Australia, day 4 & 5: Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation

Day 4

It was eerily quiet at 6:30 am Wednesday morning at the Mercantile Hotel pub (claiming to be the oldest Irish pub in Sydney), quite different from festive celebration of Ireland’s win with Scotland in Rugby World Cup match Sunday night. In no time, we were at Circular Quay, train T8, bus 420 and at SYD for 3-hour Qantas flight to Cairns. We took Uber to ☞ Apollo Motorhome Holidays   rental center on the edge of the airport to pick-up pre-booked campervan (Vivid) and drove to Coles in Smithfield to buy food for 5 camping days. It all took us longer than expected, so the rest of the day was just driving to Port Douglas and settling for the night at ☞ Pandamus Tourist Park. We walked along Four Mile Beach for a while chased out of the sand by really high tide and returned after dark via town center (bought Australian beer at Davidson Street Port Douglas Bottle Shop near Pandamus)  to cook dinner (kangaroo steaks and veggie stew with gnocchi)  at the campsite’s well equipped and quite busy kitchen/dining facility.

Day 5

Snorkeling on Great Barrier Reef was one of the reasons we decided to visit Queensland. To hedge our bets against bad weather and rough seas, we decided to take two trips: different day and different reef. First trip was with  ☞ Ocean Safari  in Cape Tribulation. We drove there in the morning from Port Douglas, crossing Daintree River by ferry and stopping for an hour-long Dubuji Boardwalk with brief visit to Myall Beach (just on the outskirts of Cape Tribulation). It was very interesting introduction to Queensland’s tropical rainforest. At Noon, we checked in at Ocean Safari/Tourtle Rock Café for half-day snorkeling trip to Mackay Reef (some 25 km out to Coral Sea, straight East of town). It was well organized. We boarded the boat from Myall Beach geared-up to jump in the water as soon as we arrived at the reef. The sea was quite rough, but at low tide we were protected from waves and wind by the reef’s band of sand. We explored two nearby sites (over an hour for each site), rather than visiting second reef (Undine) which would take too much time riding against the waves. We landed on the beach and  started second snorkeling from there. We had good partially sunny weather, but the boat ride back was even more bumpy. We were back around 5 pm, enough time to change, take shower and drive to Noah Beach Campground (recommended), operated by Daintree NP ☞ Noah Beach camping, for the night.

Our reserved site was occupied by squatters, who not only took our spot but tried to chase us away behaving quite unpleasantly. Did not work. This was the only negative experience during our entire trip. Apparently it is quite common among Australian travelers trying to save money, our neighbor had the same problem day earlier.

Snorkeling with Ocean Safari (recommended) was really great, different from our previous experience on Galapagos and Caye Caulker, not affected much by the bleaching and poor condition of the reef in general. What the reef looked like when it was in perfect condition?

Australia, day 3: Blue Mountains

We decided to switch our plan and go to Blue Mountains on day 3, after easier day 2 in Sydney. We took city train from Circular Quay to Central and continued on T1 Western train to Wentworth Falls (two hours). Charles Darwin Walk trailhead is near the station. After short coffee break we started walking down towards Wentworth Falls. It is gentle downhill stroll along Jamison Creek to the top of the falls and then  down steps carved into the rock (Grand Stairway) to the bottom of the Upper Falls, short crossover via National Pass Track to Slacks Stairs (National Pass Track was closed beyond this point) and down metal stairs to the bottom of the Lower  Wentworth Falls. Great views of the falls, and Blue Mountain cliffs and valleys.  We then continued on the Wentworth Pass Track meandering along forested slopes of Jamison Valley towards Valley of the Waters. Finally, we walked out of the valley along Lodore, Sylvia and Empress Falls. After lunch near the top of the cliff, we ran by Conservation Hut to catch bus 685 to Katoomba at Valley Road and walked from the bus stop to Echo Point for panoramic views of the mountains, then to Three Sisters, Lady Carrington and Tallawarra lookouts, and back to Echo Point. Bus 686 to Katoomba train station, train T1 to Central, city train to Circular Quay, late dinner (Irish Stew with Australian beer) at Mercantile Hotel pub. Altogether we walked some 10 km, good part along streams and waterfalls of all sizes (very relaxing) with many great vistas. Highly recommend trail.  

Wentworth Falls-Valley of the Waters

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Australia, day 1 & 2: Sydney and Manly

Day 1

We flew 15k km from Chicago to Sydney via San Francisco (18 hrs total flying time). All on time and smooth, but we spent a few extra hours in San Francisco after bumping up our flight from Chicago (to 6-hour lay over) because of possible construction delays at SFO. With Opal card from fellow TA traveller loaded in advance in Chicago, it was a brisk trip by bus 420 to Mascot and train T8 (green) to Circular Quay, and short walk to our hotel (☞ Mercantile Hotel) in the Rocks district, just next to Harbour Bridge. Wasting no time, we were on ferry F1 from Circular Quay to Manly. After short break at Manley harbor, we took bus 132 to Clontarf (Beatrice St) where we crossed-over to  Spit-Manly trail (recommended) for relaxing 10 km walk back to Manly.  

Clontarf-Manly

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Picked-up food at Manley Fish Market (fish and chips, and grilled baramundi) for late lunch on Manly Beach. Walked around a bit, grocery-shopped at Coles and took ferry back to Sydney just in time to watch sunset over the Bridge on approach to Circular Quay. Circled around the Rocks neighborhood and finished the long day viewing the City from Harbour Bridge.

Day 2

We started the day with morning views from the roof of Overseas Terminal at Campbells Cove.

Sydney harbor from Overseas Terminal rooftop

We then walked around Opera house and spent good part of the day in Royal Botanic Garden (recommended) where we had coffee and picnic lunch. Then we waked to Mrs Macquarie’s Point, visited Art Gallery of NSW (Australian, Aboriginal and European art) on the way back, and crossed through CBD to St Mary Cathedral, Hyde Park, Queen Victoria Building, Town Hall, St Andrew church, St James church, Barracks, State Library of NSW. Finished the day with delicious dinner at Pony Restaurant (recommended) in the Rocks (grilled snapper with pea pure and asparagus, and lamb rump with lentils and mint pure).

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