Sydney Surrounds

After bunking in central Newtown for two weeks and exploring all the city had to offer, we decided to move shop and spend the last few days before our car rental was ready in a hostel right on the beach.  The Coogee Beach House is less than 100 meters from Coogee Beach, which is an idyllic city beach a few kilometers south of Bondi.  We strapped on our over-stuffed bags and bussed to the beach.  It should surprise nobody at this point when I stop here and say that the sunny warm weather broke that day and we spent the last 4 days staring at the beach from the hostel window and wishing the incessant rain would stop.  It all cleared up the day we were to check out (go figure!) and we again threw on our over-stuffed packs and made the trek across the city.  By the end of the day we were comfortably relocated and in our new rental camper van which we appropriately dubbed Major Tom.  Now we are ready to bust Australia wide-open like a bottle of bubbly!

The first place we hit was the northern beaches of Sydney (being those north of Manly) which were impractical to visit via public transit.  We found a holiday park across the road from Narrabeen Beach and set up shop.  I took a quick jaunt up to the headlands on its northern end for some good views down the long stretch of beach and spied some smaller cliff backed beaches to the north.  Northern Sydney as it turns out, is nothing like its densely populated and high rise southern half.  The harbour seems to have provided a solid natural barrier against northern development, since almost immediately beyond the harbor bridge the neighborhoods become quieter and greener.  Just getting to Narrabeen requires you to drive through a section of national park!  It only gets more lush as you head north, as we did towards Palm Beach - the northernmost of Sydney's northern beaches.  Those of you familiar with the soap Home & Away may recognize the landscape, which is filmed here.  The beach itself is incredible, as is the Pittwater area that surrounds it. 

Narrabeen Beach

Narrabeen Inlet

Looking North from Narrabeen Bluff

Palm Beach

Another memory that northern Sydney imparted upon us was a close up view of a flying fox colony fly-out.  As I mentioned in the last blog, the colony in the Royal Botanic Gardens has been removed, but there are still plenty of colonies all over the city.  We found one near the neighborhood of Gordon, which lies at the edge of Ku-Ring Gai National Park that borders Sydney to the north.  From our lookout on the bridge we saw thousands and thousands of bats come out of the trees at dusk and fly directly overhead on their way to that night's meal.  Unfortunately my camera doesn't work to well at taking pictures of little black dots in the dark night sky, so you'll have to take my word that it was pretty
incredible.  

About 90 minutes to the west of Sydney lies the Blue Mountains which are part of the Great Dividing Range that runs along the entire east coast of Australia, and it just so happens that they comprise one of the most scenic regions in the entire 3500 km stretch.  This is funny because when I was originally researching the Sydney area I'd come across a few photos of the Blue Mountains that failed to impress and I'd actually considered skipping the region.  Luckily for us both I didn't, as Kayleigh was just as blown away as I was.  Blessed is Sydney with natural amenities surely (now they just need to work on…ya know, the city part!).  Calling them mountains may be a bit of a misnomer as they are actually a plateau that has been dissected by a series of waterways cutting into the sandstone bedrock.  Mountains or valleys, lets just go ahead and call them amazing.  The area is replete with quaint country towns, easy to access lookouts with sweeping panoramas over the ancient landscape, as well as plenty of waterfalls, and we took the opportunity to do our first hike in Australia along the National Pass.  It did not disappoint!

Three Sisters Overlook - The photos lose a sense of scale - it doesn't compare with standing in front of it)

They're called the Blue Mountains due to the characteristic blue haze that sits in the valleys.  The haze is actually composed of the oils produced by the millions of Eucalyptus trees! 

The beginning to the National Pass

Wentworth Falls from the bottom

Finally, the last of Sydney's nearby charms that we were lucky enough to visit was the Hunter Valley.  While Barossa Valley in South Australia may be the most largest and most famous wine growing region in Australia, The Hunter Valley is the oldest.  Known mainly for it's Semillon, the area is responsible for a mere 8% of the countries total wine production. It makes up for its size with its abundance of boutique wineries and small scale growers. When it comes to touring the area, it surely isn't as easy as the wine regions of NZ; there is no conveniently centralized square or strip to make it easy to walk from one winery straight to another.  It is, however, much more beautiful than any of the wine regions across the pond (sans Waiheke) and as unpretentious as they come.  We made quick work of the tastings.  :)