Capertee Valley

Over the Queen's Birthday long weekend I had plans originally to drive to New England region of NSW and drive "aimlessly" around Tamworth and the surrounding towns. However, I ended up only having two days (intention to return to Sydney on Sunday night) and it wasn't feasible to make the drive there and back. Instead, I did a quick google search and discovered Capertee Valley.

In the past 12 months, I have driven on the same road through the Blue Mountains three times and all three times it has been very overcast despite being sunny in Sydney. I left a little later than what I would have liked due to the opening hours of the car rental place. There were also quite a few cars cruising at 80kmph on a 100kmph stretch of road which was a little frustrating. But soon enough I reached the roads that I love to drive on; 100kmph country roads with minimal / no cars on it. It is just so peaceful and the epitome of a road trip.

Wollongong & Helensburgh

Long time no talk! I have been absent from my blog for a little while now (I schedule my posts usually) which is quite unlike me. Things have been happening, but I guess that will be more apt in my end of month roundup post.

Over the weekend, I headed down south to Wollongong once again. It feels that I didn't visit the city that long ago however it seems that it was back in March which is crazy! Time is flying by and in fact, my previous visit was almost 3 months ago. Crazy!

The only item on my agenda was to head out of Sydney and I didn't have anything in mind for Wollongong. We took the Grand Pacific Drive and walked on the Sea Cliff which was quite beautiful. It was a warm-ish day but a tad overcast.


Bald Hill Lookout





Actually loving this aerial / overhead shot


In my previous post, I had mentioned that I had wanted to visit Nan Tien Temple which is the largest Buddhist Temple in the Southern Hemisphere. This time I did get around to it but was quite disappointed. It was very underwhelming and I am quite surprised that that is the largest temple on my side of the world.







On the way back to Sydney, I suggested that we visit the Helensburgh Metropolitan Tunnel. This tunnel (along with a few others) had openened in 1888 and was closed in 1915. It was filled with water up until the past two decades where it was drained and now is accessible by the public. I had visited in November last year but didn't have a good torch and didn't manage to walk into the tunnel. This time I was more prepared, with torch in tow! There has been a lot of backburning in the Sydney region lately which has mean there is this permanent haze / smoke in the air. Interestingly enough, the haze wasn't too evident outside the tunnel but inside it was so hazy! It was a very cool experience especially when I discovered that the tunnel was filled with glow worms! We didn't venture too far into the tunnel as it was very muddy / slippery but this was definitely the highlight of my day.






This was my sixth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.

Cave Beach & Catherine Hill Bay

For the last day of the long weekend, we woke up early to catch the sunrise. It was a little overcast on the drive to Zenith Beach but thankfully there was a break in the clouds and it was quite a gorgeous sunrise especially as we were the only ones on the beach.




On the way back to Sydney, we stopped at  Cave Beach. However as it was high tide, we didn't manage to visit the caves.




There was also a quick stop at Catherine Hill Bay Beach to visit the historic jetty that used to transport coal. Apparently it was damaged considerably in a fire however I didn't believe it was too obvious. Catherine Hill Bay felt like it was a world away from the rest of the central coast. It is a coastal village and it really did feel as though it was in the middle of no where.

Not entirely sure why there is a noose there.

This was my fifth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.

Mount Tomaree & Kayaking

Shortly after sunrise, Mr Paella and I headed up Mount Tomaree which was a reasonably easy hike to the lookout. It was a 45min walk up however wasn't as challenging as some other lookouts (namely Barrenjoey Headland in Sydney which is a short 15 minute walk but quite strenuous). It was at the lookout that I truly realised and remembered how beautiful Australia can be. The view was breathtaking. The coolest part was seeing an elderly woman (probably 60+) who was slowly making her way up to the lookout. I want to be her when I am older.

Newcastle & Stockton Sand Dunes

I am very much someone who unconsciously thinks that grass is greener on the other side. Life and the world is more interesting overseas and Australia/Sydney/NSW is boring. However since starting a full time job, my time is quite limited. And in fact, so many people think that Australia is so interesting and would love to visit. So why do I feel this way? It really comes down to the fact that it's familiar and, sadly, I am a little desensitised to the beauty of it. I have been making a conscious effort in 2016 to see more of Australia or the very least, more of NSW outside of Sydney.

Long introduction aside, that is why over the ANZAC long weekend I headed up north to Port Stephens. The furthest north I had ever been was Newcastle many many years ago as a day trip and honestly, I don't remember too much about it. Mr Paella and I headed onto the Pacific Highway which was quite frankly a very very boring drive. It is really the only road up the coast so taking the smaller highways wasn't an option.

Newcastle was the first stop and it was so incredibly windy! The photos don't capture how strong the winds were and I really felt that I was being moved by the wind. As the photos show, it was a beautiful day. We also discovered the Memorial Walk by accident as we were driving by and it was definitely worth walking on! It provided stunning views of the ocean and I believe the best vantage point of Newcastle. Something that I didn't know prior to the trip was that Newcastle has the largest coal exporting harbour in the world. It was insane to see the size of the machinery and equipment at the docks.

Riverina Roadtrip - Mount Wilson

This was my last day on my Easter trip (it has taken me a while to write all these posts...) and I knew that I would spend the rest of my trip driving back to Sydney. My aim was to beat the usual long weekend rush back and thus I aimed to hit Sydney at around midday.

First stop was heading to the highest point in Bathurst to watch the sunrise however I couldn't figure out how to get to the top of Mount Panorama and only managed to get to the bottom of it. It was such a gorgeous sunrise as the photos below show.

Peak Hill, Milthorpe & Bathurst

I had only highlighted one attraction in this region as I knew that I would be spending most of my time driving. This attraction was the Peak Hill Open Cut Mine which I had never heard about prior to my research. After my stop in Forbes, I continued my journey to Peak Hill which is a town with a population of 800.

Riverina Roadtrip - Forbes

For my last full day, I wanted to eventually end up sleeping the night at a place close-ish to Sydney. My reason was so the drive back wouldn't be too long and I would be able to beat the usual end of long weekend traffic back to Sydney. Subsequently I settled on sleeping at a free campground at Bathurst. It isn't accurate to call this and the next few posts as Riverina roadtrip since I left the Riverina region on this day.

The 240km drive from Ariah Park to Peak Hill was actually really enjoyable. I really enjoy waking up at sunrise and driving since the roads are quiet, the day hasn't started for a lot of people and it is just so peaceful. It also means that I can reduce the car's speed to a crawl or even stop it completely in my lane without fear of being hit by a car behind me.

Riverina Roadtrip - Lockhart & Ariah Park

There really isn't too much to do in the Riverina region and I went through all 15 pages on the Riverina tourism website looking for things to see and do. Something that I stumbled upon was the Pastoral Shadows of Brookong located in Lockhart.

Riverina Roadtrip - Along the Road to Gundagai

If I had to pick a year, I would say that Year 3 was probably my favourite year out of primary school. My teacher was Mr Bluett and he had this scruffy beard and played the piano every time we weren't doing our scehduled maths/ science/ English lessons. Now in hindsight, a lot of the teachers had their little quirk; some focussed heavily on arts and crafts whilst my Year 4 teacher was a grammar Nazi. For Mr Bluett, it was Australian folk songs and poems. One of the songs that has stuck with me all these years is "Along the Road to Gundagai" by Jack O'Hagan. I still remember all the words and I haven't met anyone else who knows the song.

And that is really my rationale behind my Riverina road trip. Yes. A folk song I learnt when I was 9 from my Year 3 teacher. Bizarre? Yes, quite I believe. Here is the song for those who are curious.

On the way, I drove through Tumut and saw many cars parked next to the station. At the time I didn't know what it was and decided to stop for a quick look. Reading about it later, it was the Camaro-Firebird & US Muscle Car Nationals. Knowing nothing about cars or the event, apart from the fact that they were super shiny and lots of proud owners next to them, I headed back on the road.

Riverina Roadtrip - Sugar Pine Walk

I didn't really have the most comfortable night. Turns out the Hyandai i30 back seats don't fold flat completely and has quite a significant height difference. I woke up with a pain in my tailbone as that is the area where the ridge was hitting. I also woke up quite cold as it was around 9 degrees C when I woke up and it was 20 degrees when I fell asleep. This meant that I was overheating when I was trying to fall asleep but then woke up at 4am frantically zipping up my sleeping bag. I finally woke up at 6.30am to the sound of kookaburras and slowly got ready for my day.

I wanted to visit the Bago Forest for the Sugar Pine Walk however it was a 1.5hour drive from Wagga Wagga. Since I was "in the area" I decided to still visit and I actually find it crazy that some people head from Sydney just to see the forest (it would be a 7 hour drive). Madness. I do quite enjoy driving very early in the morning, just after sunrise due to the serenity and the roads are nice and quiet. I saw this bridge on the drive there and ended up stopping and found a lot of noisy cows too!







It was a beautiful sunrise with lots of fog and my photos don't really capture the true beauty of it. There was this field with low wisps of fog hanging near the cows and it was just absolutely stunning. It was probably one of my most memorable sunrises.






I love this shot. So glad that I stopped the car for this.
I ended picking a smaller back road unintentionally and drove past lots of orchards. Riverina is known as the "food bowl" of NSW and is where a lot of produce is grown. In the area near Laurel Hill, there is the town of Batlow which is known for their apples. I saw an orchard near the side of the road and I quickly snuck out, ran in and stole two apples from the tree. One of my most rebellious moments!







Laurel Hill is part of the Snowy Mountains so naturally the landscape was very different to the Riverina Region. There were a lot of super tall trees and it was very very quiet. I have this tendency to spot things on the side of the road and want to stop to have a look at it. Sometimes it's a really good idea (like the shot above), and other times I need to remind myself that if I was to keep doing that I wouldn't get anywhere. For this instance, I stopped because I saw what I thought was an alpaca and a dog. Turns out they were just two dogs.


The Sugar Pine Walk was absolutely breathtaking. The sugar pines were planted in 1928 and are the tallest pine trees in the species. Pine trees are not native to Australia and are actually native to the Pacific Coast of North America so it was very unusual to see so many pines planted there. There was one row of trees that had been cut down so that there was a "walk way" to the end of the 500m long path. I arrived there at 9am and was the only person there.







It was so silent except for the chirping birds and since I live in the city and work in the heart of the city, silence is sometimes a very uncommon thing. Since I travel solo, my tripod and self timer are my best friends. Also a selfie stick although I am very selective about when I choose to use it. I wanted to take a photo of me standing in the greens underneath the sugar pines. What I was initially worried about was the possibility of discovering a snake however that was actually the least of my problems. I took a step in after I clicked the self timer and had instant regret since my right leg was attacked by the thorns. It was so painful that I immediately withdrew my leg and ended up with quite a few cuts on my leg. I have this wonderful photo that my camera captured.

Trying to retreat quickly from the thorny plants.

By the time I wrapped up my photos it was 10am and as I was about to leave, 4 cars turned up! Lucky I did arrive early. And I guess that is also why I like heading out early. The roads are quiet and people generally only wake up at 8am which means I get a lot of things to myself.

Next up will be Gundagai! That post will explain why I decided to visit Riverina region.

This is my fourth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here

Riverina Roadtrip - Junee & Wagga Wagga

Over the Easter long weekend, I went on a solo road trip to the Riverina Region in NSW. Originally I had planned on driving to Mount Kosciusko however with my healing ankle, I decided against it. I have also decided to incorporate as many maps as I can just to paint a clearer picture of where I went.

Wollongong

Wollongong or 'The Gong' is located around 1.5 hours south of Sydney. It is the third largest city in New South Wales and an easy day trip from Sydney on the train.

I had been itching to head out of Sydney however with my still healing ankle, my options have been quite limited. I am not sure if I actually have been to Wollongong before but on first impression, I thought it was gorgeous. The proximity of the Illawarra escarpment to the city made the place feel very different to the other big cities in New South Wales.

I first visited the Botanic Gardens which was super nice!









I then headed out to the ocean and walked along the coast until I reached the lighthouses.













I didn't spend as much time in Wollongong as I would have liked and actually didn't even visit the city centre. I guess this can only mean that another visit will be in the near future. Next time I would like to visit Nan Tien temple which is the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere.

Also thank you everyone who wrote such kind words and advice on my previous post.

This is my third trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here