Rugged Seas

There is always plenty to look at around Pittwater and there are plenty of things that catch ones eye because they seem odd. This was the case when we noticed a boat on a terrible list. We ignored it once we'd worked out what we were looking at. We'd decided it was one of those working barge type things that would no doubt be working on a mooring or a pylon, or similar. Yes, of course that was it, we could see the crane swung out over the side!

 

A few hours later we had a new point of view. The crane was definitely doing some lifting. It was involved in a salvage. A boat had sunk on it's mooring and here is the catch of the day.

We know nothing about it. Perhaps it sank during the East Coast Low that came through in April? In any event, the poor owner could hardly have imagined the fate of their craft when they were naming her!

 

The MV Rugged Seas being towed away.

The Sphinx Delivers 4 Bars for 'Le Tour'

Being a Tour De France addict isn't easy. It's not just the riders who suffer. For one thing, there are late nights to endure. Commitment to getting better coverage for the 2015 edition included buying a TV in Launceston and then installing it and the aerial while we were in Hobart's Constitution Dock last spring. The Bloke's visit up the mast took so long that he had bruises from the riggers harness. Yup, true commitment. So imagine our distress at not having TV reception around Pittwater where we are currently based!

 The Sphinx Memorial

Not to be deterred, we could live-stream over the Internet we thought. Oops,  can't get Internet or even a mobile phone signal in some of the Creeks and anchorages. Sad faces all around. Smiths Creek was not only a dead end (albeit lovely) but a 'dead spot'. Castle Bay gave intermittent signal and admittedly seemed better at night for no discernible reason and even Cottage Point which is out in the open, was not a lot better. We decided to revisit Bobbin Head. It's so much closer to Sydney and civilisation that we thought we'd give it a shot. Well, still no TV signal but phone and Internet are solid. An added bonus was the possibility of daytime activities ashore. NSW National Parks has a Visitor Centre at Bobbin Head, there is a Marina, Coffee Shop, restaurant and walking trails. Unbelievably, a Sphinx as well. All this with the added bonus of connectivity. Four bars. Deluxe!

Once the early morning fog had lifted and the generator fired up to provide the extra amps that all the anticipated viewing would consume, we embarked on a trip ashore. The target was the Bobbin Head Trail via the Sphinx. A quick coffee at the Marina Coffee shop would have us firing in top gear for the 9.5km stage which was predicted to take 3.5 hours. We also would be hill climbers in our peloton of two!

 

 We set off with quite some enthusiasm.

 Is this still the path?

Fabulous rock formations  

This graffiti was probably NOT the Aboriginal artifact we expected.

 

 Up, up, up!

From water level to the top of the ridge and down again.

   

The Sphinx Memorial Site is a War Memorial and includes a couple of pyramids too.... so it's not (a) Lonely? (b)Out of context? In any instance, it took a lot of imagination, perseverance and perspiration to erect to the memory of those who fought in WW1.

The Bloke was rewarded with his efforts with Friday Fish and Chips at the Marina kiosk. We only just made it back in time. Phew!

And now to use up some amps, some of our Internet download allowance and watch Le Tour in the alpine stages. Allez! Allez!

Back on Track

Weeks away attending to land based interests and duties (think family reunion and tax time) has kept us from our cruising life. We are once again focusing on progress up the coast and chasing the sun. Unprecedented amounts of snow across significant areas of high ground from South East Queensland to Tasmania means that comfort levels on board have been compromised. A little warmth would balance life up a bit, indeed we each have a locker crammed with shorts and short sleeve shirts and we are longing to wear them again. In the meanwhile, we are greatly enjoying our Pittwater Experience and feel that we are giving the area a 'good looking at'!

We have had a lot of low level cloud and plenty of cold and rain but a high pressure system of an extraordinary 1036 hPa, is bound to deliver some stellar days. Days that are intended for 'boot camp' for The Bloke.

Coasters Retreat (also known as the Basin) is one of bays wrapped around by the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on the edge of Pittwater. Moorings are plentiful and importantly at this time of year, freely available. There is a beach next to the Basin camping ground where one can come ashore and a track up into some of the National Park's coastal headlands. A target for the day was to see some Aboriginal Rock Engravings.

Sea fog behind Barrenjoey Headland

So with the boat secure, somewhere to leave the dinghy, something special to see and a fine day, all boxes were ticked and we were good to go!

The ducks and this wallaby were pretty relaxed in the camping ground.

Despite the cold, there were a couple of tents up.

The track was very steep and The Bloke reluctant.

... but the views just got better...

... and better and even contained Zofia!

 

The path varied from concreted road, to dirt track, to this smooth 'crazy-paving' like rock.

We knew we'd reached our destination when we came across this stern notice.

   

Some of the engravings. in another 'crazy paving' rock pavement.

From L. a wallaby, a fish and human figures.

   

   

   

The bush was full of flowering shrubs and despite giving a dull appearance from the shore, was rich with colour from tiny and delicate flowers. The Bloke grumbled like crazy whenever he turned around to find me lagging way behind and photographing these gems.

This, one of several small stone stacks, left behind by walkers. A little bit of folly!

Newcastle Preview

As a rule Newcastle comes in for some bad press.  We will sail up here soon. Our next stop, in fact! It seems to suffer the same PR problems as Portland in Victoria. People get locked onto the idea that they are horrid places full of 'smelters and industry', yet some of their physical attributes include breathtaking scenery. Most Novocastrians seem to agree though, that the exit from the town by BHP, while initially feared, has ended up a good thing.

A week in Newcastle was required of Lucas by his work. Surely, being located by now, a mere 2 hours by car from Newcastle we'd be able to align our program. So we hired a car in Brookvale, just off the Pittwater Road. We could have got there by Dinghy, Ferry and Bus, however Peter and Debbie were going that way and kindly dropped us off and so cut out the Ferry and Bus elements. A Tonton option with the car came in handy as we wound our way about some northern Sydney suburbs to get to the Pacific Motorway. The Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and associated gorges and waterways (which we've lately been enjoying) present a formidable obstacle only 24km out of the CBD. Traveling mid-week and in the middle of the day meant lighter traffic volumes and the trip was an easy and spectacular one with a special reward at the end.

Father and son reunion... and then came the Scotch!

 

Finding things to do while our boy was at work was no problem. The weather gifted a crisp and sunny sky to explore with. We headed to the beach and the ANZAC Memorial Walk which had only just been opened this year on 25th April. No better way to take in the views.

Storyboards along the walkway reveal the names of the fallen and recall famous battles.

 

The Trig. point at the top of the headland, overlooks the city, port and Hunter River to the West.

The Bloke got another workout today....Check out all those steps!

The Ocean Baths at Merewether

 Scoop, scoop, scoop!

Taken through the car windscreen, this shot shows one of the many scoops that load from the stockpiled 'coal mountains' onto the waiting ships in the port. Combined with the dozens of ships anchored off Newcastle, it's not hard to understand that more coal is shipped from this port than anywhere else on the planet. When we finally sail up, we'll just need to dodge the 'parked' and waiting cargo vessels as well as the whales. I forgot to mention that their migration is in full swing and we witnessed several whales breaching etc off shore. Too many treats!

Excuse Me .. I Made Your Earrings!

Having broken our return flight from Perth to Sydney with an Adelaide stopover, there were an number of flight options for the Adelaide-Sydney leg. It seems that once in the eastern states, flights between the capitals are frequent although the planes can sometimes be considerably smaller than the transcontinental Perth-Melbourne or Perth-Sydney flights. Our booking had us seated in row 7. Typically we feel that we are walking half way to our destination as we are either seated in the back row or near to it. On this basis The Bloke was most concerned that we could be flying in a Dash 8 or Cessna rather than a 'proper plane'. Row 7, if near the back, was a bad omen.

Luckily for me, row 7 was roughly mid-ships for our flight from Adelaide to Sydney else I'd be 'hearing' about it from The Bloke through the duration of the flight. The plane was definitely on the small side and seating a little more compact and allowing for a bit more interaction with other passengers.

While waiting to disembark, the passenger behind us chirped up and said "Excuse me, I made your earrings.". Yes, really!

My favourite earrings.

robinwellsjewellery

You don't hear that everyday. I was wearing a pair of red anodized aluminium earrings that were gift from my daughter-in-law, Emma. I knew that they'd been created by a Perth designer who, by weird coincidence, had been sitting behind me on a plane from Adelaide to Sydney. She recognised her pieces and spoke up. It's anyone's guess as to who was the more surprised.

Sydney airport.

Robin Wells showed me HER earrings too.

Back home

Yes we are back on "Zofia" and she is beautiful. A little dirty from the bird droppings, dust and other things but overall just great.

The journey home was interesting with a fab visit to see Tina in South Australia then Peter and Ronnie Sheppard in Sydney. Thanks guys it was great to catch up and exciting to see "midnight Blue" go out for the first time with her new owner. Ian would have loved it and we are sure that he was watching over our shoulders as we wished them fair winds.

We had a short stop over in Mona Vale for shopping and washing. Yes the "Blog mistress" never misses and opportunity. So there we where, bags a sunder dirty nickers flying all over the place but at least we arrived home with all the clothes washed and dried.

Finally we would like to thank Peter and Debbie for baby sitting our girl, they did a great job. Well it is now time to get her ready for more adventures, heading north soon to be in Brizvagus by Christmas.

Trains, Planes, Automobiles, Buses and Water Taxi's

Our return trip to Zofia from Perth was quite an exotic mix of transport options and included a couple of stopovers. We began by flying to Adelaide and then hiring a car to spend a couple of days with Tina. Inevitably, this involved re-visiting some special places we'd visited only last year. What luck! The Bloke got to re-visit a couple of South Australian bakeries and re-sample their sausage rolls too.

Will The Bloke wait to sit down before demolishing this SR?

Tina with Pippi at Wirrina Marina

The Bloke catching up with Ken again.

Early evening at the Milsons Point train station with Sydney Harbour Bridge Backdrop.

Shep and Ronnie were kind enough to put us up for the night in Sydney before we headed onwards to Pittwater the next morning; this time by bus. Since we'd emptied the fridge and switched it off ahead of our 3 weeks 'away from home' we needed to stock up on food in Mona Vale. The Bloke made some enquiries about the best place for a coffee and parked himself there while I shopped. Locating him via SMS proved difficult as the reply to my SMS of "Where are you?" was continually responded to as "Three Doors Down". "Yes, yes but 3 doors down from where?"....This message pair was repeated 3 more times until despair drove me to phone him!

Our new favourite coffee shop!

Walking down the jetty to the waiting Pink Water Taxi with luggage and shopping.

   

The Pink Taxi Depot and the Taxi's in action.

 

Phew! Home at last.