Day 50 – Saturday 1st
March 2014 – Sydney
An important
day, as we arrived in Australia passing through the Sydney Heads at 07.00 into
one of the magnificent harbours in the world.
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| Sydney Skyline |
Once through the Heads, the harbour
opens up and the Sydney skyline can be seen, certainly different with more sky
scrapers than I had seen more than forty years ago.
Unfortunately,
the weather was not kind to us, as the overcast sky gave the sky line an eerie
feeling and the occasional rain, did not dampen our spirits.
This iconic view of the Sydney Opera
House and Bridge, with the buildings on the right of the North Shore.
Sydney in the rain.
Opera House
The happy travellers
arrive in Australia.
Approaching
our berth at Circular Quay, which is next to the Bridge and opposite the Opera
House, the ship unfurled a huge banner from the foremast right to the
funnel. This very colourful banner had
in bold lettering the message ‘HAPPY MARDI GRAS’, for the biggest gay festive
in Australia, and the ship was to be of the focal point of the parade. I hope nobody told Her Majesty, Queen
Elizabeth.
We had
breakfast in the Britannia Restaurant and were ashore at 09.30, where we met a
friend of Colin, whom he knew from his teenage years. He had worked out a program for us, into his car and we were heading north across the bridge to his home, one and three quarters of
an hour away, to a place called Wyndvale about 80 miles north of Sydney. At his wonderful home, we met his charming wife Jan
who had made lunch for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed our cold meat salad.
The
afternoon program was to visit the Hunter Valley, the wine growing area of New
South Wales, an area I never had the chance of visiting during my stay in
Australia. It was further drive north,
taking us further away from the gay’s and their Mardi Gras and I was over the
moon.
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| Hunter Valley |
The drive to the Hunter Valley is a
wonderful part of NSW, and passing through the many vineyards was breath
taking. I had no idea as to how many of
these growers there were, and of course, the vineyards were very well looked
after. It was only right to go into some
of these places and sample a few of their wines.
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| Colin, Alex, Tony, Jan |
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| Wine Tasting |
The only winery name
I recognised was Tywell’s and we had a wonderful experience there in ann excellent setting.
We travelled
back to Jan and Tony’s house partly along the mountain range which is called
the great divide and the scenery is spectacular. On the way, we passed through Cessnock, a
coal mining town and went by a deep mine. The surroundings are nothing like the
old mines in the UK and how the town of Cessnock is spread out and well
attended is nothing like the Ashington,
I know in Northumberland.
Back at the
house we were treated to a wonderful chicken curry and all too quickly it was
time for us to head back to Sydney. We were informed to stay in an area near to
the ship, as the rest of the city centre, especially the King Cross area would
be too dangerous with the gay fiesta reaching its normal rowdy end. Tony and Jan had been wonderful hosts and we could
not thank them enough for the hospitality they had shown to us both.
We stayed in
an area called the Rocks, between the ship and the Bridge, the old fashioned
pubs were all lively and very noisy all of them having bands playing, imagining
they were rock stars. Back on board for
a quiet Speckled Hen in the Golden Lion at 23.30.
It had been
a long and magical day, went to see places, I never expected to see, spent in
the company of some wonderful people.
Sydney will never lose its attraction for me, and I was very happy to be
back in OZ.
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