We felt we had only just gone to sleep when the alarms were telling us it was 4am. It didn't take us long to get organised and we were all off in the car to Port Macquarie to await the arrival of the Xpress Greyhound bus, our transport to Sydney. It arrived on time and all too soon it was time to say our farewells to Joy and Peter, to thank them for a lovely holiday and make promises to return again soon.
The nearly six hour trip was long but comfortable. We were able to watch the sunrise, munch on our breakfast (we had packed some muesli, fruit and yoghurt) and generally take in the views. We had a 40 minute stop somewhere before 8am where we were able to get a coffee, and more importantly the bus driver could take a well earned rest. I suspect he had started this journey in Brisbane. We only made one other stop along the way to pick up three more passengers and then in no time at all we were on the outskirts of Sydney. Our only delay was on the approach to the Harbour Bridge, where there was some incident that had slowed the traffic, but was gone as we drove over this iconic structure. We were taken to the the Central Railway Station, where we were going to catch our train back here to Medlow Bath. But as it was not quite mid day, we decided we would spend a few hours in the city centre. We bought our train ticket and planned to catch the 3:24pm. It is just over a two hour trip and we wanted to be back before dark.
Unfortunately this was not the best day for sight seeing in Sydney. We discovered when we listened to the weather report later in the day, that it was the coldest day they have had for two years. It was also wet, which was more of an issue but being good Southlanders, we weren't deterred. As we say in Invercargill, if you stayed home every time it was wet or cold you wouldn't do anything!
We made our way down to Darling Harbour, using the mapping system on the iPad as a guide. The place was pretty much deserted, bar a large group of school children on a field trip. Watching the teachers organising them brought back lots of memories but not the desire to return. We had a look at some of the boats including the replica of Cook's Endeavour (it wasn't open for tours though we have been through it once when it was in Bluff).
We wandered back along the bridge, past the Chinese Gardens, through Chinatown and into the Paddy Markets. We had time for a coffee before making our way back to the station to catch our train. Our jackets had kept us dry but our feet were not so fortunate. Yuck!
The train trip was a good way of seeing the landscape back up to the Blue Mountains. It is a well patronised service if a bit slow. It did stop at every station all the way, with each station generally being only about five minutes apart. It did mean though it stopped at Medlow Bath and from the station it was just a five minute walk back to our place. The carriage that we chose was a 'quiet' one, with signs up to have mobile phones switched to silent, music devices turned down and chatter to be kept to a minimum. All was well till a chap across the aisle from us stretched out, went to sleep and snored all the way to Penrith!
If we thought Sydney was cold, it had nothing on Medlow Bath. The air was icy cold and can't have been much more than six degrees when we stepped out on the platform. The temperature in the house when we got here was much the same. However it didn't take long to get the fires roaring and we were 'home' safe and sound.
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