Spring in Sydney 2022

  The road through National Park It looked like it might be a good day for riding but the forecast was for a few specks of rain so I took a  light jacket for a bit of protection in case.   The ride rivals Wellington for hills but apart from one they are short and sharp. Soon after I left, the sun came out and before long I was starting to get hot.   So off came the jacket.   My route takes me on the back streets for the most part where I can't do that,  the roads are quite wide so it doesn’t feel too unsafe.   Unfortunately some drivers are rather like NZ drivers; impatient and agressive. Nearly half the ride is in the Kurangai-Chase National Park which is nice and quiet. The road through the park starts near Asquith and takes one down to sea level at Bobbin Head.   On the way there I went past an Echidna which was by the side of the road being photographed by other cyclists.   The are a bit b...

  Darling Harbour Bev was at work and with time on my hands I decided that I would take the train into the city and visit the Powerhouse Museum which is in Ultimo near Darling Harbour.   The museum purports to be about science and technology and looked at the changes over time as it pertained to Sydney, and that was how I remembered it.     However, this time there were few such displays and artifacts.   Several planes that had been donated which had been history making, and old train or two and the original James Watt steam engine was some of the exhibits.   Those took up about half the exhibition space and the rest was being set up for other exhibits. It seems it us going to be turned into an arts and design museum for the most part.   They are building two other places, one in Parramatta and the other way out west in Castle Hill.     Nonetheless I spent a couple of hours wandering around it before heading back to ...

On the train to St Leonards It was an early start as we had to catch a train at 5:50am to get St Leonard’s before the start time.   Our original plan had been to cycle from Pymble or perhaps Chatswood but the event was starting at 6:30am so we decided to take the train rather that leave another half an hour earlier.   It was a gorgeous day, clear skies and relatively mild when we set out from St Leonards Park, through North Sydney and onto the Harbour Bridge.   There seemed to be a lot fewer riders than previous years.   The route took us over the bridge, left onto the Cahill Expressway and then back again and up to Observatory Hill, down the hill and through Barangaroo before taking one of the overbridges behind Darling Harbour.   The route had changed since last time we rode it. It took us through Glebe, Leichard, Canada Bay, Concord to Homebush whereupon we crossed the Parramatta River.   We   followed it for  five or six...

  Saddles It was Bev’s daughter’s birthday, and the celebration was to be a brunch at a café called Saddles at Mt White.   Mt White is between Hornsby and Gosford on the old Pacific Highway.   It is in a lovely area and an easy thirty minute drive from Pymble (or thereabouts).   We had a pleasant brunch.   Remarkably, the weather was good and in the sun it was quite warm but if you weren’t, there was still a coolness to the air.     After the brunch Bev decided that we should go to the Australian Reptile Park.   I was not that enamoured by the idea as I don’t like to see animals caged.   However, it was nearby and I thought it would be nice to see some of the native wildlife.   The park is just out of Gosford and we had a pretty drive to get there.       The park was quite small, but it was interesting and well laid out.   They had koalas hanging around in trees, American alligators sunning them...

Bev wanted me to go with her on one of her regular walks to  the West Pymble shopping centre. I had, on Wednesday been on it but had managed to get the route wrong after taking a  wrong turn. My superior navigation skill enabled me to recover and I got to the centre in due course.    It has a very good butcher (it is one of the things I like about Sydney) where I managed to get some meat for a meal that Bev wanted me to cook.     We did the walk and had a coffee as well as getting some meat for the weekend.   It is so nice to get meat in the actual quantity that you want to cook rather than getting it in supermarket sizes.  On the way back the fit little Bev ended up being about 500 metres ahead of me by the time we got back to the apartment.  For some reason I could not keep up with her.  I blamed it on the heat and my medication.  However, I think it is her general fitness developed from climbing Wellington...

  A favourite stop on the way to Brooklyn - the literal high point! Bev had worked the previous day and I was left to entertain myself which was not so hard.     The day looked like it might be a nice one for my first ride, and as we were going to do the Spring Cycle ride on Sunday, some training was required.   I also had a new bike to set up.     We decided we would ride from Pymble to Brooklyn and take the train back to Pymble.   Around here there is very little which is flat.   In fact, at times it makes Wellington feel reasonably flat although most of the route we go has little, short, sharp climbs.   There is one particularly nasty climb which I discovered is called Pig Hill, 0.61km but it is a brute, for me at least.   Those with younger legs probably love it.     We stopped off at Wahroonga for a coffee and it was a short ride into Hornsby where we got a couple things for my bike.   W...

  Springtime in Sydney is quite nice as usually it is quite warm with stable weather.   I have not been here at this time since 2019 with Covid travel restrictions preventing such travel.     Bev had travelled to Sydney a couple of weeks before me as it gave her an opportunity to catch up with friends and family without me getting in the way.     I arrived on a Tuesday having taken the very early flight from Wellington.   The flight was uneventful with the main change being that most people were not wearing masks.   As a precaution I wore mine throughout the flight believing that it was better to be safe than sorry.     Arrival in Sydney was a real surprise as there were queues everywhere, although I did manage to find a Nothing to Declare lane which sped things up.   Several other queues were the length of the baggage conveyor and continued snaking toward other conveyors, making for a very crowded ar...