with mushroom or vinaigrette sauté, mashed potatoes and salad that were as good as Outback for under $10 Aus, or less than $8 US (equivalent of a Subway). And the bars were nice, like upscale drinking clubs. Everything else we’d found to eat so far was overpriced or closed early and here we found a gem. We ate steak for a few nights until we felt like our arteries were begging us to stop, but it was our official send-off of Southeast Asian food.
We enjoyed the beaches around Sydney even more. Dee Why and Curl Curl had nice big coves with expansive beaches, saltwater community pools built into the rocks overlooking the sea and great waves for surfing. Narrabeen had long, pine tree lined beaches with golden sand. Avalon was a picturesque half moon bay with tons of families surfing the gentle waves together. And Palm Beach had sailboat-filled harbors, mountainous oceanfront nature preserves, pristine beaches and beautiful homes we could never afford. We hadn’t even seen Sydney proper yet but we could see how so many people loved this area.
On the 4th day we ripped ourselves away from the beach and the comforts of a guesthouse to see the real Sydney. We drove in and were immediately impressed. Many well-traveled people had told us that it was their favorite city in the world so our expectations were certainly high. If you like large cities, it really is the perfect sized metropolitan city…big enough to warrant excellent public transportation, parks, shopping, architecture and museums, yet only a 10-minute drive from the beaches that we had just left and more that we hadn’t yet seen. The famous Opera House sits on the bay anchoring the beautiful city around it – the Harbor Bridge a perfect backdrop. There are parks and gardens everywhere, old churches and the choices of every modern convenience – enough Borders (we enjoyed our free magazine reading entertainment), Starbucks and fast food chains to make us think that we were home but also plenty of unique cafes and restaurants. Although for some reason, Burger King is called Hungry Jacks. Anyway, we drove around for a couple of hours to explore but were unable to stop too much because parking is impossible or costs a fortune. Everywhere we stopped one of us would have to stay with the car to avoid paying the $4 per hour rates. So, after plenty of photos we headed to Bondi Beach, another beach suburb, to find a place to crash.
Bondi is Sydney’s most famous beach, known for waves but geared just as much towards spending money. No waves at the time but it did have a nice pastel Art Deco style. Unfortunately, it was a terribly expensive place to spend the night and the hostels were mostly full. A couple miles south we found Clovelly Bay – quieter with free parking. We settled into a rather shabby hotel, where we somehow scored a private room for $40 a night total (we would soon see why), while the average dorm (non-private) bunk in a hostel was almost that much for one person. Completely thrilled, we headed out for dinner, coffee and some magazine reading at Borders.
Happy, full and tired, we returned to our hotel room, turned on the lights and were shocked to see a live roach motel. My bag was covered; the walls and bed were covered in the little German cockroaches. They flew around; they ran into my backpack to hide as we took off our shoes and literally smashed hordes of them. Disgusted I marched to the owner’s room, abruptly interrupted her TV watching and told her that we had a problem. Either we were getting a new room or getting our money back and sleeping in the car. They were extremely embarrassed and apologetic. Apparently someone had just moved out from living in the room for 6 months and they had not yet fumigated the room. The managers came in a few minutes later to see roaches still scurrying and at least 10 that had been flattened with our flip-flops. We moved our stuff to a different room, inspected it fully and, not finding a single bug, proceeded to empty the entire contents of my intricately packed backpack out in the hall. We killed 3 more roaches that were hanging out in the deep recesses inside. Tired from battle, we fell asleep with the light on – hoping it would keep any stragglers away.
We only had one more day in Sydney so we checked out the next day to explore other areas. The weather was dodgy, so we avoided the beaches and decided to drive 2 hours inland to see the Blue Mountains and the famous Three Sisters. It began to rain but fortunately cleared up into a gorgeous day just in time. We stopped for a quick bite in the neighboring old mining town of Katoomba and, after lunch, found a tiny cupcake shop to have a small treat. Talking to the owner we learned their meticulous process of baking each cupcake with a thick rich mud cake and crafting icings from real mint, passion fruit, hazelnut, cookies and cream, Tiramisu or countless other flavors. Finally, each was topped off with a piece of chocolate in the shape of a heart. We couldn’t resist. For Chris, the cookies and cream and I the passion fruit. Driving to the mountain lookout we ate our treats like they were our last, a small piece of heaven – never before enjoying a cupcake made with such passion.
The 3 Sisters are spectacular column/cone shaped rock formations that jut out of a huge canyon in the Blue Mountains. They are a beautiful sight well worth seeing and are very important in the Aboriginal culture. The gorge around them reminded us of a miniature Grand Canyon, with terrific views of the forest below and the mist coming off of the eucalyptus trees. After getting some great photos of the Sisters, the canyon and a local Aborigine, we drove back to Sydney. Unable to track down any reasonable place to sleep and park, we actually returned to the same motel for the night, hopeful that the roaches hadn’t moved to our new room. The very nice owners, probably astonished at our return and still embarrassed, gave us a great discount rate of $30 on another clean room. Of course, we celebrated with another steak dinner (this one only $5).
Tags: Travel
pcschroeder
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