In the King's Cross area of Sydney there was lots of accommodation available. We started at Challis Lodge, a fine old building that had seen better days, where we got a decent but small room with bath for $80. (Keeping in mind that the Australian dollar is just slightly higher in value than the USD, I won't bother to distinguish). We surveyed some backpackers that were a bit cheaper but never quite right, although we did move into a spacious room with a great view of the city at the Kanga BP. Finally we scored a direct hit at the DeVere Hotel, a place I had said was obviously too expensive to be bothered going into, where we got a great room with bath and kitchenette for $79.
There was some sticker shock at the grocery store and takeaway counter
. An ordinary cup of coffee is $3 to $5. Apples and oranges are $4 to $6 a kilo, which works out to about a dollar apiece. Bananas, grown in Queensland, are an incredible $12/kg or more! Apparently it's "because of the floods." I would have wagered there was no place between Inuvik and Antarctica where bananas were that dear, let alone a country they're grown in.
We did some of the usual things in Sydney, went to Bondi and Manley, had dinner with Frances' cousin Geri and Andrew, and a nice day with my friend Karan in Newtown. We both thought Chinatown was not as real as Toronto's. It was a rainy week in Sydney, and when we went to the zoo at Taronga, it was almost like having a private zoo. The platypus performed well, I didn't know they were so active. The koalas were naturally asleep, not enough sense to go in out of the rain, as we used to say back when. The wombat was curled up in a ball. The komodo dragon was just sitting there. No point talking about lions and tigers and seals
.
The MyMulti transit pass in Sydney is $57 for a week, but worth it for the outer suburbs and even more distant provincial towns you can access. For example you can go all the way to Katomba in the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours by train, where we hoped to escape the rain but did not. It was so misty up there that we only glimpsed two of the Three Sisters. Frances made the best of it by finding a town two train stops away where prize-winning pies could be had. That was the point at which she became convinced of the merit of transit passes. It was self-evident. I barely even had to point it out. On the plus side, in the mist the red-and-blue parrots were invisible until you were right next to them, which made them seem all the more exotic.
I wanted to see a slice of the outback, not necessarily major tourist attractions, so we rented a car and set out for Adelaide via the interior, not the coast. (After that, visitors tended to be puzzled by this itinerary, while Australians were impressed)
. Here I learned something about renting cars. I was trying to limit the number of days, and Budget quoted $750 for 12 days, over $60/day or more than three times the rate we paid in NZ, when you convert. We shopped around at the half-dozen agencies on William Street. After a lot of thought, somehow we found out that Budget could give us the same small car for $528 for 16 days. The agents generally can't advise you, they are just pecking away at their computers in a slightly less random way than those monkeys paraphrasing Hamlet. What if we take the car for 16 days and return it in 12? Then you have to pay higher price. Does that make any sense? The bottom line is you have to just keep asking a lot of questions that sound really stupid. (Better to book earlier online of course, and do many, many searches that seem stupid.) Who else remembers when services (flights, etc) had a fixed, logical price?
The first day out of Sydney we stopped off in the mountains and stayed at Goulburn, the first of many very appealing small towns we would visit. Next day to Canberra, where it was windy and cold. We inadvertantly slipped into a demonstration that was going our way (toward the Parliament): "I say climate, you say action, Climate ... Action ... Climate ... Action." Otherwise Canberra was about as sterile a city as you can imagine. (A few days there would put an end to jokes about Ottawa). Our hotel was smack in the city centre. On Sunday evening we drove around looking for a place to eat other than a hotel, something simple like shawarma or pizza but not KFC or McDonalds. We couldn't find anything. We headed for the university, the students must eat something. Nothing. But the National Museum (by donation) was well worthwhile, especially the aboriginal section.
From here we drove into the outback, first along the Murray River through Wagga Wagga, Corowa, and Moama/Echuca, then rapidly into very dry country via Hay and Mungo National Park to Broken Hill. I was surprised by how empty most of New South Wales is. But the towns are quite charming. Most of the small towns have nature walks and historical/cultural walks, and often an interesting museum.
Here is a typical day (June 9): We had breakfast in our cabin in Echuca (muesli, toast and peanut butter, an orange, coffee). We drove 30 km to Mathoura, and to a bird hide near the town in a marshy area alongside the Murray River, but the birds were too far away to identify. We walked a kilometre along Gulpa Creek, under tall gum trees. We drove another 30 km to Deniliquin. This was a nice town with a museum, a history walk and a nature walk on a large island in the river, where we had our lunch while watching five kangaroos (first of many wild ones we were to see), and later saw many other birds including a pair of kookaburras. The museum (by donation) included an old schoolroom that looked a lot like my first one, with a 9th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1883 I think), also an exhibit on a local personality known as the Headless Horseman, and an old gaol. There seems to be more effort in preserving local history than there is in Canada. We drove another 120 km to Hay where we found a cabin in a caravan park, then went to the IGA and picked up some sausage, carrots and brussel sprouts for dinner.
Mungo Park is of great archeological importance, being perhaps the foremost site in providing knowledge of aboriginal history. That in itself doesn't provide much to engage the visitor, but we were fortunate to arrive at a time when a guided tour was on offer, led by two aboriginal Australians. It seems important finds are ongoing and "the history books are going to have to be re-written," so google that if you are interested. A word of warning: Most of the park roads are currently off-limits to traffic, and without that tour, there wouldn't have been access to anything very interesting, so check ahead before you go. Because there's a lot of driving on unsealed roads getting there and away. This long, dusty drive through western NSW was memorable in itself, however. Occasionally we saw emu or kangaroos. (We spent a night at Turlee Station, which has quite modern accommodation -- you have to book, though, because the owner/manager on this huge farm lives several miles from the guests).
At dusk on the 11th of June near Broken Hill an echidna crossed the road just in front of us. Next day we visited Silverton, almost a ghost town, lots of history there but not much to see compared with some of the other towns, including Broken Hill itself.
Into the outback
Sunday, June 12, 2011
New South Wales, Australia
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