Bondi, Parramatta, the Blue Mountains

We headed to famous Bondi Beach on Saturday and did the 6k cliff walk to Coogee Beach. This included some incredible views, a dip in an Oceanside rock pool, and a well-earned pizza and beverage at the end.

Bondi Beach:

Rock Pool:

Views from the walk:

On Sunday we walked the half hour from our place to Circular Quay and caught a ferry to Parramatta. The ferry ride takes a little over an hour with six or ten stops along the way. You head through the harbour and up the Parramatta river.

Luna Park:

We were greeted coming off the ferry by some nice tourist information officers who gave us a map of the area. We walked a few minutes up the river to Church Street, also known as “Eat Street”. There were plenty of crowded restaurants and we chose a Cuban spot for lunch. The food was fine but not remarkable. We walked around town for a while, learned that the train station was closed, walked through the park, and took the ferry back to Sydney.

On our last full day in Sydney, with temperatures hitting the high 30s (near 100 F), we took the train two hours west (inland) to the Blue Mountains (where it was about 5 C cooler). Leena reports that they’re called the Blue Mountains because the abundance of eucalyptus trees emit a misty haze which give the mountains their blue color.

We walked about 20 minutes from the train station in Katoomba to Echo Point. The view is fantastic. It reminded me of Canyonlands National Park in Utah, except everything is green with loads of trees and vegetation.

Echo Point looking at Three Sisters:

Selfie!

We took the Cliff Walk (Aussies love their cliff walks, as they should) to Katoomba Cascades and ended up at Scenic World with its railway and gift shop. We caught a bus to Leura and got off as close as we could to Sublime Point. What we thought would be a 20-minute walk was more like 45 minutes, but well worth it. Sublime Point is a pinnacle at the edge of the cliff with a 270 degree view of the gorge below a bit east of Echo Point.

Katoomba Cascades:

View from Sublime Point:

As we snapped some pictures, another couple came and joined us at the point. We had a friendly chat and they looked surprised that we had walked all the way there from town. We took the opening and asked for a ride back to town. They were happy to oblige.

And what a ride! I have to admit that I’d spotted the royal blue Tesla model S among the handful of cars parked at Sublime Point on the walk in. Steve loved chatting about the car. His wife/partner intoned that he was a bit of a show off about it. Leena and I sat in the back. After a minute or so lazily winding along, he slowed for a minute and then said a quick “hang on”. He floored it. Whoa. I wasn’t ready for it, and being a bit tall, my head was higher that the back seat headrest. My head snapped back and actually hit the roof of the car where it comes down to the windshield. That hurt a bit! But man, that thing can fly. Steve added that his car is “the slow version”.

They dropped us in town and we caught the train back to Sydney.

We flew to Bali today and will spend the first two weeks in Canggu, a beach town on the southern part of the island (about as far from the volcano as you can get). Then we’ll head to Ubud in the center of the island before a weekend in Singapore 18 to 20 January to reset our 30-day tourist visas.

Sunset from the plane: