Sydney

All the while I was travelling in New Zealand, I was toying with the idea of coming over to Oz for a bit, seeing as I was in the vicinity. Although Oz wasn't on my original plan, I'd met quite a few sound people from that country, and the chance of seeing some of the wildlife there was also tempting. I think what decided it was when I was reading Bill Bryson, Down Under, in a youth hostel in Rotorua while it rained heavily outside.

So I booked a cheap flight with Jetstar to Sydney, and three days later I was there. A friend had recently moved over there from the UK and he very generously decided to put me up for a few days. On my first night we went down to the harbour to see the classic Sydney icons, the harbour bridge and opera house. The opera house which was lit up by some interesting lighting effects as part of a art event called Vivid, so it looked even more like something out of a science fiction series than usual.

The next day I took the ferry from where my friend lives in Balmain over to McMahons point. From there I walked around a nice little bay area which featured the remains of Sydneys last shipbuilding site. I walked over the harbour bridge to the circular quay area and had a good mooch about for the rest of the day. Sydney is a huge city, but the weather at the moment is quite cool so it was not so tiring to walk around. It rained torrentially at one point so I hid in a bus shelter. After it had died down I walked back to Bahmain via the Anzac bridge, which in some ways is even more impressive looking than the harbour bridge, although it doesn't have the same classic view of the harbour and opera house.

Today I decided to do a small pilgramage. In the Bryson book, he recounts how he walked down Victoria road to Hunter's hill, which he describes as being pretty special, then through the suburbs back to Sydney central. At some point he decides to take a shortcut through a place called Tennyson park, where he gets chased by dogs and escapes by climbing over someones back garden fence. The owner is standing in the kitchen watching him in disbelief and its a very funny section of his book (a lot more funny than how I'm telling it). Anyhow, I followed his route from Bahmain across several bridges and two rather confusing subway systems which enable pedestrian access onto the bridges. The road walk wasn't that great, just a main road, but there was little in the way of quieter roads running parallell that I could take (most side roads lead down to the water). Hunter's hill was nothing, just a hotel, cafe and a highly busy road junction. I was thinking that either this place has changed a lot since Bryson was here, or that he was high when he wrote it. I also found Tennyson park, which was actually a nice patch of regenerating bush. It didn't look like many people had been through there since Bryson had. It was a long walk into the city centre from there, I reckon I was walking for about 5 hours through Lane Cove, North Sydney (just a load of office buildings) and back over the harbour bridge.

On checking his book later, I realised that Bryson must have walked to the end of the peninsula where Hunter's hill was. Hmm, that will teach me to not read things properly then shoot out of the door for a ridiculous hike. At any rate, two days in a city is enough for me (especially after spending the previous three in a different city) so I'm planning on taking the train up to Katoomba in the blue mountains next.