Bronson Walkabout: Our last stop, Sydney and the Blue Mountains

The iconic Harbor Bridge

After a long days travel from Cairns to Sydney, we made it to our apartment in Elizabeth Bay, a few clicks east of the central business district (CBD). Venturing out for dinner that night, we discovered what an exclusive area we now found ourselves in for the next week, evidenced by the small, chic restaurants and boutiques. Like shops that sell only French shoes, beautiful design shops, that kind of thing. Luckily there was also a great Thai restaurant, our favorite, and with the land still moving we settled into a good nights rest on terra firma.

Kookaburra doing a good job ignoring me.

Seems like Sydney is all about the harbor so we wanted to stay near the water. We found this great apartment on AirBnB with a water view but no heat and windows that sort of leaked. No problem, it’s bright and sunny out so off we went. It was Jeff’s birthday the first day there so we spent the day walking around and seeing some of the great iconic sights of Sydney: The Opera House, Harbor Bridge and the Royal Botanical Garden (RBG). The garden was one we passed through many times during our stay since it lay between our house and the CBD. It was Friday and at our birthday lunch at Café Sydney, we discovered how Australian business culture might truly differ from American (at least Seattle-side biz folk). First off, we noticed lots of suits and formal biz attire, something rarely seen anymore as corporate casual has taken hold. Second, the amount of alcohol quaffed during lunch: cocktails, then a bottle of white, then red. Our waiter informed us “We get a lot of corporates on Friday, they knock off early afternoon and start their weekend”. He coined a new word for us: “corporates”.

It looked like the weather was going to get rainy about mid-week during our visit so we opted to get out to the beaches while the weather was good. First we visited famous Bondi Beach and did the coastal beach walk to Coogee. Lovely. Next day Manly, which meant we could travel the length of the Harbor from the CBD to the mouth where Manly lay on the north side by ferry. It was Sunday and the ferry was packed with all types of people from families to visitors like us from all over the world. We took in the beach scene there, decidedly different than Bondi and hiked up in the national park around the harbor mouth. Both were great days filled with lots of beautiful Sydney Harbor scenery.

Manley Beach surf scene

And then the weather did change, something we underestimated it at first and went out anyway. Gusts up to 65 mph and inches of rain fell. We came home that night soaked and wind blown. Turns out it was the biggest storm of the century (OK, that’s only 15 years!), one that brewed up in the Tasman Sea and created the perfect storm. Hundreds of thousands were without power, people had died in flash floods: it was serious. The front moved slowly across Sydney for three days total. The good news was that we needed to turn some attention to the details of arriving home, the bad news was the lack of heat and leaky windows in our apartment! On our last night we met friends of our friend, Ellen for dinner in the CBD, Cathy and Shaun. The wind had died down but it was still raining. We arrived looking like drowned rats after walking up on the Harbor Bridge and had a lovely dinner with these two wonderful people. We missed you Ellen!

During dinner Cathy asked me if Australia had lived up to my expectations. I found that I didn’t know how to answer this question. We saw so little of Australia really, only the coast of Queensland and now this part of New South Wales. It’s an epic country with a fascinating history and a culture that seems very much like America but is, of course, very different. The hospitality of the people we met has exceeded my expectations and some of the scenery as well. It’s always the people who make a place special. I hope we get the chance to come back and unpack this place a little more.

Not everyone gets to this extreme weather view from the Harbor Bridge...

The weather finally cleared the morning we left. Our wet and cold apartment had lost it’s charm by then and we were ready to pack up and head out of the city.

Curious lorikeets on our windowsill, seeing how we fared the storm.

Our next stop was Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, just two hours west from Sydney. We couldn’t have picked a better place for our last stop on this trip. Blackheath is a small town that reminds me of our home on Vashon. Talking to folks here I detect a sense of community here. And some awesome hiking a short distance from our house. Beautiful scenery, crisp mountain air and some sunshine. And then hail. We were surprised one day but a freak hailstorm that managed to dump half inch sized hail everywhere. We stood out in the street and talked to our neighbors who said it was a very unusual occurrence. It melted after a few hours and convinced us that they do big weather here in Australia.

As I write this final travel post, the sun is out and it’s a brilliant blue day. I wish I could go for a last hike or maybe get in the car and drive west until we hit the desert. But there’s a plane to catch in Sydney. The year of travel has finally come to an end and we return home to pick up where we left off. I am grateful for all the experiences and blessed to be able to take this year. Reflection is in order so one more post will follow. Thanks for reading!