Not so much the Blue as Misty Mountains...

Left the comfortable confines of the Hunter Vallley wine region and traveled to the famous Blue Mountains.  The mountains are called blue because they allegedly give off a 'blue' tinge as the result of the eucalyptus trees.  But the day and half I was there they only gave off a 'grey mist', as it was misty and rainy the entire time.  

As I have noted previously, the Aussie tend to be big on signs and directions.  Before setting off on my hike, I stopped in to the public restroom where I found the following helpful instructions-

For the record, I took care to follow the instructions precisely. (And also for the record, the instructions notwithstanding, I was in the men's room). 

My 2.5 hour hike provided  very limited views of the famous 3 Sisters and sheer cliffs of the Blue Mountains, which is a shame, as what I saw seemed quite impressive.  However, the hike was still worthwhile as it still revealed the different flora and fauna of Australia (I saw a couple of interesting birds). 

I did see another snake, but was entirely unfazed-

Tomorrow the long 6 hour drive to Mt. Kosciuzko- and a hike of the highest mountain in Australia. Mountains about 90 miles west of Sydney.  

I wrapped up my time in Sydney which has some interesting older architecture, particularly in the 'Rocks' (old convict and port) district-

But Sydney is all about the harbor.  For you sailing buffs-

So I headed out to the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest wine region about 3 hours northeast of Sydney.  There I rented a bike and headed out to visit and taste at 5 or 6 local wineries, which tended to specialize in Chardonnay and Semillon, as well as- naturally- Shiraz.  It was a very enjoyable and interesting day as I met several interesting Aussies, as well as seeing some kangaroos while cycling through the countryside (they were just bounding along a little too fast for my camera). 

I kept running into one 40ish couple who had also rented bikes and were touring the vineyards.  They, particularly the man, were quite chatty and we shared a couple of tasting tables at different wineries.  At one point, the wife kept asking the fellow about which wine he liked while he was talking to me and she seemed to get annoyed when he failed to respond.  Finally he turned to her and said “Look, I have only got about 10 minutes or so to talk to this American fellow.  I can talk to you for the rest of my life.”  I felt like I was disrupting a marriage.  They were from Sydney and were there to see a Shakespeare play at one of the vineyards the next night, tho the fellow originally hailed from England.    

At one of the vineyards- actually the one holding the Shakespeare play- I met a cheery and gregarious older lady who happened to own the vineyard with her retired husband.  They had bought the winery 16 years before but had only moved up here after he retired from his Sydney-based software business 3 years ago (maybe wine making is in Emily and Kyle’s distant future).  Anyway, they kept on the wine maker from the previous owner who was still with the winery.  According to the woman, he was somewhat resistant to change...

  As I noted how, like all Australian wines, her bottles had screw tops, she discussed that history a little bit and then said the winemaker said years ago that he would ‘never use them’ .  I think they had now been using them some 10 years or so.  We then got to discussing the oak barrels and she said they were moving to some newfangled barrel system which was far more efficient and that the winemaker had said a few years ago that he would ‘never use them’.  That is until he discovered that they did a better job with half the work.  Finally, she remarked that they had just retained a new wine making assistant, a young woman and former pharmacist.  She noted that when they bruited the subject a couple years ago of hiring an assistant, he emphatically stated that “Ok, but he would never go along with hiring a woman!”  The woman told me that the new female assistant had been there about a year now.  

Her wines were good, too, but they were only sold at the cellar door.  Maybe if the winemaker said he would never allow their export, they will one day end up in the U.S.  

I wound up my trip to Western Australia and took a redeye from Perth to Sydney because who needs sleep when you are on vacation?

Originally, I had not planned on going to WA, but my friend Craze persuaded me to go- he wasn't flying for 43 hours after all- and in the end, I am glad I did.  It was an quite interesting and a diverse place and I covered a fair amount of ground- probably 800-900 miles of mostly coast line- in my short stay.  Perth is much larger and more affluent than I thought- and expensive even for Australia- with 2.5m people.  And it is the most remote large city in the world, being more than 2000 miles to the closest major met area.  It is closer, I think to Singapore than to Sydney and it does have a feeling of being far flung, even if not unpopulated (unless you get 50 miles outside of it).  And I will never forget those crashing waves near Cape Leeuwin in the south-

Sydney has the reputation of being one of, if not the most, beautiful cities in the world, mostly because of its harbor (and Sydneyites seem to feel that way).   And it is indeed a very pretty city with a gorgeous harbor. However, I would not necessarily rate it equal to San Fran, which has its hills and fantastic bay, or far better than some other Pacific rim cities that I have seen like Auckland, Vancouver or even Seattle, which I think are all beautiful.  Maybe it was just because of expectations.

  But it has the famous Opera House, whose architect evidently quit in the middle of the project in a fit of pique and never returned to see the finished project (5x over budget, of course).  That is quite a lot of pique and shows what ego and a desire for control can do to a fellow, I guess.  It is strange to think that a city founded originally mostly by convicts and which was a very rough  port for well over 100 years would eventually evolve into this very upscale, clean, and chic city.  Anyway-

Took a 2.5 hour walking tour, which was very interesting.  Seems that most everything in the city is named after an early Governor named McQuardie who found an almost endless number of landmarks to name after himself (pays to be early, I guess)- roads, towns, lakes, rivers, parks, etc.  Apparently, however, his wife, Elizabeth, finally told him his ego was a little out of control and so he stopped and then started naming things after her- Elizabeth Street, Mrs. McQuardie’s Chair, etc.  This seemed to mollify her somewhat, I understand, and she ceased further complaints.  

My walking tour started in Sydney’s Hyde Park where there was a small women’s march.  The women held different placards and one stated “Women Are People Too!” which came as complete shock to me.  So far in Australia I had only seen them pulling donkey carts around.  Who knew? 

The tour also went by some art work known as ‘the donut’,  presumably dedicated to Homer Simpson-

I did walk across the iconic harbor bridge and also took a ferry across the harbor to get a perspective on the city, and the weather both days I was there was splendid as you can see-

  

Care free hiking...

I planned to spend my last couple of days in Western Australia visiting a lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin near where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet and doing some coastal hiking along a striking seaside trail known as the 'Cape to Cape' trail.  The good news, I thought to myself, is that there are unlikely to be any snakes so close to the ocean and I will be hike worry free without a care in the world-

Yep, no worries at all.  

When I visited the lighthouse, I asked one of the rangers there what section of the Cape trail he recommended and he said he thought Hamlin Bay quite scenic, except that he always saw deadly Targa snakes in that area and it was best to be constantly on the lookout as you walked.  Oh, goodie.  A  hike where my eyes would never look up from the trail 8’ in front of me.   But still, I thought, what were the odds of actually encountering one? 

I did see where the 2 oceans met from the top of the lighthouse and that was quite interesting.  You could actually see the swells coming from different directions and then smashing into one another.  One of the guides pointed out a rock in the sea and said that spot was actually the anti-pole for Washington D.C.  Yeah, I thought, except the rock seemed a bit more productive than D.C., or at least less baleful in its effects.  

En route, I did got through a Kauri (name of the tree here) forest, which had something of a middle earth effect

The day I took up the Cape to Cape trail in earnest was a windy and cool day- quite a contrast to Rottnest Island- and the swells and breakers coming off the Indian Ocean were really large.  At one point, I walked along the beach and never I have felt the power, force and awesomeness of the ocean- as opposed to say, that of Justin Bieber- as I walked along the sand.  It was almost frightening, but it certainly was truly impressive and resulted in a little different experience from my other coastal hikes.  The huge waves just blasted into the beach and rocks.  A good day to car park surf. 

And then, as I was making my way quickly back, I encountered a large black Targa snake about 6’ ahead on the trail.  I skidded to a halt and we looked at each other for a second, as it was not entirely clear who had the right of way....  Pondering for a moment, I decided it was only polite to defer to the native and I waited until the snake crossed before continuing on my merry way, entirely unperturbed.  And then.....I changed my underwear when I got back to the car. 

 Finally, I found a place within my comfort zone-

Left Freo yesterday and tooled my way down to the wine region of Margaret River in Southwest Australia (which is actually southeast of Perth, but nobody here seems to notice or care when it is pointed out to them).  Had lunch and did some wine tasting at Margaret River's most famous winery- Leeuwin Winery, most renowned for its chardonnays (which were good).  

A little later as evening descended I headed to the closest beach, which happened to be known as Surfer's Point and, unsurprisingly, well known here as a premier surfer's beach.  

Upon arrival, I found a lot of surfer dudes and dudesses but no one actually in the water.  I found this strange... until I read a couple of plaques and signs explaining surfing at this beach and in Southwest Australia in general.  Apparently, according to this helpful sign, there is a phenomenon among surfers known as ‘car park surfing’ where surfers sit in the parking lot looking out at the crashing waves and imagine themselves catching a perfect wave, maintaining perfect balance and riding the wave all the way to the beach, all without having to get wet or leave their 1970s VW bus or put down the pipe.    

As I read this, I thought I too can be a great surfer and I imagined myself catching a huge way far offshore and then, despite howling winds,  mountainous swells and crashing breakers, riding it all the way until I stepped off my board onto the sand to the thunderous applause of the surfer crowd.  All this without having gone to the expense of buying a board, much less nearly drowning in the foam as the board whacked me in the head as I flipped over after standing up for a millisecond.   

However, as I read on, it appeared that there was here the slightly more real phenomenon  of ‘the paddle of shame’, where apparently actual surfers tried to paddle out to catch a wave but were unceremoniously tossed by the ocean into a nearby lagoon and embarrassingly had to paddle back out to the jeers of their fellow surfers.  Somehow I think that the ‘paddle of shame’ was a far more likely scenario for me than the perfect ride of the ‘car park surfing’ I had just imagined if I were ever to take up the board.  

Whoever wrote that sign got a thumb's up from me...

Freo

Freemantle, or 'Freo' as it is known to us locals, is the port city for Perth about 15 miles down the Swan River.  A little while ago, after Australia had won, they held the America's Cup yachting race of the coast here, though not sure how they evaded all of the tankers and container vessels anchored off shore (there were lots of them- very busy port).

Biked from my nice hotel about 5 miles up the coast to take the ferry from Freo to Rottnest Island about 16 miles or so offshore.  Rottnest is very popular with Perthians (not to be confused with ancient Parthians) who go there to swim and snorkel the island's many beaches.  There are no cars on the island so most everyone rents a bicycle... and it seemed like the Perth commuting pelathon decided to go Rottnest on the same day as I- crowded is one way to say it.

The island has this sort of Caribbean feel-

On the island, there is also a marsupial called the quarhk (sp?) or something like that, which only exists there.  To see these extremely shy creatures, you have to hike deep into the bush-

 
They have a marked underwater trail for snorkelers on one of the beaches.  I found it and followed it for a while, until I got disoriented and started to snorkel out to sea, proving, I guess, that I can get lost as easily on a water trail as on a land one.

Returning to Freo...who knew that Notre Dame had an outlet here-

On the way back, got temporarily lost on my bike but found a cricket match-

 
The Aussies have a sign for everything-

Tho this does little justice to them, the IO sunsets are something.

No snakes, just sand flies

Did cliff walk hike out of Kilbarri in the morning yesterday.   While perhaps not quite as good as the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland (my standard for ocean side hikes), this walk was quite impressive and had some stunning scenes-

It was a very nice hike- just me, the wind, waves and.... a million sand flies.  But the sand flies weren't a problem if you kept your mouth closed and maintained a steady jog in the searing heat.  

Met a young Dutch couple near the end of the hike who had just arrived in Australia.  They were going to drive across the southern edge of the continent.  I asked them how long they were staying and got the typical Euro answer-  "Not long.  Only 3 months."